Depression Denial Syndrome - NYTimes.com

Depression Denial Syndrome - NYTimes.com:



"Last week, Bill Gross, the so-called bond king, abruptly left Pimco, the investment firm he had managed for decades. People who follow the financial industry were shocked but not exactly surprised; tales of internal troubles at Pimco had been all over the papers. But why should you care?"



'via Blog this'

As Fed Retreats From Stimulus, Central Banks Overseas Expand Theirs - NYTimes.com

As Fed Retreats From Stimulus, Central Banks Overseas Expand Theirs - NYTimes.com:



"WASHINGTON — As the growth of the United States economy outstrips the rest of the developed world, American policy makers are allowing Europe, Japan and even China to seek a little more prosperity — at the expense of Americans."



'via Blog this'

Thirst Turns to Desperation in Rural California - NYTimes.com

Thirst Turns to Desperation in Rural California - NYTimes.com:



"PORTERVILLE, Calif. — After a nine-hour day working at a citrus packing plant, her body covered in a sheen of fruit wax and dust, there is nothing Angelica Gallegos wants more than a hot shower, with steam to help clear her throat and lungs."



'via Blog this'

Austerity and the World Catastrophe

According Naomi Kline, This Changes Everything, we are in dire straits, because nobody is regulating globalized corporations. Now François Hollande, courageously confronts Germany, and goes in the right direction. Austerity is not working, and the world economy is in a sorry state. He will not make French people suffer, for the benefit of some blind capitalists.

I will call them Sutpen Rules, based on the character invented by William Faulkner. Thomas Sutpen.  This man follows  plantation rules like an automaton, his lack of education does not allow for more.

According Plantation Rules, Globalized Capitalism, searches for the best deals in the whole world, and that means, cutting corners.

We are headed towards a World Catastrophe!

2011 And All That - NYTimes.com

2011 And All That - NYTimes.com:



"Further thoughts on the fall of Bill Gross: While his personal behavior and management style may have been difficult, that’s hardly unusual among people in his position. All would have been forgiven, indeed never mentioned, but for his utter misjudgment of the bond market in 2011 – a misjudgment based on his failure, or more accurately refusal, to acknowledge the realities of a liquidity trap world."



'via Blog this'

France Produces a ‘No Austerity’ Budget, Defying E.U. Rules - NYTimes.com

France Produces a ‘No Austerity’ Budget, Defying E.U. Rules - NYTimes.com:



"PARIS — France declared independence from the European Union’s austerity-budget regime on Wednesday. But a sharp political reaction at home made clear how difficult it may be for President François Hollande to lead the nation’s flagging economy back to steady growth."



'via Blog this'

[1407.0558] Observation of the diphoton decay of the Higgs boson and measurement of its properties

[1407.0558] Observation of the diphoton decay of the Higgs boson and measurement of its properties:



"Observation of the diphoton decay mode of the recently discovered Higgs boson and measurement of some of its properties are reported. The analysis uses the entire dataset collected by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions during the 2011 and 2012 LHC running periods. The data samples correspond to integrated luminosities of 5.1 inverse femtobarns at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and 19.7 inverse femtobarns at 8 TeV. A clear signal is observed in the diphoton channel at a mass close to 125 GeV with a local significance of 5.7 sigma, where a significance of 5.2 sigma is expected for the standard model Higgs boson. The mass is measured to be 124.70 +/- 0.34 GeV = 124.70 +/- 0.31 (stat) +/- 0.15 (syst) GeV, and the best-fit signal strength relative to the standard model prediction is 1.14 +0.26/-0.23 = 1.14 +/- 0.21 (stat) +0.09/-0.05 (syst) +0.13/-0.09 (theo). Additional measurements include the signal strength modifiers associated with different production mechanisms, and hypothesis tests between spin-0 and spin-2 models."



'via Blog this'

[1408.7084] Measurement of Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel in $pp$ collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

[1408.7084] Measurement of Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel in $pp$ collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector:



"A measurement of the production processes of the recently discovered Higgs boson is performed in the two-photon final state using 5.4 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions data at s√=7 TeV and 20.3 fb−1 at s√=8 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The number of observed Higgs boson decays to diphotons divided by the corresponding Standard Model prediction, called the signal strength, is found to be μ=1.17±0.27 at the value of the Higgs boson mass measured by ATLAS, mH = 125.4 GeV. The analysis is optimized to measure the signal strengths for individual Higgs boson production processes at this value of mH. They are found to be μggF=1.32±0.38, μVBF=0.8±0.7, μWH=1.0±1.6, μZH=0.1+3.7−0.1, μtt¯H=1.6+2.7−1.8, for Higgs boson production through gluon fusion, vector-boson fusion, and in association with a W or Z boson or a top-quark pair, respectively. Compared with the previously published ATLAS analysis, the results reported here also benefit from a new energy calibration procedure for photons and the subsequent reduction of the systematic uncertainty on the diphoton mass resolution. No significant deviations from the predictions of the Standard Model are found."



