I don't know if I met Tom Hurndall. He was one of a bunch of "human shields" who turned up in Baghdad just before the Anglo-American invasion in 2003, the kind of folk we professional reporters make fun of. Tree huggers, that kind of thing. Now I wish I had met him...
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Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Syria's Assad Emails Seymour Hersh To Describe His Hopes
"President Assad was full of confidence & was impatiently anticipating the new Administration in D.C. when I spoke to him late last year in Damascus. A few days after the Israeli ceasefire in Gaza, Assad said that although Israel was “doing everything possible to undermine the prospects for peace,” he was still very interested in closing the deal."
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Fargo’s Flood
Fighting an epic flood is hard enough. We join the residents of Fargo, N.D., in hoping that the blizzard that moved into the area does not exacerbate conditions.
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Seymour Hersh: Secret US Forces Carried Out Assassinations i
Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh created a stir earlier this month when he said the Bush administration ran an “executive assassination ring” that reported directly to Vice President Dick Cheney. “Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or to the CIA station
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Fidel Castro on China
As a Latin American of my generation I pay attention to what Fidel Castro has to say. At some point in my life I even considered going to live in Cuba.
He has stated loud and clear what a bunch of Latin American intellectuals like myself think. China keeps the dream.
The West did not try to build a new society, the old one was good, thank you. Of course some countries were being paid handsomely for their victory in World War II. There have always been war spoils.
It was sad for me to see how the Soviet Union failed.
Cuba has maintained the dream, at the expense of hardships for the Cuban people. As a scientist I prefer facts to dreams. China's success is a fact. I join Fidel Castro in stating it clearly: Chinese communism has worked.
Since my mind works by contrast I want to add a coda.
I admire and enjoy the freedom I have lived in the US. I do hope we find the way out in a Democratic Form of Government. American society is not just a bunch of Bernie Madoffs. There are enlightened people in this country where my children have grown up. This is the Land of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger that made me cry during Obama's inauguration.
I guess I want it all. I am convinced we will need our best survival abilities to go through this bottleneck.
He has stated loud and clear what a bunch of Latin American intellectuals like myself think. China keeps the dream.
The West did not try to build a new society, the old one was good, thank you. Of course some countries were being paid handsomely for their victory in World War II. There have always been war spoils.
It was sad for me to see how the Soviet Union failed.
Cuba has maintained the dream, at the expense of hardships for the Cuban people. As a scientist I prefer facts to dreams. China's success is a fact. I join Fidel Castro in stating it clearly: Chinese communism has worked.
Since my mind works by contrast I want to add a coda.
I admire and enjoy the freedom I have lived in the US. I do hope we find the way out in a Democratic Form of Government. American society is not just a bunch of Bernie Madoffs. There are enlightened people in this country where my children have grown up. This is the Land of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger that made me cry during Obama's inauguration.
I guess I want it all. I am convinced we will need our best survival abilities to go through this bottleneck.
Fidel Castro calls China 'bitter drink' for West
HAVANA (Cuba): Cuban leader Fidel Castro called China's growing economic power in the world a "bitter drink" for the West, ahead of a G20 summit set to tackle the economic crisis later this week.
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Monday, March 30, 2009
Bob Dylan - A Pawn in Their Game (Live at Newport '63)
I saw this on PBS recently and was mesmerized... How the hell has music gone from this to the garbage we have now? I hate my generation with a passion... seriously guys and gals, let's do some heroin, drop some LSD in the eyeballs, get out the guitar, shoot the techno dweeb producers and make some real god damned music!
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In Drug War, Mexico Fights Cartel and Itself
Mexico has launched a war against drugs but it cannot rely on the institutions most needed to carry it out.
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Anglo-American Capitalism on Trial
With the G20 summit meeting approaching, a global financial system dating to Bretton Woods is under siege.
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America the Tarnished
These days America is looking like the Bernie Madoff of economies: for many years it was held in respect, even awe, but it turns out to have been a fraud all along.
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The Conference Board(R) Mexico Business Cycle Indicators(SM)
NEW YORK, March 27, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----The Conference Board Leading Economic Index(TM: 63.89, -1.59, -2.43%) (LEI: 0.52, 0.01, 1.96%) for Mexico declined 1.3 percent and The Conference Board Coincident Economic Index(TM: 63.89, -1.59, -2.43%) (CEI: undefined, undefined, undefined%) for Mexico decreased 1.7 percent in January.
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Saturday, March 28, 2009
Blue Eyed Greed?
With the Obamas in the White House brown eyes may finally — and rightfully — overtake blue as the windows of winners.
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Mother Nature’s Dow
If Mother Nature had a Dow, you could say that it, too, has been breaking into new (scientific) lows.
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Guess
I just found out that Gromov got the Abel Prize. I figure he must know a thing or two. I am just starting to study symplectic geometry. Here there is a guess:
The minus sign in Hamilton´s equations points toward a geometric reason for energy conservation. Something like we live in the universe we do, because three dimensional rotations are non-commutative, and then the universe is stable, i.e., it conserves energy.
Complex numbers don't quite cut the cake, quaternions are there in between, and Gromov saw that something in between in symplectic geometry was the subtle solution to the complex, quaternion, nature of the physical and geometrical space we happen to live in.
I know this is a messy set of ideas. At this stage this is all I can report.
The mystery for me is: What does the minus sign in Hamilton's equations have to do with the orientability of surfaces in our neck of the woods, and vice versa?
