The Next Attorney General

Eric Holder could be an exemplary choice for attorney general but he must answer serious questions before the Senate votes on his confirmation.

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How to Display HTML / JavaScript code in Blogger

How to Display HTML / JavaScript code in Blogger... Tips for Bloggers

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A New Picture of the Early Earth. Life, 4.4 billions years?

Geologists now think the planet soon became a cool place of land, seas and perhaps even life.The first 700 million years of Earth’s 4.5-billion-year existence are known as the Hadean period, after Hades, or, to shed the ancient Greek name, Hell.In the new view of the early Earth, life could have emerged probably 4.4 billion years ago

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Calling All Pakistanis

Who in the Muslim world, who in Pakistan, is ready to take to the streets to protest the mass murders of real people, not cartoon characters, right next door in Mumbai?

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Recession Began Last December, Economists Say

The U.S. economy officially sank into a recession last December, which means that the downturn is already longer than the average for all recessions since World War II.

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Planets Align: Frown Upon Us

Look up at the sky Monday night to see a bright cosmic frown. The planets Jupiter and Venus will briefly align to form (nearly upside down) two eyes and a frowning mouth in the southwest.

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A Team of Whizzes

Will this new Obama team, as brilliant as it appears to be, begin addressing on day one the interests of those who are not rich and who have not had the ear of those in power?

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Death

In the past two weeks I was in two events around death.

First my cousin died; we were born one month apart, then a second cousin died, I am older than her.

I hadn't seen them in over ten years. I don't feel the loss of somebody I see every day. I had good times with them though, and feel fraternal love for them.

I went this weekend to my mother's hometown for my cousin's funeral. She was an only child, and both her parents are dead. I don't know her husband, nor her children; she left three. I was late for the funeral and I spent my time with my relatives I know well. They talked to me about her. Her death was not nice, her final years were sad. It is a small town, and people noticed that she was not well.

I talked to my nephew; an intelligent man, that took care of gruesome details a few years back when other relatives died in that small town. He saw the remains of my long dead relatives, because they have the costume of opening tombs in that town, to accommodate new "tenants".

The way he described what he saw, made me want to be taken care of when the time comes, as my father requested.

His ashes were thrown in, in a river near his hometown.

I know I won't see anything, but I don't want my descendants to see what my nephew saw.

Liquefied Natural Gas and Fossil Capitalism

Anna ZalikThe contemporary ecological crisis places a new spin on the notion of the “resource curse,” evoking widespread concerns regarding hydrocarbon dependency. Whether environmental, in the form of global warming, or socio-political, through wars over oil, “fossil capitalism” is now understood as a global problem.1 The development of a ...

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About Latin America

President-elect Barack Obama should not put off improving ties with Latin America. And given how bad relations are right now, it will not take much.

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Lest We Forget

The story of how we failed to see this coming has a clear policy implication — that financial market reform should be pressed quickly, and that it should not wait until the crisis is resolved.

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Retailers Offer Big Discounts, and Then Pray

Analysts expect retailers to offer more jaw-dropping deals during one of the toughest holiday seasons in decades.

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Shining City

"Give thanks on this day for the law. It’s what stands between the shining city on a hill and the dark side."

Roger Cohen (below) has spoken truth to power. I regret though, that he didn't do more to stop the dark side, when it was in full force.

A Command of the Law

I am thankful that the next commander in chief is a constitutional law expert, since what defines the United States is that it is a nation of laws.

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Count Those Blessings

Sure, this isn’t the absolutely best and brightest holiday season ever. But look at the pluses.

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All Fall Down

After a near total breakdown of responsibility at every link in our financial chain, we either bail out the people who brought us here or risk a systemic crash. These are the wages of our sins.

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What is that with all those adds in Google Reader?

I guess I must've been forewarned when I chose Google's Chrome browser. But whenever I use the Reader there I get all these adds in the items. I just used Safari, and when I didn't see the same, I realized that it is a Google thing. I guess they have to start making money for their investors. When Harvard is having a hard time keeping financial obligations, you can see that the ... hit the fan.

Oh, well.

Kiyoshi Ito Who Described Random Motion Dies

Mr. Ito’s mathematical models of random motion (Ito Calculus) are used today in fields as diverse as finance and biology.

