AMLO according Fidel Castro

Taken from: Granma 

``"Today, March 9, 2009, here in Tamazula, Durango, where Guadalupe Victoria, the first president of Mexico was born, I end my tour of the 2,038 municipalities of the party regime existing in the country. Now, all that I am missing are the 418 indigenous municipalities, in terms of habits and customs, of the state of Oaxaca, which I will visit in the last quarter of this year."


"Over 430 days we covered 148,173 kilometers of paved and dirt roads, to reach the most isolated towns of Mexico."


"The lack of infrastructures and basic services in the municipalities is notorious. Of the 2,038 that I visited, 108 do not have paved roads in their administrative centers. The most backward state in this aspect Oaxaca; of its 152 party regime municipalities, 36 are unpaved. It is followed by Puebla with 15; there and in the region of the Guerrero mountain, I not only confirmed the bad state of the roads; I saw that the new ones, that are just barely being built, are of such poor quality that within 12 months at most they will revert to dirt roads." 


"It is illogical that so much Coca-Cola or its equivalent is consumed…"


"I believe that this consumption of soda, calculated at one million liters per day, is fundamentally due to publicity and has become, in certain regions, a status symbol."


"It is indispensable to eliminate the current political economy which has not even produced results in quantitative terms. Mexico is one of the countries of the world with the lowest growth in the last few years."


"It is necessary to change the way of doing politics. This noble profession has been completely perverted. Today, politics is synonymous with deceit, elite arrangements and corruption. Legislators, leaders and public officials are removed from the sentiments of the people; the idea prevails that politics is a thing of politicians and not a concern of everyone."

"The transformation that the country needs must not only propose to achieve economic growth, democracy, development and wellbeing. It also, and above all, implies crystallizing a new current of thought sustained on the culture of our people, on their vocation for work and on their immense generosity; adding values such as tolerance, respect for diversity and environmental protection."


In March 2009, I concluded my tour of the 2,038 municipalities of the country’s party regime, for that reason I drafted a text called ‘‘El país desde abajo: apuntes de mi gira por México’ (The Country from Below: Notes of my Tour of Mexico). On November 20 I completed my visit to the 418 indigenous municipalities in habits and customs of the state of Oaxaca."


"The people of Oaxaca have survived because of their culture. Their mystique of work, their talent and their strong family and community relations emanate from that culture. Their link with the land helps them to maintain an economy of self-sufficiency in food, based on the production of corn, beans and farmyard poultry, as well as coffee cultivation, making use of forests, weaving mats and hats, handicrafts and other activities. In the country’s cities, in the agricultural areas of the north and abroad, their creativity and their workforce are highly appreciated. In the United States, the Mixteca peoples have really earned their reputation of being among the best workers in the world."


"Due to government neglect, Oaxaca is the state with the greatest poverty and marginalization in the country. And in these times they are feeling that more. Let us begin on the basis that people have three fundamental sources for sustaining themselves: an economy of self-sufficiency in food, government support and the money derived from emigration. In the first case, the principal cultivation is that of corn. This blessed plant is what ensures that they do not lack basic foods, among others, tortillas complemented with beans, chili, nopal, and which makes it possible to alleviate hunger. However, in 2009, given a delayed rainy season, the harvests were lost and they have had to buy corn."


"Finally, the third source of income is made up of remittances, which have fallen by approximately 18% in 2009, due to the economic crisis in the United States and in our country. In 2008, Oaxaca received $1.456 billion and in 2009 it is estimated that barely $1.194 billion was obtained."


"It broke my heart to see grown men crying while telling me of the difficult situation that they are enduring and the abandonment in which they find themselves."


"In terms of health, neglect is also a constant. There are municipalities without a doctor and although there are first-rate clinics in the administrative centers, the doctors there only work Monday through Friday and there is a shortage of medicines everywhere."


"In terms of education, despite the effort of pupils and teachers, the decline is apparent. The schools are neglected, with roofs in bad condition, they lack chalkboards, desks and chairs, there are classrooms built with flimsy materials. And most lamentable is that many children and adolescents walk for up to two hours to attend school and almost all of them arrive without having breakfasted."


"In the personal context I have been painted as messianic and a lunatic. Here, I am opening a parenthesis to say that I recently took part in a series of conferences at Mexico City College and the historian Lorenzo Mayer asked me if I had thought of doing something to counteract the attacks on my person, because if in 2006 I was associated with Chávez, whom I do not know, it wasn’t too ridiculous to think that, looking toward the presidential elections of 2012, they would even reach the point of comparing me with Osama Bin Laden."