I'll like an answer like. Only in three dimensional space and one time there can be a stable Universe.
What about Geometric Anthropic Principle, for a name to this wished for answer?
The minus sign in Hamilton´s equations points toward a geometric reason for energy conservation. Something like we live in the universe we do, because three dimensional rotations are non-commutative, and then the universe is stable, i.e., it conserves energy.
Complex numbers don't quite cut the cake, quaternions are there in between, and Gromov saw that something in between in symplectic geometry was the subtle solution to the complex, quaternion, nature of the physical and geometrical space we happen to live in.
I know this is a messy set of ideas. At this stage this is all I can report.
The mystery for me is: What does the minus sign in Hamilton's equations have to do with the orientability of surfaces in our neck of the woods, and vice versa?
I'll like an answer like. Only in three dimensional space and one time there can be a stable Universe.
What about Geometric Anthropic Principle, for a name to this wished for answer?
"Fifth Force" Could Make Detection of Dark Matter Unlikely
No one knows exactly what a “fifth force” might be, but studies have shown that, if a long-range fifth force does exist, it could have surprising effects on the universe’s structure formation. A fifth force could reduce discrepancies between theory and observation in several areas of cosmology.
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Academic Evolution
The Renaissance followed mercantile successes of European merchants. Bell Lab scientists got Nobel Prizes in pure science while there was a telephone monopoly in the US.
Here in Chilpancingo there is interest in Astronomy but not a single professional telescope to look at the sky.
Since the time I decided to be a theoretical physicist I knew that this was a long shot. Some of my peers have been successful, but I feel that even them have not contributed to human culture as our friends at Princeton or Harvard.
The process is simple to describe, all of us get a fair try at tenure posts in elite research centers, some are chosen and then handsomely supported.
I do not want to complain, just to understand.
What are the chances of a Physics program in the Autonomous University of Guerrero, any time soon?
Realistically, very slim.
Nobody stops me from teaching Physics already, actually there is some kind of benign neglect. I'll keep at it, until I find a better way to spend my time or succeed.
Here in Chilpancingo there is interest in Astronomy but not a single professional telescope to look at the sky.
Since the time I decided to be a theoretical physicist I knew that this was a long shot. Some of my peers have been successful, but I feel that even them have not contributed to human culture as our friends at Princeton or Harvard.
The process is simple to describe, all of us get a fair try at tenure posts in elite research centers, some are chosen and then handsomely supported.
I do not want to complain, just to understand.
What are the chances of a Physics program in the Autonomous University of Guerrero, any time soon?
Realistically, very slim.
Nobody stops me from teaching Physics already, actually there is some kind of benign neglect. I'll keep at it, until I find a better way to spend my time or succeed.
Are There Long Range Correlations Now?
This question is about human events.
Statistical Mechanics teaches us that near a phase transition different parts of a system start to act coherently. When water is about to boil, molecules move so fast that we don't know if they are part of a gas or part of a liquid. What happens in one cubic centimeter affects what happens in one cubic meter. Infinite correlation length is the technical name.
Be warned, people are not molecules, but what the heck lets try the analogy anyway.
I am in Chilpancingo, and I am listening to events in Chicago, and I understand!
This I call infinite correlation length. Of course I am not an average molecule, I mean man. In any case, there are many guerrerenses in Aurora Illinois. We are affected in Chilpancingo by what happens in Wakegan.
I keep looking for signals of a phase transition. Other name I've used for this concept is paradigm shift.
I feel the quiet before the storm.
Statistical Mechanics teaches us that near a phase transition different parts of a system start to act coherently. When water is about to boil, molecules move so fast that we don't know if they are part of a gas or part of a liquid. What happens in one cubic centimeter affects what happens in one cubic meter. Infinite correlation length is the technical name.
Be warned, people are not molecules, but what the heck lets try the analogy anyway.
I am in Chilpancingo, and I am listening to events in Chicago, and I understand!
This I call infinite correlation length. Of course I am not an average molecule, I mean man. In any case, there are many guerrerenses in Aurora Illinois. We are affected in Chilpancingo by what happens in Wakegan.
I keep looking for signals of a phase transition. Other name I've used for this concept is paradigm shift.
I feel the quiet before the storm.
Ira Glass
Through WBEZ I am listening to Ira Glass. He is talking about the collapse of South Chicago dreams.
I almost worked there!
During my Benedectine University training to become a science high school teacher in the Chicago area, I went to the King College Prep High School. I liked the lake shore, the clean streets, compared to Chilpancingo, that is. I was almost bought into the idea, of ending my life as a science teacher for the kids of the South Side of Chicago.
It pains me to hear what Ira has uncovered in his program "This American Life", this rich people destroying the lives of poor and middle class people, is sickening.
Ruins, and ruins. This is the reality of the AIG guy's video game called "Sub Prime Pyramid". This is not virtual reality, this is grim reality.
I almost worked there!
During my Benedectine University training to become a science high school teacher in the Chicago area, I went to the King College Prep High School. I liked the lake shore, the clean streets, compared to Chilpancingo, that is. I was almost bought into the idea, of ending my life as a science teacher for the kids of the South Side of Chicago.
It pains me to hear what Ira has uncovered in his program "This American Life", this rich people destroying the lives of poor and middle class people, is sickening.
Ruins, and ruins. This is the reality of the AIG guy's video game called "Sub Prime Pyramid". This is not virtual reality, this is grim reality.