'via Blog this'

[1408.6164] Formation, Habitability, and Detection of Extrasolar Moons

[1408.6164] Formation, Habitability, and Detection of Extrasolar Moons:



"The diversity and quantity of moons in the Solar System suggest a manifold population of natural satellites exist around extrasolar planets. Of peculiar interest from an astrobiological perspective, the number of sizable moons in the stellar habitable zones may outnumber planets in these circumstellar regions. With technological and theoretical methods now allowing for the detection of sub-Earth-sized extrasolar planets, the first detection of an extrasolar moon appears feasible. In this review, we summarize formation channels of massive exomoons that are potentially detectable with current or near-future instruments. We discuss the orbital effects that govern exomoon evolution, we present a framework to characterize an exomoon's stellar plus planetary illumination as well as its tidal heating, and we address the techniques that have been proposed to search for exomoons. Most notably, we show that natural satellites in the range of 0.1 - 0.5 Earth mass (i) are potentially habitable, (ii) can form within the circumplanetary debris and gas disk or via capture from a binary, and (iii) are detectable with current technology."



'via Blog this'

The Odds, Continually Updated - NYTimes.com

The Odds, Continually Updated - NYTimes.com:



"Statistics may not sound like the most heroic of pursuits. But if not for statisticians, a Long Island fisherman might have died in the Atlantic Ocean after falling off his boat early one morning last summer."



'via Blog this'

California Is Burning - NYTimes.com

California Is Burning - NYTimes.com:



"California’s Central Valley is one of the most fascinating places in America. The grassy, flat-bottomed basin occupies the core of inland California, roughly 13 percent of the state’s total land area, sprawled out between the Sierra Nevada range to the east and the Coast Ranges to the west. Once a primordial seabed, it’s now fertile ground."



'via Blog this'

Human-Related Climate Change Led to Extreme Heat, Scientists Say - NYTimes.com

Human-Related Climate Change Led to Extreme Heat, Scientists Say - NYTimes.com:



"The savage heat waves that struck Australia in 2013 were almost certainly a direct consequence of the human release of greenhouse gases, researchers said Monday. It is perhaps the most definitive statement climate scientists have made that ties a specific weather event to global warming."



'via Blog this'

Who Had It Easier, Reagan or Obama? - NYTimes.com

Who Had It Easier, Reagan or Obama? - NYTimes.com:



 "OVER the past few weeks I’ve been reading Ken Adelman’s fascinating history “Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours That Ended the Cold War.” Adelman, who led Reagan’s arms control agency, was an adviser at Reagan’s 1986 Iceland summit meeting with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Using some newly declassified documents, Adelman fills out the extraordinary dialogue between the two leaders that set in motion a dramatic cut in nuclear arms."



'via Blog this'

Robert Fisk: Syria air strikes: America’s attacks on Isis may help Bashar al-Assad keep his regime alive

The moment America expanded its anti-Isis war into Syria, President Bashar al-Assad gained more military and political support than any other Arab leader can boast. With US bombs and missiles exploding across eastern and northern Syria, Assad can now count on America, Russia, China, Iran, the Hezbollah militia, Jordan and a host of wealthy Gulf countries to keep his regime alive. If ever that creaking old Arab proverb – that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” – contained any wisdom, Assad has proved it true.

In his Damascus home, the Syrian leader can reflect that the most powerful nation on earth – which only last year wished to bomb him into oblivion – is now trying to bomb his most ferocious enemies into the very same oblivion. Sunni Saudis whose “charity” donations have funded the equally Sunni “Islamic State” now find their government supposedly helping the US to destroy it. As Shia Iran and its Hezbollah protégés battle the Sunni executioners and throat-slashers on the ground, US bombs and missiles rain down to destroy the enemies in front of them.

Not since Churchill found himself an ally of Nazi Germany’s erstwhile friend Stalin in 1941 can a president have found a fearsome antagonist transformed so swiftly into a brother-in-arms. But – and it’s a very big “but” – the Baathist Syrian regime is not so stupid as to take the word “friend” at face value. Neither should we. Obama is the last person with whom Assad would want to associate himself – as Vladimir Putin doesn’t need to remind him – and the Syrian regime will be watching with the deepest concern as America’s promiscuous use of air power spreads inexorably to include more and more targets outside its original stated aim.

Quite apart from the civilian casualties in Idlib province, America’s targeting of the al-Qaeda-linked Jabhat al-Nusra suggests that the Pentagon has more than Isis in its sights. How soon, for example, before a missile explodes in a Syrian regime weapons depot – by “mistake”, of course – or other government facilities? Since the US has decided to fund and train the so-called “moderate opposition” to fight Isis and the Syrian regime, why should it not bomb both sets of enemies? And how will Syrians who support whatever is left of these “moderates” react to the American bombs in Idlib which killed their fellow civilians rather than Assad’s forces – bombs, indeed, which appear to have been just as lethal as the munitions dropped on them by Assad’s aircraft?