"The campaign against us has gone so far that many have taken as read rumors that I have a lot of money and luxury residences in the country and abroad. Some people, blinded by their right wing position, and others, totally manipulated, cannot accept that I am not corrupt and that I am fighting for ideals and principles, for me the most important thing in my life."


"However, it is a motive of pride that, in spite of their attempts to destroy us, they have not succeeded nor will they do so. Not only because we have moral authority, but because we, the women and men taking part in this fight, profess a profound love for our compatriots and, beyond treachery and in the face of all kinds of adversity, we maintain the firm conviction of constructing a more just, more humane and more egalitarian society."''

Translation by Granma of Fidel Castro's quotes of Andrés Manuel López Obrador's book:  “The Mafia that Took Possession of Mexico… and 2012,” 

Fidel Castro adds these opinions: 

1. He does not mention the fact that a colossal drug market has been created in the United States and that its military industry supplies the most sophisticated weapons, which have converted Mexico into the first victim of a bloody war in which more than 5,000 young Mexicans are dying every year. Although I understand that a man who is incessantly touring the most isolated municipalities of the country could not tackle that matter. However, for my part, I consider it a duty to remind the Mexican people that this problem is added to the facts noted in López Obrador’s courageous condemnation. 


2. Neither does he put on record the fact that climate change has become a colossal danger to the survival of the species, that it is in fact already creating extremely grave problems like the one that Russia is currently suffering, where  the number of victims of heat and smoke from the fires it is provoking in the forests and peat bogs, has more than doubled the number of people requiring funeral services in Moscow and other cities. Mexico is precisely the country where the future Climate Change Summit and many other activities related to it will take place.


3. He omits any reference to the imminent risk of a nuclear war, which could make our species disappear. However, it is fair to note that on May 24, 2010, when López Obrador completed his book, the United Nations Security Council had not adopted Resolution 1929 of June 9, 2010, ordering the inspection of Iranian merchant ships and creating a situation from which it can no longer escape.


Nevertheless, López Obrador will be the person with the greatest moral and political authority in Mexico when the system collapses and, with it, the empire. His contribution to the battle to avert President Obama unleashing that war will be of great value.


I shall continue tomorrow.

Fidel Castro Ruz
August 11, 2010
9:53 p.m.

 

$600 Million For More Measures Which Do NOT Work

``''Our borders are just too vast for us to be able to solve the problem only with fences and border patrols,'' the president said then. ''It won't work.''''

From NYT.

Obama, you are President of all Americans. There are several million Mexican Americans now; by 2050 the predictions are for 29% Hispanics. Do you have any Latino advisors?

I am disappointed.

Size of Cells

``0.1 nm (nanometer) diameter of a hydrogen atom
0.8 nm Amino Acid
2 nm Diameter of a DNA Alpha helix
4 nm Globular Protein
6 nm microfilaments
10 nm thickness cell membranes
11 nm Ribosome
25 nm Microtubule
50 nm Nuclear pore
100 nm Large Virus
150-250 nm small bacteria such as Mycoplasma
200 nm Centriole
200 nm (200 to 500 nm) Lysosomes
200 nm (200 to 500 nm) Peroxisomes
800 nm giant virus Mimivirus
1 µm (micrometer)
(1 - 10 µm) the general sizes for Prokaryotes
1 µm Diameter of human nerve cell process
2 µm E.coli - a bacterium
3 µm Mitochondrion
5 µm length of chloroplast
6 µm (3 - 10 micrometers) the Nucleus
9 µm Human red blood cell
10 µm
(10 - 30 µm) Most Eukaryotic animal cells
(10 - 100 µm) Most Eukaryotic plant cells
90 µm small Amoeba
100 µm Human Egg
up to 160 µm Megakaryocyte
up to 500 µm giant bacterium Thiomargarita
up to 800 µm large Amoeba
1 mm (1 millimeter, 1/10th cm)
1 mm Diameter of the squid giant nerve cell
up to 40mm Diameter of giant amoeba Gromia Sphaerica
120 mm Diameter of an ostrich egg (a dinosaur egg was much larger)
3 meters Length of a nerve cell of giraffe's neck''

Taken from Wikibooks.

Cells, Life, and few Microns

If you watch Dr. Pollack talk at the University of Washington, you'll find out that water may have the property to develop a thin layer of a phase, which is not solid, liquid, nor gaseous.

Dr. Gilbert N. Ling believes cell physiology depends on precisely those properties of water.

My point in this note is that the sizes are right.

One cell is a few $\mu$ms in size, the water layer is around that size also, the electromagnetic radiation that may pump the system is that size also.