What Shape Is Your Galaxy? : Scientific American Podcast
Yale astrophysicist Mark Schawinski talks about Galaxy Zoo, a distributed computing project in which laypeople can help researchers characterize galaxies. And we tour Kroon Hall, the new green home of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences. Plus, we'll test your knowlege of some recent science in the news. Web sites related to this
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Geometer wins maths 'Nobel'
A French-Russian mathematician has won the Abel Prize today for his work on advanced forms of geometry.
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Bargain Hunt: Netbooks
Most netbooks are already fairly cheap machines, but these three deals from MSI, Acer, and Lenovo bring the cost down by 25 percent or more.
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35,000 turn out for wet G20 march
Around 35,000 protesters gathered in the rain in London today for a huge march for “jobs, justice and climate” in the first of a week of demonstrations ahead of the G20 summit.
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Wallace and Gromit Recruited to Teach Science
The world of Wallace and Gromit has been recreated in a £2m exhibition on the second floor of the Science Museum in London, complete with mad machines, giant cabbages, villainous rabbits, and extensive research library on cheese. The exhibition which opens on November 1st is designed to get children thinking about design and invention.
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Frigid Temperature Slows River’s Rise in North Dakota
After days of predicting that the swollen Red River would crest on Saturday, forecasters now say that residents can expect the river to crest sometime on Sunday.
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Obama links Red River flooding to Global Warming
"If you look at the flooding that's going on right now in North Dakota and you say to yourself, 'If you see an increase of 2 degrees, what does that do, in terms of the situation there?' " the president told the reporters. "That indicates the degree to which we have to take this seriously." Current temp in Fargo: 15 degrees Fahrenheit.
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'Planet Earth' + Steven Hawking = 'The Universe'
Hollywood Reporter: Discovery Channel's announced a multi-million-dollar "Planet Earth" followup to explore space with Stephen Hawking using CGI (and somebody else to narrate)
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Education reform: Let's start by burning all the textbooks
Paper textbooks are problematic in two ways: First, they're paper. Second, they're textbooks. Paper textbooks are bland, lifeless, designed-by-committee, politically correct intellectual junk food that cost five times what they should. It's time to go electronic with course materials, and let instructors (and students) choose *real* books online.
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Russian-born mathematician wins math's version of the Nobel:
Geometer Mikhail Gromov has won the 2009 Abel Prize, a sort of math analogue to the Nobel Prizes, the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters announced yesterday. (The Swedes famously do not administer a Nobel in mathematics, so the Norwegians jumped in with the Abel in 2003.) The Russian-born Gromov, 65, of the Institut des Hautes Études Scien..
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A Telescope to the Past as Galileo Visits U.S.
On loan from Florence to Philadelphia, a telescope used by the astronomer gives you an idea of how hard it must have been for Galileo to be Galileo.
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How to Train a Governor
The political free fall of Gov. David Paterson of New York isn’t from any big personal scandal. He has alienated the public just by being terrible at his job.
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Friday, March 27, 2009
Highest Energy Cosmic Ray Sources
CERN Courier published some time ago this news item:
Pierre Auger Observatory pinpoints source of mysterious highest-energy cosmic rays
I had already written about this fundamental finding, according to Science Magazine, the third most important discovery in 2006.
Now I want to play with parsecs for the Astronomy class some of us are teaching here in Chilpancingo for the International Year of Astronomy celebrations.
One of those sources is Centaurus A.. Therefore one could say something like this.
4.2 Mpc away a proton comes zipping through intergalactic space, then it hits a gaucho in the head, and makes his country famous!
Homework:
Should he be upset?
No seriously; do you think we have entered a new stage in Astronomy?
In another post I'll argue that we have; after you do your homework.
Hint: The answer has to do with measuring more accurately our Universe in the Mpc scale.
Pierre Auger Observatory pinpoints source of mysterious highest-energy cosmic rays
I had already written about this fundamental finding, according to Science Magazine, the third most important discovery in 2006.
Now I want to play with parsecs for the Astronomy class some of us are teaching here in Chilpancingo for the International Year of Astronomy celebrations.
One of those sources is Centaurus A.. Therefore one could say something like this.
4.2 Mpc away a proton comes zipping through intergalactic space, then it hits a gaucho in the head, and makes his country famous!
Homework:
Should he be upset?
No seriously; do you think we have entered a new stage in Astronomy?
In another post I'll argue that we have; after you do your homework.
Hint: The answer has to do with measuring more accurately our Universe in the Mpc scale.
Heartbreaking Triage as Fargo Battles Floods
With the Red River in North Dakota set to reach record levels, volunteers continued to raise dikes Thursday.
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Obama Uses Twitter For First Time Since Inauguration
While Barack Obama has the second-largest following on Twitter, it had been more than two months since his last "tweet." The more than 500,000 Twitter users who "follow" him finally got an update from the White House on March 25th announcing a new question and answer feature for the whitehouse.gov. My question is why has he waited so long?
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Jean Pestieau
I've written before about this scientist. I met him because, as he told us, he rather teaches the children of workers and peasants, than the Cornell rich kids at Ithaca N.Y.
We intellectuals love to tell a romantic story of our lives. I wonder how much Jean believes that now. What I don't have any doubt about, is that he is a landmark for Theoretical Physics in Mexico, from his tenured position at the Catholic University of Lovain, he has done a lot of good.
If you are reading this, I salute you Jean.