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Bob Herbert on Obama's Saturday Speech

"Impossible, that is, until you realize that bandits don’t waste time repairing a building that they’re looting."

This is one of the best lines I've read in the NYT (below).

He is calling a spade a spade. Republicans looted the US. They are modern day pirates. Enough, is enough. It is time to rebuild.

Not a Moment Too Soon

We’re never going to get out of this economic fix if we can’t swing open the doors to millions of new jobs. At long last, we are about to have a president who gets that.

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A Whisper, Perhaps, From the Universe’s Dark Side

Recent results from a number of experiments have led some scientists to suspect that they are getting signals from a shadow universe of dark matter.

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Exclusive (Part 2): Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn on the

Weather Underground, the McCain Campaign Attacks, President-Elect Obama and the Antiwar Movement TodayUntil just a few weeks ago Ayers and his anti-war actions from nearly 40 years ago formed a central part of the Republican attack on Obama. In their first joint television interview education professor Bill Ayers and his wife law professor

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Black Hole "Hearts" Warm Galaxies, Control Growth

A colossal black hole nestled in the center of a distant galaxy controls its own growth and the growth of surrounding stars by pumping out energy at regular intervals, a new study says. "It looks like a beating heart," said study team member Mateusz Ruszkowski, an astronomer at the University of Michigan.

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Ontosemiotics

Ontology and Semiotics, are two categories of knowledge. Juan Godino from Spain has put them together.

I just started to study this approach. We are having a lecture by Professor Godino in Chilpancingo tomorrow.

Ramiro Humberto Cajas Cantoral (1918-1980)

“All of us braceros are dead,” he said, clutching a cane and staring out the big picture window of a house near here that he shares with his children. “It would be for my funeral.”

You can read about justice to "Braceros" in a note on the NYT below.

The article ends like this:

“I remember everything, the fields, the places, the crops,” he said afterward. “But they are not accepting my memories.”

My father did not get justice, he would've been 90 years old next Saturday; he died when he was 62. He went to the States as part of the "Bracero" Program, and I accept his memories.

He was a great man.

Owed Back Pay, Guest Workers Comb the Past

Guest farm workers can now collect a payment of wages, decades overdue, from the Mexican government.

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American Scientists for Mexico?

When the Soviet Union collapsed, Russian scientists went to Mexico. Will any American scientist flee the catastrophe to Mexico?

I doubt it. This coming upheaval looks more like a Tsunami, taking everybody down.

I hope I am wrong in my prognostication.

Fisk in Afghanistan and 2012

This knowledgeable man is in Kabul.

If you read his piece in "The Independent" that I posted below, maybe you can see the similarities with my piece on the CETEG. The "Other World", does not want Progress. Are they right?

I see, like Fisk, similarities in the downfall of The West in Afghanistan, and Communism à la USSR, and in Guerrero the end of Neo Liberalism. "Deep Mexico" and "Deep Afghanistan", don't like this Modern World. This Modern World seems to be crumbling. The fall started in 1992, and maybe the falling cycle will end in 2012, with the end of Capitalism, the "End of the World", as some esoteric writers have claimed recently. Twenty years to end Progress. This stage lasted over three hundred years, counting from the Industrial Revolution in England.

I really wish this is not so.

But then you can read in today's NYT (below):

"Once the nation’s largest and mightiest financial company, Citigroup lost half its value in the stock market last week as the bank confronted a crisis of confidence. Although Citigroup executives maintain the bank is sound, investors worry that its finances are deteriorating. Citigroup has suffered staggering losses for a year now, and few analysts think the pain is over. Many investors worry that it needs more capital."

US Government saving Banks. Is that the way it ends?

Have We Learned Nothing? By Robert Fisk

November 22, 2008 "The Independent" -- -I sit on the rooftop of the old Central Hotel – pharaonic-decorated elevator, unspeakable apple juice, sublime green tea, and armed Tajik guards at the front door – and look out across the smoky red of the Kabul evening. The Bala Hissar fort glows in the dusk, massive portals, the great keep to which the..

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U.S. Approves Plan to Help Citigroup Weather Losses

Regulators approved a radical plan to stabilize the bank in an arrangement in which the government could soak up billions of dollars in losses.

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Report Calls for Fresh Approach to Latin America

A new report compiled by prominent former policy-makers recommends Washington overhaul its drug policies at home and pursue a rapprochement with Cuba.