Interesting.

Can the US Win?

``THE DEADLINE President Obama was intentionally vague last December when he said that American troops would begin to transfer out of Afghanistan by July 2011. At the time, we agreed that a deadline, so long as it was not set in stone, made sense. Americans need to know this war will not go on forever. Mr. Karzai needs to know that American protection is not open-ended. American generals and diplomats need to know that their work is being closely reviewed.''

From the NYT.

The US has stayed in Korea for over sixty years now. Is it possible to stay in Afghanistan that long?

I don't think so, but I'll be dead by then.

Humans :-(

``“Of course,” he added. “They would be easier to put out if we had not drained the swamps.”''

Taken from NYT.

Peat Fires: First you take the water out, then you wait almost a hundred years, then Moscow is under a cloud of smoke: Oops!

Liberal American Intellectual

``What’s going on here? Has Mr. Bernanke been intellectually assimilated by the Fed Borg? I prefer to believe that he’s being political, unwilling to engage in open confrontation with other Fed officials — especially those regional Fed presidents who fear inflation, even with deflation the clear and present danger, and are evidently unmoved by the plight of the unemployed.''

``But whatever the reasons, the fact is that the Fed — which is required by statute to promote “maximum employment” — isn’t doing its job. Instead, like the rest of Washington, it’s inventing reasons to dither in the face of mass unemployment. And while the Fed sits there in its self-inflicted paralysis, millions of Americans are losing their jobs, their homes and their hopes for the future.''

From Paul Krugman.

I wish we had more of those.

Most American university professors are so lame!

Open Source Science?

``“It was unbelievable,” said Dr. John Q. Trojanowski, an Alzheimer’s researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. “It’s not science the way most of us have practiced it in our careers. But we all realized that we would never get biomarkers unless all of us parked our egos and intellectual-property noses outside the door and agreed that all of our data would be public immediately.”''

``Companies as well as academic researchers are using the data. There have been more than 3,200 downloads of the entire massive data set and almost a million downloads of the data sets containing images from brain scans.

And Dr. Buckholtz says he is pleasantly surprised by the way things are turning out.

“We weren’t sure, frankly, how it would work out having data available to everyone,” he said. “But we felt that the good that could come out of it was overwhelming. And that’s what’s happened.”''


Taken from NYT.

This should be taken as proof that Science can be used better without the profit motive.

Taxpayers paid for the studies already, why should a few companies profit?

Maya Burial Exhibit in Mexico

Taken from La Jornada.

147 burial pieces from 4 places collected during 30 years on exhibit in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.

New State of Water?

``Scientists are now discovering that the top five-hundredth-inch of the ocean is somewhat like a sheet of jelly. And this odd habitat, thinner than a human hair, is home to an unusual menagerie of microbes. “It’s really a distinct ecosystem of its own,” said Oliver Wurl, of Canada’s Institute of Ocean Sciences.''

``This so-called sea-surface microlayer is important, scientists say, in part because it influences the chemistry of the ocean and the atmosphere. “One of the most significant things that happens on our planet is the transport of gases in and out of the ocean,” said Michael Cunliffe, a marine biologist at the University of Warwick in England. The ocean stores a large fraction of the global-warming gases we produce; at the microlayer, the gases are pulled down.''

From NYT.

Prof. Pollack of the Bioengineering Dept. at the University of Washington, has been studying the properties of water. Mainly the existence of a liquid crystal phase. Dr. Ling, also tries to change cell physiology with the Association Induction Hypothesis.

Colloid Physics is involved, jelly like stuff. In Spanish we call ``cola de pegar'' to an adhesive, or glue.

Curioser, and curioser.

Anthony di Fabio on Gilbert N. Ling's Side

This Medical Doctor of the Arthritis Trust of America reviews a book by Dr. Ling in positive terms.

I guess when one is a maverick, all kinds of alternative people join one's cause.

Read his review here.

Some time ago I was following Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich's campaign. Imagine a Department of Peace, that would be great. He wanted to be President; he lost.

I like him, but there were some strange characters in his entourage. I guess it comes with the territory.

Be it as it may; if Ling is right, we will all know some day.

War on Cancer and War on Drugs

According to Gilbert N. Ling the first War does not have a good scientific foundation to support it. According to Luis Hernández Navarro, the second one is really a War on the Mexican people. The ex-president of Mexico, Vicente Fox has been expressing his doubts about continuing the War on Drugs.

What about War on Terror?