We intellectuals love to tell a romantic story of our lives. I wonder how much Jean believes that now. What I don't have any doubt about, is that he is a landmark for Theoretical Physics in Mexico, from his tenured position at the Catholic University of Lovain, he has done a lot of good.
If you are reading this, I salute you Jean.
LKP
Signals.
I'm looking for signals of a systemic change:
LKP
Stands for Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon—United Against the Profiteers
What a great name.
In Mexico we have:
APPO
Stands for Asemblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca Popular-Assembly for the People of Oaxaca.
Because something is happening here,
But you don't know what it is, Do you, Mister Jones?
I'm looking for signals of a systemic change:
LKP
Stands for Liyannaj Kont Pwofitasyon—United Against the Profiteers
What a great name.
In Mexico we have:
APPO
Stands for Asemblea Popular del Pueblo de Oaxaca Popular-Assembly for the People of Oaxaca.
Because something is happening here,
But you don't know what it is, Do you, Mister Jones?
There Are Still Eagles In Chilpancingo!
I am placidly sitting in my office, with a gorgeous view of a spring morning. I can see some pine trees from the Botanic Garden just behind the next building.
I saw a few seconds ago an eagle flying around in circles. He (she?) is gone now.
This capital city of Guerrero State does not even have half a million people. It is growing fast though. The university campus is closer to the edge of town than to downtown; besides, the mountains don't allow urban sprawl from east to west; it is a rather thin city.
I guess eagles still feel at home around here. I am glad.
People living here for millenia have made eagles, tigers, and other older inhabitants their friends, at least mythologically.
Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec tlautani (ruler) was born not far away from here. His name means falling eagle.
I salute you Cuauhtémoc, you haven't died, I just saw you!
I saw a few seconds ago an eagle flying around in circles. He (she?) is gone now.
This capital city of Guerrero State does not even have half a million people. It is growing fast though. The university campus is closer to the edge of town than to downtown; besides, the mountains don't allow urban sprawl from east to west; it is a rather thin city.
I guess eagles still feel at home around here. I am glad.
People living here for millenia have made eagles, tigers, and other older inhabitants their friends, at least mythologically.
Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec tlautani (ruler) was born not far away from here. His name means falling eagle.
I salute you Cuauhtémoc, you haven't died, I just saw you!
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The Market Mystique
The top officials in the Obama administration still believe in the magic of the financial marketplace and in the prowess of the wizards who perform that magic.
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Mexico to Boost Bond Sales After Pension Fund Accord
Mexico plans to boost the amount of fixed-rate bonds and Treasury bills it sells in the second quarter after the nation’s pension funds agreed to invest all new money they receive this year in local assets.
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Download Google Chrome for Ubuntu Linux (Pre-Alpha Chromium)
Google chrome popularity has been increasing day by day even though it is only available for Windows and Users are eagerly waiting for Google chrome to be made available for Mac and Linux. Now here is good news for Linux users
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Fierce Urgency of Peace
Pressure on President Obama to recast the failed American approach to Israel-Palestine is building.
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Everything Bad Is Good Again
There might be only two constants in our ever-changing world — Barack Obama is going to be on television and we always need to have somebody we can be really, really angry at.
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When Laptops Go Light
Netbooks have slow processors, tiny screens and are good at handling e-mail. Why are they so popular?
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As Clinton Visits Mexico, Strains Show in Relations
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will pay a visit Wednesday to an unhappy neighbor that blames America for many of its problems.
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Calderon Looming Defeat May Hurt Mexico, Moody’s Says
Mexico’s credit rating could be hurt by a defeat for President Felipe Calderon []’s National Action Party in mid-term congressional elections, said Mauro Leos [], a sovereign analyst at Moody’s Investors Service.
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Obama’s Next Foreign Crisis Could Be Next Door
Drug violence, the recession and immigration are some of the issues straining United States-Mexican relations.
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Everyone Gets a Bonus from Obama
Buried deep in President Barack Obama's American Reinvestment and Recovery Act is a line that should bring a smile to your face -- and a scowl to phone and cable industry lobbyists.
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Secrets of a Pollster
Stan Greenberg, who polled for Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Ehud Barak and Tony Blair, says that the best leaders learn from their crashes, adjust, persist and succeed.
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Why Bank Rage Is Not Populism | Mother Jones
Does the widespread public fury over AIG bonuses constitute a populist rebellion, and signal a major shift in American political culture? That's what the mainstream media seems to be pondering this week.
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Leonard Cohen, Paul Krugman, and Barack Obama
One is older than me, the other about my age and the third is my kid brother's age.
Do I know more than them?
I had two very interesting polls in this blog recently. The first asked if Obama's decisions could help their job situation, the second, if government decisions affect their life. I was surprised by the first response; most people thought Obama's economic policies were not going to help them, then I decided to ask the second question; maybe people didn't believe governments affected their life. Wrong again, most believe they do.
How do I understand this, and what is the point of bringing age and these smart gentlemen to my reflections?
Here it goes.
People reading my blog are not assured by Obama's economic decisions, they know they will be affected, but believe that not in a good way. If so, are they right?
Here enters Krugman. He agrees; he was interviewed from his house in Princeton by phone by Amy Goodman. He repeated his point expressed in his morning piece in the NYT. He disagrees with Obama's decision on bailing out failing banks, as I understand it, because Onbama is losing a historic opportunity to change the paradigm, as this catastrophic situation requires. I agree.