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Rise of the Non-Threatening Black Man

I grew up in Jamaica Queens, New York ... however, I 'lived' in Floral Park, New York ... a predominately white neighborhood through the late 1970's to late 1980's. PS 191, Junior High School 172 and eventually Martin Van Buren High School.

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Ibrahim Ferrer My Space Page

Great Cuban Singer

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Ersi Arvizu in My Space

Great Mexican American Singer

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We Found the W.M.D.

The national economy is in a real code red and addressing this issue can’t be put off for two months.

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Marriage on the Rocks

Gays who supported Barack Obama had the bittersweet experience of seeing voters who surged to the polls to vote Democratic also vote for Proposition 8, which turned gay “I dos” into “You can’ts.”

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Ry Cooder and Easy Rider

John Winthrop's City upon a Hill, 1630

Now the onely way to avoyde this shipwracke and to provide for our posterity is to followe the Counsell of Micah, to doe Justly, to love mercy, to walke humbly with our God, for this end, wee must be knitt together in this worke as one man, wee must entertaine each other in brotherly Affeccion, wee must be willing to abridge our selves of our superfluities, for the supply of others necessities, wee must uphold a familiar Commerce together in all meekenes, gentlenes, patience and liberallity, wee must delight in eache other, make others Condicions our owne rejoyce together, mourne together, labour, and suffer together, allwayes haveing before our eyes our Commission and Community in the worke, our Community as members of the same body, soe shall wee keepe the unitie of the spirit in the bond of peace, the Lord will be our God and delight to dwell among us, as his owne people and will commaund a blessing upon us in all our wayes, soe that wee shall see much more of his wisdome power goodnes and truthe then formerly wee have beene acquainted with, wee shall finde that the God of Israell is among us, when tenn of us shall be able to resist a thousand of our enemies, when hee shall make us a prayse and glory, that men shall say of succeeding plantacions: the lord make it like that of New England: for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a byword through the world, wee shall open the mouthes of enemies to speake evill of the wayes of god and all professours for Gods sake; wee shall shame the faces of many of gods worthy servants, and cause theire prayers to be turned into Cursses upon us till wee be consumed out of the good land whether wee are going: And to shutt upp this discourse with that exhortacion of Moses that faithfull servant of the Lord in his last farewell to Israell Deut. 30. Beloved there is now sett before us life, and good, deathe and evill in that wee are Commaunded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another to walke in his wayes and to keepe his Commaundements and his Ordinance, and his lawes, and the Articles of our Covenant with him that wee may live and be multiplyed, and that the Lord our God may blesse us in the land whether wee goe to possesse it: But if our heartes shall turne away soe that wee will not obey, but shall be seduced and worshipp other Gods our pleasures, and proffitts, and serve them, it is propounded unto us this day, wee shall surely perishe out of the good Land whether wee passe over this vast Sea to possesse it;

Therefore lett us choose life,

that wee, and our Seede,

may live; by obeyeing his

voyce, and cleaveing to him,

for hee is our life, and

our prosperity.

Taken from:

http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/winthrop.htm

You can read about Ry Cooder below, there was a NYT piece today about him. He is from Santa Monica, and has seen the changes there for all of his almost sixty years.

Since I saw Ghost Rider in the bus in my way back from Mexico City after my cousin's death last week, I've been in a pensive mood. I wrote a note on Easy Rider and Ghost Rider, and run a poll during this week. Easy Rider won. I also liked it better, but I wanted to contrast.

John Winthrop epitomizes what Americans want to believe is their nature. This weekend I saw "Deep Mexico", as Guillermo Bonfil Batalla named it (CETEG note below). The Mexico that doesn't want to change as John Womack writes in his book: Zapata and the Mexican Revolution . Putting these things together I try to make sense of the world around me: Don't we all?

Guillermo Bonfil Batalla
Avándaro and Mexico City, 1985-1987


Thus ends the preface of "México Profundo" (Deep Mexico).


Ry Cooder is an anthropologist in his own way. He goes around his neighborhood, and finds Mexicans in East Los Angeles, then they are his people. Then he goes to Cuba and finds Ibrahim Ferrer, and he was his friend. Cooder keeps going around and finding all his lost brothers and sisters, because he is a man that belongs to the whole world.