Relevant Basic Science

I am reading on Dr. Gilbert N. Ling, on his page you can read:

``Science, the priceless heritage from the West, has made many human lives longer, richer and happier. Yet, as it stands today, Science can at best ameliorate but it cannot cure cancer, AIDS and other deadly diseases. The reason is simple. Research at the most fundamental cell-physiology level has been misguided from the start. Efforts to steer the cell-physiology research to a validated new direction met first with enthusiasm and some criticisms---in time all answered. Then criticisms gave way to contentious acts of less and less honorable kind. The assault nearly annihilated the reformers, but not before the new approach had given rise to what some believe to be the medical technological breakthrough of the century: MRI. This document shows how the pervasive peer review system---which decides on everything--- has drastically suppressed research and progress in cell-physiology and why if the stranglehold of repressive practices in this basic science is not broken, Mankind may lose the chance of curing cancer and AIDS in the foreseeable future, and of reaping the even greater rewards ---including possibly Mankind's own survival---from understanding the (only) remaining major domain of relevant basic science.''

These are strong words; I hope Dr. Ling knows what is he talking about.

Kazimierz Kuratowski

At Escuela Superior de Ingeniería Mecánica y Eléctrica (ESIME), the premier mechanical and electrical engineering school in Mexico; I took a Calculus course. The textbook was: Introduction to Calculus, by Kazimierz Kuratowski, which you can freely download from the link above.

From the Wikipedia note on him, one reads that the ``identification of the ordered pair (x,y) with the set {{x},{x,y}};'' was one of his contributions.

When I learned this in my Mathematical Analysis class, I was not told who the author of the idea was, but I was impressed by the depth of the concept.

Now that I am reading Karl Menger's calculus book, I am impressed by how much notation affects our perception of mathematics. Kuratowski was successful, where Menger wasn't; even though his notation is well thought, maybe too very well thought, he did not convince his peers around the world to accept it.

I believe that his care is very much needed, both to teach new students, and to write mathematics for computer processing.

Notation may not be all; but definitely it is the beginning.

Violence Circa 2010

Anderson Cooper interviewed a man that thinks that terrorists will send pregnant mothers to breed American born terrorists.

As Howard Fineman writes:

``The foremost example is immigration. No longer content merely to advocate for the arrest and deportation of “illegals” (see: Arizona), conservative cooks in the constitutional meth lab have concocted a much stronger intoxicant: rewriting the 14th Amendment to get rid of “birthright” citizenship (never mind that enacting the 14th Amendment during Reconstruction is something the GOP brags about on its Web site). The plan feeds straight into the cortex of Tea Party constituents: amending the amendment would end a supposed wave of “anchor babies” born to mothers who fly to the U.S. like malevolent storks to inject aliens into our bloodstream.''

Taken from Newsweek.

Here in Mexico, Jose de Molina, whose songs I posted below, also sang about Latin American mothers to birth guerrila fighters.

With hundreds of millions of people making less than a dollar a day, and powerful weapons costing no more than fifty bucks; I see trouble ahead.

We may go through one of those evolutionary bottleneck tests in less than two hundred years. Stephen Hawking is advising humanity to flee Earth.

I agree, it seems that a hard rain's a gonna fall:

Perseid Shower Tonight: Weather Permitting.

Every year in August towards the Perseus constellation you can see this meteor show; Perseids.


IYA-2009

View of Perseid meteor radiant point, above NE horizon after midnight

Deflation is Here

Well Dr. Krugman, they didn't listen to you.

``The Fed’s statement on Tuesday avoided the words deflation and double dip recession. But the markets heard them, still, because the Fed’s efforts alone are unlikely to steer the nation clear of those dangers.''

From NYT.

Dr. Ignacio Reisin

``(5) The bulk phase-limited diffusion and desorption kinetics is compatible with recent evidence indicating that the cell water is in a different physical state than in free solution.''

Taken from Reisin et al.

This 1973 article already presents the idea of a water phase, different than solid, liquid, and gas.

Maybe because Dr. Reisin is Argentinean, he was willing to go there. This is a revolutionary statement. A new state of water inside the living cell!

Now Dr. Pollock at the University of Washington is proposing a liquid crystal state of water.

I just found out about Pollock's work through a friend of mine: Milo Gardner.

Unbelievable!

Economic and Weather Prediction

I have written about the character of complex systems, and why scientists can give us only two weeks, for rain forecast.

Indonesia is under a deluge, I do not know when that is going to stop. It has been raining in Acapulco; same story. I am the last person you can ask. A 16 year old girl just died in Iowa in the flood. My son is going there next week. I am useless, I do not know how is he going to fare for four years in Iowa City.