Now Cohen: This seventy year old man has gone communist. He put his last record online for free through NPR, of all places. I am thoruoghly enjoying it. For free. The best things in the world are free.
I end up with that skinny black guy in the White House.
I love the guy, don't take me wrong, my son is very proud to have such a President.
And still I'm older than him, at least I've had more time to reflect. This is not an unsolicited advise piece to the President of the USA. It is just my effort to make sense of the world, mainly for my own consumption.
Cohen is wiser than me, Krugman about the same, and Obama, the kid all we three very likely want to succeed.
Will he?
This is tough man. I don't envy him.
My kid brother is also brilliantly facing the world and trying to change it. I am proud of him.
What will I tell the generations coming after me?
First I do not want to be meek, I have a responsibility, I'm older, I should tell them what I've seen, without ego trips, just honestly telling them how I see it.
These are hard times, sticking together we may get through, like several times in the past of our common ancestors. At one point they say, we all were only twenty thousand of us, and we made it through that bottle neck. It is almost as when we came through our mothers' birth canals. Since we made it, we are here.
The answer to the mysteries, do dam, dam..Say the guru Leonard.
Obama, have courage to face the wreckers of the past years. The USA needs bold actions. Don't be afraid. Only be afraid of fear.
Listen to Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winner and Princeton Professor.
If you don't, we'll make you!
DO GOVERNMENT DECISIONS AFFECT YOUR LIFE?
Yes 9 (90%)
No 0 (0%)
Don't Know 1 (10%)
Vote on this poll
Votes so far: 10
Minutes left to vote: 15
Do I know more than them?
I had two very interesting polls in this blog recently. The first asked if Obama's decisions could help their job situation, the second, if government decisions affect their life. I was surprised by the first response; most people thought Obama's economic policies were not going to help them, then I decided to ask the second question; maybe people didn't believe governments affected their life. Wrong again, most believe they do.
How do I understand this, and what is the point of bringing age and these smart gentlemen to my reflections?
Here it goes.
People reading my blog are not assured by Obama's economic decisions, they know they will be affected, but believe that not in a good way. If so, are they right?
Here enters Krugman. He agrees; he was interviewed from his house in Princeton by phone by Amy Goodman. He repeated his point expressed in his morning piece in the NYT. He disagrees with Obama's decision on bailing out failing banks, as I understand it, because Onbama is losing a historic opportunity to change the paradigm, as this catastrophic situation requires. I agree.
Now Cohen: This seventy year old man has gone communist. He put his last record online for free through NPR, of all places. I am thoruoghly enjoying it. For free. The best things in the world are free.
I end up with that skinny black guy in the White House.
I love the guy, don't take me wrong, my son is very proud to have such a President.
And still I'm older than him, at least I've had more time to reflect. This is not an unsolicited advise piece to the President of the USA. It is just my effort to make sense of the world, mainly for my own consumption.
Cohen is wiser than me, Krugman about the same, and Obama, the kid all we three very likely want to succeed.
Will he?
This is tough man. I don't envy him.
My kid brother is also brilliantly facing the world and trying to change it. I am proud of him.
What will I tell the generations coming after me?
First I do not want to be meek, I have a responsibility, I'm older, I should tell them what I've seen, without ego trips, just honestly telling them how I see it.
These are hard times, sticking together we may get through, like several times in the past of our common ancestors. At one point they say, we all were only twenty thousand of us, and we made it through that bottle neck. It is almost as when we came through our mothers' birth canals. Since we made it, we are here.
The answer to the mysteries, do dam, dam..Say the guru Leonard.
Obama, have courage to face the wreckers of the past years. The USA needs bold actions. Don't be afraid. Only be afraid of fear.
Listen to Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize winner and Princeton Professor.
If you don't, we'll make you!
DO GOVERNMENT DECISIONS AFFECT YOUR LIFE?
Yes 9 (90%)
No 0 (0%)
Don't Know 1 (10%)
Vote on this poll
Votes so far: 10
Minutes left to vote: 15
Obama Sees ‘Signs of Progress’ on the Economy
President Obama tried to rally the nation behind his ambitious agenda at his news conference Tuesday.
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Treasury Chief Is Expected to Ask Congress for New Powers
At Congressional hearings on Tuesday, Timothy F. Geithner will ask for more authority to seize troubled nonbank financial institutions, officials said.
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Room for Debate: Will the Geithner Plan Work?
Paul Krugman, Simon Johnson, Brad DeLong and Mark Thoma on the government plan to buy up bad mortgage assets.
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Water Rights Activists Blast Istanbul World Water Forum as “
Activists from the People’s Water Forum, an alternative formation representing the rural poor, the environment and organized labor, slammed the official event as a non-inclusive, corporate-driven fraud pushing for water privatization and called for a more open, democratic and transparent forum.
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200 years that changed the world [VIDEO]
200 years of history in 4.5 minutes - for the first time, Gapminder can now visualize change in life expectancy and income per person over the last two centuries. In this Gapminder video, Hans Rosling shows you how all the countries of the world have developed since 1809 - 200 years ago.
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Mexico: Failing State?
We hear a lot about the prospect that escalating drug-related violence in Mexico could spill over more to the United States; there are even warnings about a potential collapse of the country's government. In the just-passed omnibus spending bill, Congress included $300 million to fight drug cartels there, and some lawmakers now want to use U.S. ..
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Monday, March 23, 2009
The Mexican Evolution
While we bear responsibility for our problems, the caricature of Mexico being propagated in the United States only increases the despair on both sides of the Rio Grande.