John Winthrop's trip seems to end in Santa Monica, but as I write below in Easy Rider vs. Ghost Rider, it doesn't. All of this continent, yes in Mexico we only think of one continent, America, not two like American kids are taught, in all of this continent a New Man is being formed. And it is hard, I can tell you, it is hard.

My cousin died, and I feel vulnerable, maybe I'll be the next one. I feel the need to leave something good. Life will go on without me, but I don't want to leave without leaving something behind. 

Ry Cooder’s American West

El Mirage Dry Lake sounds like a place one step from nonexistence, but it’s a critical stop on a journey into the idiosyncratic world of this influential rock and blues artist.

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CETEG

"Coordinadora Estatal de Trabajadores de la Educación en Guerrero"

Guerrero State Education Workers Coordinating Committee.

This independent workers union finished yesterday a three month walkout. Just like the Zapatistas almost a hundred years ago, they went to protest, because they didn't want to change.

John Womack, a Harvard historian looked into the Zapatista Movement of 1910-1920. They were Mexicans that had lived here for over five thousand years. When Porfirio Díaz; another progress oriented indian from Oaxaca, took power for thirty years to change Mexico, he failed.

Now Zeferino Torreblanca Galindo, Governor of Guerrero, also conceded defeat yesterday. His plan to modernize education will have to wait at least seven months. In Mexico, wait seven months means: forget it.

I walked through the streets of Chilpancingo on Saturday, right there in front of the Chamber of Representatives, I could see hundreds of poor people literally living outdoors, to express their dissatisfaction, with the Government's plan. I could hear them talking in their own languages; there are several Mexicos and they don't talk to each other.

I ended up in a luxurious empty mall. I really don't know which way this country is taking. It is clear that the old rulers cannot make ALL Mexico change.

I'll keep you posted.

Breakdown of the Global Monetary System by summer 2009

Phase IV of the Global Systemic crisis --The G20-meeting held in Washington on November 14/15, 2008, is in its essence a historical indicator that the Western monopoly on global economic and financial governance, is coming to an end. Four key-factors are now pushing the Bretton Woods II (2) system to collapse in the course of the year 2009.

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Time for Him to Go

Can I see a show of hands? How many people want George W. Bush out and Barack Obama in right now?

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Help Is on the Way

A new advertising campaign may help troubled veterans come in from the cold and piercingly lonely environment of post-wartime stress.

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Roberto Bolaño's 2666

At one point in "2666," the enormous, posthumously published novel by Roberto Bolaño, a character complains about the meager ambitions of modern readers, accusing them of being "afraid to take on the great, imperfect, torrential works, books that blaze paths into the unknown. They choose the perfect exercises of the great masters"—he cites Melvil..

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Notes on Perelman's papers

These are detailed notes on Perelman's papers "The entropy formula for the Ricci flow and its geometric applications" and "Ricci flow with surgery on three-manifolds".

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Ricci Flow and the Poincare Conjecture

This manuscript contains a detailed proof of the Poincare Conjecture. The arguments we present here are expanded versions of the ones given by Perelman in his three preprints posted in 2002 and 2003. This is a revised version taking in account the comments of the referees and others. It has been reformatted in the AMS book style.

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Terence Tao

Professor Tao is considered a good mathematician under 40.

I am reading his paper:

THE INVERSE CONJECTURE FOR THE GOWERS NORM OVER FINITE FIELDS VIA THE CORRESPONDENCE PRINCIPLE

Even though I teach an analysis class, and I am interested in Number Theory, I cannot understand his work well. Nevertheless it sounds true.

He has put order in the ergodic world of prime numbers. I am glad I finally started studying Measure Theory.

Obama Tilts to Center, Inviting a Clash of Ideas

President-elect Barack Obama’s reported selection for two major cabinet positions suggest that he is surrounding himself with pragmatists rather than ideologues.

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Linus Torvalds’ old company acquired and gone

Transmeta, once a sparkling startup that set out to beat Intel and AMD in mobile computing, announced that it will be acquired by Novafora. The company’s most famous employee, Linux inventor Linux Torvalds, kept the buzz and rumor mill about the company throughout its stealth phase alive and guaranteed a flashy technology announcement in early 2000

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Michael Moore: What We're Seeing is the End of Capitalism

"These guys, for all that stuff they've been telling us all these years about, 'Go capitalism! Free market! Free enterprise!' They don't believe in any of that. They don't believe in free enterprise or free market. They want socialism for themselves. They want a handout and a net for themselves. To hell with everybody else, but give it to t...