As for the Gulf Arabs, not one has so far shown evidence that it has physically bombed any targets in Syria. Only Jordan has claimed to have attacked Isis; the rest of King Abdullah’s allies in the Arab “coalition of the willing” – how quickly we have forgotten that this was George W Bush’s expression for those nations which supported his 2003 Iraq invasion – appear to have limited their co-operation to providing airstrips, refuelling planes and perhaps patrolling the peaceful waters of the Gulf. In his hearings on Capitol Hill last week, the Secretary of State John Kerry was given an impatient grilling from Congressmen over just how many Arab aircraft would be dropping ordnance on Isis. Kerry fluffed his answers.

The Gulf Arabs, after all, have been here before. They remember clearly the exaggerated claims of military success in the air – of smart bombs that did not slaughter civilians, of cruise missiles that destroyed bunkers and training camps and “command and control centres” in 1991 and 2003. It all proved to be a very dodgy war menu. Yet now the Americans are re-cooking these old snacks for the Isis conflict.

Were these Islamist “warriors” really sitting around – drinking tea, perhaps – at “training camps” so that the Americans could kill them? Does Isis boast anything like a “command and control centre” – a bunker of computers and blinking target indicators – rather than just a clutch of mobile phones? Yet a “command-and-control centre”, no less, was said to have been destroyed.
And, as so often amid the excitement of yet another conflict escalation, the “experts” and decrepit ex-ambassadors on our screens need to leaf through a history book or two before explaining “our” actions. The “Islamic State” was created out of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which absorbed the anti-American resistance to American occupation, which in turn followed the illegal 2003 Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. If Messrs Bush and Blair had not embarked on their Iraqi adventure, does anyone think the US would be helping Assad to destroy his enemies today?

“Irony” doesn’t measure up to the words of the Middle-East’s “peace envoy” who this week transformed himself into a war envoy by holding out the prospect of more Western troops in the Muslim world. Is the Syrian regime supposed to laugh or cry?

Taxation for Education

Proposition 13 was a watershed in modern economic history. I was a physics graduate student at UCSB then. It took thirty four years to reverse that big mistake, this was achieved by the best American politician I know of: Jerry Brown, who passed Proposition 30.

Now Michelle Bachelet has done a similar feat in Chile.

There is a new book I haven't read, but according the review in the NYT, even insiders are having second thoughts.

Today I found out that my school in Mexico, ESIME, is on strike because the rich there, do not want to pay their fair share. There are new regulations for the school, which brings conservative tax policies to the people of Mexico.

I myself have changed my views about Taxation for Education.

I'm all for it now.

¡Vivan los estudiantes!

'The Shifts and the Shocks,' by Martin Wolf - NYTimes.com

'The Shifts and the Shocks,' by Martin Wolf - NYTimes.com:



"Martin Wolf is as grand and important as an economic journalist can ever become. A respected economist in his own right, Wolf has had top-level access to economic policy makers for decades now, seeing generations of finance ministers and central bank governors come and go. All of them care, deeply, about what he thinks and what he writes, and they tend to spend as much time as they can trying to persuade him of their point of view. The result is a classic virtuous cycle: He’s well informed because he’s extremely influential, and he’s influential because he’s extremely well informed."



'via Blog this'

The Benefits of Economic Expansions Are Increasingly Going to the Richest Americans - NYTimes.com

The Benefits of Economic Expansions Are Increasingly Going to the Richest Americans - NYTimes.com:



"Economic expansions are supposed to be the good times, the periods in which incomes and living standards improve. And that’s still true, at least for some of us."



'via Blog this'

'Seven Bad Ideas,' by Jeff Madrick - NYTimes.com

'Seven Bad Ideas,' by Jeff Madrick - NYTimes.com:



"The economics profession has not, to say the least, covered itself in glory these past six years. Hardly any economists predicted the 2008 crisis — and the handful who did tended to be people who also predicted crises that didn’t happen. More significant, many and arguably most economists were claiming, right up to the moment of collapse, that nothing like this could even happen."



'via Blog this'

Few Flights Resume at Chicago Airports After Fire - NYTimes.com

Few Flights Resume at Chicago Airports After Fire - NYTimes.com:



"CHICAGO — A contract employee suspected of setting a fire at a suburban Chicago air traffic control center brought two of the nation's busiest airports to a halt for hours Friday, sending delays and cancellations rippling through the air travel network."



'via Blog this'

[1407.4328] Density Evolution for SUDOKU Codes on the Erasure Channel

[1407.4328] Density Evolution for SUDOKU Codes on the Erasure Channel:



 "Codes based on SUDOKU puzzles are discussed, and belief propagation decoding introduced for the erasure channel. Despite the non-linearity of the code constraints, it is argued that density evolution can be used to analyse code performance due to the invariance of the code under alphabet permutation. The belief propagation decoder for erasure channels operates by exchanging messages containing sets of possible values. Accordingly, density evolution tracks the probability mass functions of the set cardinalities. The equations governing the mapping of those probability mass functions are derived and calculated for variable and constraint nodes, and decoding thresholds are computed for long SUDOKU codes with random interleavers."



'via Blog this'