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3/23/09 Geithner plan arithmetic - Paul Krugman Blog
Update: Another way to say this is that by financing a large part of the purchase with a non-recourse loan, the government is in effect giving investors a put option to sweeten the deal.
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Did Lenovo invent Apple's netbook?
A series of reports and rumors predict that Apple will ship a netbook this year. Lenovo suddenly "leaks" a two-year-old prototype with a unique form-factor that would be *perfect* for Apple's netbook. Coincidence?
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Black Holes: Eternal Prisons No More, Stephen Hawking's
Celebrated physicist, Stephen Hawking, delivered an inspiring speech to a full house in Bovard Auditorium on March 10. USC College Dean Howard Gillman kicked off the event by introducing Nick Warner, professor of physics, mathematics and astronomy. Hawking was Warner%u2019s academic adviser while he studied at the University of Cambridge.
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Strange Particle Created; May Rewrite How Matter's Made
An unexpected new subatomic particle has been discovered in Illinois's Fermilab atom smasher, scientists announced this week. The new particle may break all known rules for creating matter, say the researchers who created the oddity.
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Paul Krugman, “The Zombie Ideas Have Won”
On $1 Trillion Geithner Plan, The Obama administration has described the plan as a public-private partnership, but most of the actual money will be put up by the government. We speak with Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist, Paul Krugman.
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Paul Krugnan Returns
Over the weekend I was wondering if today Paul Krugman would be Treasury Secretary. His column failed to appear in the NYT, I thought he was readying himself for another stage in his life. Again I was wrong, I really don't understand people. I feel like Dr. Manhattan, where is the next Galaxy I can go to?
I just don't understand people.
Here he is talking to Amy Goodman!
Reality is more interesting than fiction!
From the NYT we get:
The presumption, of course, is that the auction will lead to realistic purchase prices.
This is what Professor Krugnan questions: Realistic prices are assumed by the government as higher than now. Krugman begs to disagree.
I just don't understand people.
Here he is talking to Amy Goodman!
Reality is more interesting than fiction!
From the NYT we get:
The presumption, of course, is that the auction will lead to realistic purchase prices.
This is what Professor Krugnan questions: Realistic prices are assumed by the government as higher than now. Krugman begs to disagree.
Treasury Details Plan to Buy Risky Assets
The Obama administration on Monday formally presented its plan to draw private investors into partnership with a new federal entity to buy up $1 trillion in troubled assets.
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Financial Policy Despair
If Barack Obama’s bank rescue plan fails, it is unlikely that Congress will come up with more funds to do what should have done in the first place.
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Saturday, March 21, 2009
Math Notation
Good notation leads mathematics. MathML has to follow that path. What I write here though, is an idea.
Differential Forms appeared last century, most applied mathematicians and engineers do not use these tools. I know I don't, just recently started to study this.
Professor Jerrold E. Marsden is studying discrete differential forms with colleagues, like Ari Stern.
I started to consider this structure many years ago, but didn't pursue it. My idea is simple, here it is:
When expressed in its simplest form, the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, is almost tautological: The sum of the differences is equal to the total difference.
Then I started to think in more dimensions, soon I saw Stokes, Gauss, Green, and some others that had already done this many years ago.
Now I am studying V. I. Arnold's book: Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics. This is amazing; the structures are so natural. I believe that one can do a useful discrete version of all this.
And this leads me to notation and HTML. At least since the nineties there have been efforts to use math html. The thought occurred to me that the problem in rendering math formulas, notation, and the invention of new math are related. For instance:
Think of the wave equation; one can easily convert a second order partial differential operator into the composition of two first order ones. These factors define the best variables to describe a wave, x - ct, and x + ct. Neat. Just by keeping the right variables around one can describe complex physics, I feel that at its core, good notation is good math; and HTML is an important advance in medium agnostic expression of symbols. It is hard not to think of Donald Knuth and TeX.
More later.
Differential Forms appeared last century, most applied mathematicians and engineers do not use these tools. I know I don't, just recently started to study this.
Professor Jerrold E. Marsden is studying discrete differential forms with colleagues, like Ari Stern.
I started to consider this structure many years ago, but didn't pursue it. My idea is simple, here it is:
When expressed in its simplest form, the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus, is almost tautological: The sum of the differences is equal to the total difference.
Then I started to think in more dimensions, soon I saw Stokes, Gauss, Green, and some others that had already done this many years ago.
Now I am studying V. I. Arnold's book: Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics. This is amazing; the structures are so natural. I believe that one can do a useful discrete version of all this.
And this leads me to notation and HTML. At least since the nineties there have been efforts to use math html. The thought occurred to me that the problem in rendering math formulas, notation, and the invention of new math are related. For instance:
Think of the wave equation; one can easily convert a second order partial differential operator into the composition of two first order ones. These factors define the best variables to describe a wave, x - ct, and x + ct. Neat. Just by keeping the right variables around one can describe complex physics, I feel that at its core, good notation is good math; and HTML is an important advance in medium agnostic expression of symbols. It is hard not to think of Donald Knuth and TeX.
More later.
"Why Socialism?" by Albert Einstein (May 1949)
Presented here is the full text of "Why Socialism?", Einstein's frank and sincere endorsement of democratic socialism.
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read more | digg story
Most Recent Picture of the Gamma Ray Sky
You can see below the NASA announcement of this picture.
I have not followed as I should've this effort in high energy physics.