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20 Best Brains in Science Under 40

Young innovators are changing everything from theoretical mathematics to cancer therapy.

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Google may offer Chrome detailing on new PCs

Google has big plans for Chrome, and they don't involve keeping the browser in a perpetual beta twilight. The search giant intends to seize a significant chunk of the browser market in 2009, and could offer competition the likes of which Internet Explorer has never faced.

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Mexico Arrests Ex-Chief of Antidrug Agency

Noé Ramírez Mandujano is the highest-ranking official to come under suspicion in a purge of police and prosecutors for possible ties to drug traffickers.

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Stocks Soar on News of Choice for Treasury

Wall Street surged on Friday afternoon after news reports that Timothy F. Geithner would be chosen to be secretary of the Treasury.

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Clinton to Accept Offer of Secretary of State

Hillary Rodham Clinton will give up her Senate seat and accept the nomination for secretary of state after talks with President-elect Barack Obama about her role, two confidants said.

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Clinton accepts Secretary of State position

Hillary Clinton will agree to serve as secretary of state in the US President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet, the New York Times quotes sources as saying. As secretary of state, or foreign minister, she would succeed Condoleezza Rice, who has had the job for the past four years under President Bush.

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South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the Election

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the Election of Barack Obama, the Israeli Blockade of Gaza, US Foreign Policy under President Bush and More

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Scientists say Copernicus' remains found

WARSAW, Poland – Researchers believe they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton they have found with that of hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books.

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Once More Fear Stalks The Streets Of Kandahar

November 20, 2008 "The Independent" -- - There is a little girl in the Meir Wais hospital with livid scars and dead skin across her face, an obscene map of brown and pink tissue. Then there is another girl, a beautiful child, Khorea Horay, grimacing in pain, her leg amputated, her life destroyed after her foot was torn to pieces. In another ward,

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Economic Prospects

Scary, coming from Paul Krugman (below):

"The prospects for the economy look much grimmer now than they did as little as a week or two ago."

And he ends:

"And it’s scary to think how much more can go wrong before Inauguration Day."

Paul Krugman: The Lame-Duck Economy

The prospects for the economy look much grimmer now than they did a week or two ago. Yet economic policy, rather than responding to the threat, seems to have gone on vacation.

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Q & A with Joseph Stiglitz

We had an overwhelming response to the call for questions for Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-winning economist and author who joins us from Columbia University. I grouped your questions together so that Professor Stiglitz could get to the topics you asked about most - and he has indeed given some very thorough answers! If you want to read more, visit..

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Timothy Egan

The piece below sounds scary, and believable. I don't feel well.

Timothy Egan: Beggars Banquet

Where, exactly, do the bailouts stop?

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Talks Continue as Bill Clinton Is Said to Accept Terms of Ob

Mr. Clinton agreed to restrictions on his business and philanthropic activities if Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes secretary of state, associates said.

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AOL Photos

Dear AOL Pictures User:

We are writing to remind you that, as of December 31, 2008, AOL will no longer provide the AOL Pictures online photo service. If you have not already done so, it is important that you choose from the options described below prior to December 31, 2008. After this date, you will no longer be able to access your images through AOL Pictures.

The good news is that AOL has partnered with American Greetings® PhotoWorks® to enable continued access to your pictures through the PhotoWorks service. PhotoWorks provides unlimited free storage, just like AOL Pictures, as well as a variety of options for making creations and sharing your photos. You can access your images on PhotoWorks simply by providing your screen name and password to register for a free American Greetings PhotoWorks account. Register for PhotoWorks now.

While we recommend the American Greetings PhotoWorks option, you may also:

Download your photos to your computer using a new tool that will enable you to quickly save multiple images and albums; or
Purchase a DVD archive of your images. Please note there is a charge for the DVD archive based on the number of images you select.
If you have not already done so, it is essential that you take action no later than December 31, 2008. After this date, you will no longer be able to access your images through AOL Pictures. Please go to AOL Pictures as soon as possible to register for American Greetings PhotoWorks or to save your images on your computer or to DVD. You may choose from or combine any of the options listed above, based on your needs, as long as you do so by December 31. At AOL Pictures, you can also find more information and step-by-step instructions on each of the available choices.

We sincerely appreciate your being an AOL Pictures user. It has been our pleasure to provide you with an enjoyable online photo experience.

Sincerely,

The AOL Pictures Team

No comments.

Indian Navy Sinks Pirate Ship

The Indian Navy said it battled would-be hijackers in the Gulf of Aden, sinking one vessel and forcing the pirates to abandon another.

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Rubén Uriza Cerda (1949-2008)

My cousin Rubén Uriza died last Friday.

I was with his family Saturday night, remembering him. We used to spend a lot of time together when we were children, I stopped seeing him when I was twenty, our lives went in different directions; he was a sportsman, and I was a university professor.

I miss him, he was a noble man, a great horse rider, with multiple recognitions for his skill, and dedication. He leaves a family, a wife, a son and a daughter; and all of us that remember him now.

I feel a sense of duty, to keep the good work that our family is known for.

Rest in peace, Rubén Uriza Jr.

Now (1/26/2012) I found him online [link]

Madam Secretary?

Is Barack Obama considering Hillary Clinton for secretary of state in order to get her off his back or as a prelude to protecting her back?

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Senate Democratic Caucus Tells Rest of Party to

Democratic Senators voted to grant immunity to Senator Joseph Lieberman, allowing him to continue chairing Homeland Security in spite of outrageous conduct on behalf of the McCain campaign. The voices of faithful Democrats around the country, whose hard work and hard-earned cash produced an historic victory, meant nothing in the clubby Senators.

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Mitt Romney

Below you can read an opinion piece by Mitt Romney in the NYT. Bob Herbert wrote a few days back that the US shouldn't let the big American automakers from Detroit go down. Both these men are much more knowledgeable about the American Auto Industry, than I am. I am not competing here with them; nevertheless I have an opinion.

Romney's father was an executive at American Motors when the GOP ex-presidential candidate was a kid. He believes his father would advise what he is proposing, let the executives feel the pain, and get a new bunch of more modern people to run the companies. To me that sounds cold hearted.

Bob Herbert on the other hand advises to help those companies, but not help the men at the helm that are guilty of mismanagement, but the men and women on the factory floor that actually make the cars.

What do I advise President Elect Obama?

A linear combination of both proposals. In math speak that means, change management with an eye on the welfare of those workers.

Think different, allow more worker's management responsibilities as Herbert proposes, and managers more time on the factory floor as Romney proposes.

This is not Marxism, nor Capitalism; we are entering a new stage in world economics. The stakeholders are not just investors, they are buyers, workers, salesmen, and management. Think different.

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the auto industry needs.

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Obama Taps Local Men for Transition Teams

Professor Mario Molina, who teaches chemistry and biochemistry at the university, was also tapped by the future president. Molina won the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work and research on CFC's and the ozone. Molina was asked to help lead the team examining the nation's plans for science and technology.

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Billions of Particles of Anti-Matter Created in Laboratory

Take a gold sample the size of the head of a push pin, shoot a laser through it, and suddenly more than 100 billion particles of anti-matter appear. The anti-matter, also known as positrons, shoots out of the target in a cone-shaped plasma “jet.”

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Amazon launches OLPC 'Give 1 Get 1' laptop drive

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) association launched its Give 1 Get 1 program for a second time, allowing people to buy one of their iconic green mini-laptops and donate one to a child in the developing world at the same time for just US$399.

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LHC start-up date pushed back again

The eagerly awaited start-up of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest particle accelerator, has been put off—again.

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Google SketchUp 7 Released

SketchUp is software you can use to build 3D models of anything: your house, killer robots, furniture, trees, abstract art — anything. Architects and engineers use it to design buildings and other structures. Woodworkers use it to plan their projects. And lots of people use it to figure out where to put their furniture.

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Why Does Paulson, Need to Apologize?

The Secretary of the Treasury of the Bush Administration just wrote an Apology in the NYT (below).

He has different ideas on Economic Theory than Paul Krugman, say. It seems to me that his Op-Ed piece in the NYT, is a self serving add. It is not a technical explanation of actions taken, that another economist like Krugman, would call professional. It is a sad defense of failed policies.