They put Silicon strips in the Sky!
I spent one year in E791 at Fermilab, and then some time in E831. Silicon strips were essential for these fixed target experiments. The collaborations got the biggest charm quark sample at the time. Bread and butter stuff for particle physics.
Astronomy was an afterthought for me. When I walked through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey installations at Fermilab, I just glanced through the glass windows wondering what was going on. I am a curious person, but every time I feel I should've been more curious.
Anyway, no use of crying over spilled milk.
The baby is here and is beautiful!
I have not followed as I should've this effort in high energy physics.
They put Silicon strips in the Sky!
I spent one year in E791 at Fermilab, and then some time in E831. Silicon strips were essential for these fixed target experiments. The collaborations got the biggest charm quark sample at the time. Bread and butter stuff for particle physics.
Astronomy was an afterthought for me. When I walked through the Sloan Digital Sky Survey installations at Fermilab, I just glanced through the glass windows wondering what was going on. I am a curious person, but every time I feel I should've been more curious.
Anyway, no use of crying over spilled milk.
The baby is here and is beautiful!
APOD Fermi's Gamma-Ray Sky
This all-sky map constructed from 3 months of LAT observations represents a deeper, better-resolved view of the gamma-ray sky than any previous space mission.
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read more | digg story
Apple's next-gen iPhone has video camera
Apple this year will finally introduce video recording capabilities on at least one of its upcoming iPhone models, AppleInsider has been told.
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read more | digg story
WSJ.com -
MEXICO CITY (Dow Jones)--Mexican state oil monopoly Petroleos Mexicanos said Friday it produced 2.68 million barrels a day of crude oil in the first two months of the year, down from 2.92 million barrels a day in the ...
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As the Public Simmers, Obama Lets Off Steam
The tornado of populist fury over executive bonuses forced President Obama to improvise as he worked to catch up with public opinion.
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Smart People Really Do Think Faster
The smarter the person, the faster nerve impulses zip around the brain, a UCLA study of brain scans finds. And this ability to think quickly apparently is inherited.....
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Anger Mismanagement
Congress should let Americans’ anger over A. I. G. bonuses run its course instead of attempting to manipulate it.
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Friday, March 20, 2009
House Passes Expansion of Programs for Service
The House voted to approve the largest expansion of government-sponsored service programs since the Kennedy administration.
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Mandatory Volunteerism Bill Has Been Passed, Ages 17 to 25
House passes National Service program with mandatory participation for everyone between 17 and 25 for no less than nine months and no more than two years except in case of a disaster, despite the fact that mandatory service without pay constitutes involuntary servitude and is in direct violation of the thirteenth amendment.
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The Great Shame
Sexual assault against women is the great shame of the U.S. armed forces, and there is no evidence that this ghastly problem is diminishing.
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Rage Redux: Changing Channels
Is the George W. Bush Presidential Center really the best possible use for excess cash at this particular point in history?
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read more | digg story
House Passes Mandatory National Service Bill
The House passed a bill yesterday which includes disturbing language indicating young people will be forced to undertake mandatory national service programs as fears about President Barack Obama’s promised “civilian national security force” intensify.
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Thursday, March 19, 2009
I Wouldn't Want to be a Quant Right Now.
Democrats are upset on "smart" financial geniuses that brought the country down. This debate in C-Span is a paradigm shift. What is next?
I have no idea.
All I see is a country in disarray. These scenes make me uneasy. Otherwise rational men talking non-sense. I don't like this.
I have no idea.
All I see is a country in disarray. These scenes make me uneasy. Otherwise rational men talking non-sense. I don't like this.
Signals
I cannot predict the future; but I can see if the atmospherics are eerie. I hereby state they are.
C-Span
This is great and free!
Charlie Rangel and all the other Populist will never have a chance like this in their lifetime.
Give them bread and circus, and maybe their tax money back. Hey AIG guys give me my money back!
Charlie Rangel and all the other Populist will never have a chance like this in their lifetime.
Give them bread and circus, and maybe their tax money back. Hey AIG guys give me my money back!
Lynk Labs awarded AC LED technology patent
This first patent of the company's pending portfolio covers a range of AC LED technology including devices, light engines, power supplies and lighting systems.
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No Return to Normal - James K. Galbraith
Galbraith offers a compelling argument on why the current economic crisis is comparable to the Great Depression, and requires radical governmental intervention of a similar proportion that the Obama administration has not yet confronted. In short, a response that will not be enacted through "bipartisan" support.
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House Passes Heavy Tax on Bonuses for Rescued Firms
Spurred by anger over A.I.G. bonuses, the House voted 328 to 93 to levy a 90 percent tax on any company accepting more than $5 billion in bailout money.
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Congress Has Spoken
I love American Populism. I remember William Jennings Bryan of Wizard of Oz fame (Cowardly Lion, now Barney Frank?).
There is something charming about how the common American man settles difficult problems, but just saying it is so.
Remember Ronald Reagan just say no, anti drug campaign?
Here we go again.
Give the money back, A.I.G. rascals!
Should we celebrate the 150 anniversary of Bryan's birthday next year? After all this year we are celebrating the 200 anniversary of Darwin's birth, and Bryant chose to fight Evolution in the Scopes Trial; (Inherit the Wind), at least a remake of that movie is in order.
From the NYT:
"But several executives at Wall Street banks said they were being unfairly caught up in a hasty response by Washington that would ultimately deliver a sharper blow to their companies than to A.I.G., which set off the furor. One bank executive said employees were coming into his office in tears."