The plan is not working. Fasten your seat belts folks.

Fighting the Financial Crisis, One Challenge at a Time

Paulson's excuses for the bailout.

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Easy Rider vs. Ghost Rider

Peter Fonda had roles in Easy Rider, and Ghost Rider. He represents an American icon in both films; in the first he goes through the US searching for "freedom", and ends dead on a road in Louisiana. In the second he is the "Devil", starting his usual task of getting souls for his cause, and ends getting a completely new enemy that challenges him.

One could equally say that these icons are universal, at least in the Western World; but there is something particularly American I want to emphasize here.

Right away I say that Easy Rider is an "Art Film", and Ghost Rider a "Commercial Film", that is not what concerns me here. I'm more interested in the iconography around Peter Fonda.

First, in "Easy Rider", together with Dennis Hopper, he built the role for himself. A rebel outside of the Law searching for the American Freedom, the freedom that money can buy. He plays it easy, cool; building an image for himself, as the thoughtful detached outsider. A guy, the sixties generation is supposed to like. Then in a series of "bike" movies, that depress me, because they represent the commercialization of a sixties dream; he plays the same cool American icon, even though he does not go on a motorcycle. Ghost Rider is one of those. This one takes from the "Comic Book" culture of the American golden age during most of the twentieth century. By simplifying the discourse plenty; going to "Comics Culture": the author, Roy Thomas, presents a caricature of the Devil, Satan, or Demon, easing the artistic weight of the work. Freeing himself of any artistic pretension, produces, for my taste, a passable mix of, comic book/commercial film, type of entertainment.

Peter Fonda is not a good actor, he is an icon, and an intelligent man. My point here is to analyze the insights these movies give me of what Americans think they are.

They are decent, open minded frontier people. Searching for meaning in life through an ideal of a better world in this life. The Land of Opportunity, where everything can happen and everybody can make it. Even if you are a black coming from outside the power elites of the country.

In "Easy Rider" Fonda's character declares the whole affair a bummer. "We blew it". In "Ghost Rider" he produces out of the randomness of Nature, an enemy that will confront him from then on. He wasn't in control, after all.

I believe that the US experience is the beginning of a "New Age", coming from Europe, and fusing itself with the "Real Americans", that were in the continent before Columbus. In that respect, Mexico is more advanced in this fusion, by the sheer number of surviving American Indians living here.

We went through the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty first centuries, in a cultural desert, maybe we will make it into a "New World", glimpsed in "Easy Rider" and "Ghost Rider".

America, North and South, land of opportunity.

A Guide to Capacitors: Electrolytic, Ceramic and others

The capacitors are the most used electronic components. According the construction technology and their use they can have different shapes: from big cylindrical containers (electrolytic capacitors) to tiny drops (tantalum capacitors).

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Hillary for Secretary?

Barack Obama is talking about letting Hillary Clinton be the point person on foreign policy. What happened to the transformative change?

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‘Drop Dead’ Is Not an Option

New York City’s fiscal crisis of the 1970s was in no way comparable in scale to the myriad crises facing the country right now. But it’s still instructive.

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Number and Representation

In his Web page Domingo Gómez Morín writes:

"So, in the fourth step we got 479 exact digits for the square root of 2, just by means of the most simple arithmetic. We did not require any derivatives, nor the Cartesian system, nor any cumbersome-&-mysterious concept coming out from Infinitesimal Calculus."

Gómez Morín accomplished an impressive feat with simple arithmetic. In a few algebraic steps with a new algorithm, he goes - it seems - to the heart of the matter. The order he maintains is worth studying.

This is an example of how different algorithms can be used to represent the same number. Maybe we could define number, as the set of all algorithms that produce it. Some clearly defined processes, or algorithms, will be better than others depending on the context; but in any case I am looking for a periodic representation of irrational numbers, just like Minkowski's question mark function, ?(x), seems to bring some order to the square root of natural numbers, so Gómez Morín's algorithms, which he calls, Fractal Fractions, seem to bring even more order at a lower complexity prize. Not only can he get 479 exact digits in four steps for quadratics, he can improve the solution precision to general polynomial equations.

Frugal Traveler: Frugal Mexico

In Chiapas, a region of Mexico remote both in distance and culture, revolution smolders, natural beauty abounds, Indian ways flourish and prices are right.

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The Network of Everything

Wireless experts believe that, by 2017, personal networks will have to cope with at least a thousand devices, like laptops, telephones, mp3 players, games, sensors and other technology. To link these devices will require a ‘Network of Everything’. It represents an astonishing challenge, but European researchers believe that they are moving towards

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Pemex May Award 1st Oil Exploration Contract by 2009 (Update

Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Petroleos Mexicanos may award the company's first external oil production and exploration contract by the end of next year, as it targets producers such as Exxon Mobil Corp.,Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Chevron Corp.

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Oil soars past $67; metals rally

WASHINGTON (AP) – The price of oil topped $67 per barrel Thursday amid persistent supply disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico and Nigeria,

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Sun Microsystems

I used to own shares of that great innovative company. I read sadly today that the stock prize is $4.02. Up to 6,000 people, very likely intelligent and educated people, will lose their job (below). The financial engineering behind the mortgage industry depended on the power of the hardware sold by Sun Microsystems.

I want to emphasize here that the principals of those companies are not necessarily the same mathematicians, scientists, and engineers, that produced or were in charge of these marvels of modern technologies. Nevertheless these technical men and women will lose their jobs.

Sun Microsystems is a victim of human folly.

Crisis Spreads to Tech Sector as Sun to Cut Work Force

Sun Microsystems has started a restructuring that could see up to 6,000 employees lose their jobs as it joins a growing list of technology companies reeling from the crisis.

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Democracy Now! | Democracy Now! Exclusive (Part 1): Bill Aye

Bill Ayers finally speaks out!!!

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Discover Ancient Rome in Google Earth

See Rome as it looked in 320 AD and fly down to see famous buildings and monuments in 3D. Select the "Ancient Rome 3D" layer under Gallery in Google Earth. Download Google Earth at http://earth.google.com/rome/

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Bill Ayers on Good Morning America

Bad interview

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A Killing in a Town Where Latinos Sense Hate

The stabbing of a laborer has brought accusations of anti-immigrant hostility to a village in Suffolk County.

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Depression Economics Returns

The United States economy has entered the realm of Depression economics, in which the usual rules of economic policy no longer apply.

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Juanes Sweeps Latin Grammys With 5 Wins

HOUSTON (AP) -- Colombian rocker Juanes ruled the Latin Grammys on Thursday, sweeping awards in five categories -- including record of the year and album of the year -- and setting a new record for total wins.

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Is the Nation Ready for Obama's Energy Plan?

Obama's 30-point energy agenda calls for big changes to address carbon emissions, fuel efficiency, renewable power and efficiency.If President-elect Barack Obama enacts the energy plan he laid out during his campaign, American taxpayers will each get a $500 rebate check -- funded by a windfall profits taxes on big oil companies.

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Wall Street Flat After Sell-Off

Markets in the United States opened calmly as buyers tentatively stepped in a day after the major exchanges all fell about 5 percent.

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FT.com / World / Americas - Mexico’s Congress passes budget

Agustín Carstens, Mexico’s finance minister, on Thursday praised legislators for passing a 2009 budget that will increase government spending 13.1 per cent in real terms, and called the move ”a key piece in the anti-cyclical strategy”.

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Agencia Espacial Mexican (AEXA)

The Mexican Senate approved the creation of a Space Agency. See note below from Wikipedia.

When I was at the "Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla" (BUAP), a group of friends, Mexican and Russian, were in talks with Members of Congress to make this possible. There had been an agency in the past, but the idea was to start anew; one that would stick.

I am sure there are other agents, like American astronauts of Mexican descent, and our only Mexican astronaut from Zumpango del Río, Guerrero State: Rodolfo Neri Vela; but my friends put their grain of salt for this accomplishment. I am proud of their work.

Mexican Space Agency approved unanimously in the Senate

The Mexican Space Agency (AEXA) (in Spanish: Agencia Espacial Mexicana) is a proposed space agency approved unanimously in the Senate of Mexico on November 4th, 2008 [1] after receiving a significant vote of confidence in the Chamber of Deputies on April 26, 2006.[2] Since the initiative was modified in the Senate, it awaits a confirmation vote ..

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