Weird.
There is something charming about how the common American man settles difficult problems, but just saying it is so.
Remember Ronald Reagan just say no, anti drug campaign?
Here we go again.
Give the money back, A.I.G. rascals!
Should we celebrate the 150 anniversary of Bryan's birthday next year? After all this year we are celebrating the 200 anniversary of Darwin's birth, and Bryant chose to fight Evolution in the Scopes Trial; (Inherit the Wind), at least a remake of that movie is in order.
From the NYT:
"But several executives at Wall Street banks said they were being unfairly caught up in a hasty response by Washington that would ultimately deliver a sharper blow to their companies than to A.I.G., which set off the furor. One bank executive said employees were coming into his office in tears."
Weird.
Conversation About Economy Goes Into Late Night
President Obama held his own with Jay Leno, countering Mr. Leno’s thrusts about executive bonuses at A.I.G.
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Review Article
The “holy grail” is the imaging detection, and sub-
sequent spectroscopic study, of a terrestrial planet in
the habitable zone of a nearby star. Space-borne as-
trometry will provide a means of detecting and directly
measuring the masses and orbital configurations of ter-
restrial planets. One such mission on the near horizon
is the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM–Lite), which
will provide an astrometric precision of better than 1 μas
(Shao & Nemati 2008). Once Earth-like planets are iden-
tified, high-contrast imaging using techniques such as
adaptive optics and coronography can be brought to bear
to measure colors, and possibly even spectra, to search
for biosignatures. Ground-based imaging surveys are
making impressive strides, and planet searches are now
beginning with the NICI campaign (Artigau et al. 2008,
; Liu et al. 2009 in press) and in the near future with the
Giant Planet Imager (Macintosh et al. 2008), with the
goal of detecting Jupiters in wide orbits. The technology
developed for and proven by these surveys, and others
like them, will inform future imaging efforts from space,
such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder (Beichman et al.
2004).
In just 14 years conceptions of planets around other
stars have evolved from science fiction to a mature field
of scientific inquiry. The next decade holds much promise
as we progress toward the discoveries of solar systems like
our own around other stars.
John A. Johnson
sequent spectroscopic study, of a terrestrial planet in
the habitable zone of a nearby star. Space-borne as-
trometry will provide a means of detecting and directly
measuring the masses and orbital configurations of ter-
restrial planets. One such mission on the near horizon
is the Space Interferometry Mission (SIM–Lite), which
will provide an astrometric precision of better than 1 μas
(Shao & Nemati 2008). Once Earth-like planets are iden-
tified, high-contrast imaging using techniques such as
adaptive optics and coronography can be brought to bear
to measure colors, and possibly even spectra, to search
for biosignatures. Ground-based imaging surveys are
making impressive strides, and planet searches are now
beginning with the NICI campaign (Artigau et al. 2008,
; Liu et al. 2009 in press) and in the near future with the
Giant Planet Imager (Macintosh et al. 2008), with the
goal of detecting Jupiters in wide orbits. The technology
developed for and proven by these surveys, and others
like them, will inform future imaging efforts from space,
such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder (Beichman et al.
2004).
In just 14 years conceptions of planets around other
stars have evolved from science fiction to a mature field
of scientific inquiry. The next decade holds much promise
as we progress toward the discoveries of solar systems like
our own around other stars.
John A. Johnson
Guillermo González
This Astronomer discovered the correlation between metallicity and planet formation. Just because the discovery was probably guided by the idea that an intelligent process was involved in the creation of man, he has been victimised by the astronomical community.
Didn't we learn enough from the four hundred years old awful Galileo experience?
Didn't we learn enough from the four hundred years old awful Galileo experience?
Apple Sells 30 Million iPhone / iPod Touch Units Worldwide
Apple sells an astonishing number of iPhone/iPod Touch models since launch, leveraging the unit's abilities as a game platform to be reckoned with
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Wii Shipments tops SNES World Wide.. Wii to beat NES soon?
Wii shipments worldwide stand at roughly 50 million units through March 14, 2008. Nintendo only shipped 49.1 million Super Nintendo consoles in the 1990s.
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read more | digg story
TIME Launches First-Ever "Printed RSS Feed" Magazine
Thus far, personalized news has been limited to the Internet, but Time Inc. is bringing it to the printed word with mine, a five-issue, 10-week, experimental magazine that is essentially a printed rss feed.
read more | digg story
read more | digg story
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Congressmen and Congressladies vs. Mr. Liddy
This C-Span show was free!
This guy was bludgered and a bunch of us were watching. This is a modern version of sending a man to the lions for the masses entertainment.
He only gets one dollar a year. What was he thinking when he accepted this job?
He convinced me that those bonuses were well spent, their employees saved the company money even though the whole risk section of the company is kaput.
Nevertheless I do believe the whole A.I.G. mess is going to explode in our faces, and then I do want some of my tax money back from those bonuses.
Hope is that last thing that dies.
This guy was bludgered and a bunch of us were watching. This is a modern version of sending a man to the lions for the masses entertainment.
He only gets one dollar a year. What was he thinking when he accepted this job?
He convinced me that those bonuses were well spent, their employees saved the company money even though the whole risk section of the company is kaput.
Nevertheless I do believe the whole A.I.G. mess is going to explode in our faces, and then I do want some of my tax money back from those bonuses.
Hope is that last thing that dies.
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