From Mexico we have:

``Morelia, Mich. Un menor de 12 años muerto, inundaciones en al menos una decena de colonias y más de mil damnificados dejó el desbordamiento de cuatro arroyos en el municipio de Huetamo.''

Morelia, Michoacán. A 12 year old boy dies during floods in around ten neighborhoods and more than a thousand people were affected by four overflowed creeks in Huetamo county. 

Paul Krugman, with a Nobel and all, did not tell us that today the Dow was going to be underwater.

Because of this, a lot of smooth lawyers for coal, and oil companies, laugh at us thinking persons, and say. Nobody knows, give me your money; ha, ha.

There are things we do know.

Insurance companies are ready, and so is the Pentagon.

All the rest of us can do, is monitor people's worries; I for one, see the American middle class disappearing. Unemployment is  9.5% in the whole US.

Economic activity is slowing down everywhere.

From the Iowa link above:

``It wasn't just 6 inches last night. It was the 6 inches, plus the 4 inches we got the night before, and the 5 inches we got the night before that. We have been getting dumped on for the last month, but the past few nights have been total Hell! Many people who've never had water in their basement are getting sewer back ups into their basements.''

As I was reminded today, though:

``Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.

Golda Meir''

Controversial Views

After  some of the things I have posted here, you may find my concern silly. But here it goes. I am reading some physiology articles to understand why Dr. Gilbert N. Ling, had been disdained for so long. Reading a paper on the effect of Ba⁺⁺ on Channels by Miller at al.,  I read that they used a computer in 1987 to do what seem to be tedious experimental procedures.

I am reading Dr. Ling book: ``A Revolution in the Physiology of the Living Cell.''

He acknowledges the help of many women. The controversial view I want to express here is that when he did the experiments, there were not many PCs to do these tedious tasks. Or if there were, the book was published in 1991, physiologists didn't know how to program computers to do their bidding; therefore they went to the next available cheap labor: Women.

I hope I am wrong.

-265.42 Dow Industrials

Taken from NYT.

If I had a way to predict these swings, then I would be a millionaire!

Edith Piaf and Inception

Now Edith Piaf and Inception is getting to all time winner. Here I do not have an explanation as people wanting to see their name online, as I used for the Pascua Lama protest document. Edith Piaf was a great lady, liked all over the world; and Inception is a good movie; finally and more important for me there is Relevant Science in that post.

Dolores Huerta: Get the Rascals Out!

That is the spirit m'am!

DN!

ISPs and Libraries

Challengers to US government actions on the American people ``justified'' by the Al-Qaeda attack on September 11, 2001; are courageous.

Do we lose rights if attacked by Al-Qaeda?

I watched DN! today.

Rights and obligations are abstract social constructs. If you do not have the money to fight government wrongs on you, you do not have the purported right.

All humans have the right to water since a few days ago, due to an UN resolution; nevertheless if you do not have money for your water bill, then you do not have that right.

Good for DN! staff's courage. Most of us cannot fight government actions against us. Some ISPs owners and librarians are valiant and challenged the US government.

I always liked librarians. Now I do even more.

First and Fourth Amendments  of the Constitution exist only if people request redress to wrongs against them.

Gagged for 6 Years!

José de Molina

Read about him in Spanish.

Raymond Damadian

``By NICHOLAS WADE

Published: October 11,2003

An inventor who feels he was unfairly excluded has mounted an unusual and vigorous protest against the award this year of the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

The inventor, Dr. Raymond V. Damadian, president of the Fonar Corporation in Melville, N.Y., took a first step toward the development of M.R.I., or magnetic resonance imaging, a now widespread medical technique for imaging the body without the use of radiation. But the Nobel Prize in Medicine was given this week to two others, Dr. Paul C. Lauterbur of the University of Illinois and Sir Peter Mansfield of the University of Nottingham in England.

The Nobel Prize committee committed ''a shameful wrong that must be righted,'' according to a full-page advertisement taken out in this newspaper yesterday by the Fonar Corporation. A similar ad appeared earlier in The Washington Post. Ads of this size in The New York Times generally cost around $100,000, and in the Post about $80,000.

Dr. Damadian holds a basic patent on the technique, which was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1997, and which the General Electric Company was ordered to pay $129 million for infringing, Dr. Damadian said in an interview. He has also received the National Medal of Technology and an award for inventors, the Lemelson Prize from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He said he would have been willing to share the prize but felt it was unfair to have been excluded, especially because historians and textbook writers tend to follow the Nobel committees' verdicts. ''I have hoped for 30 years of my life for some moment of vindication,'' Dr. Damadian said. ''To wake up on Monday morning and see that I had been written out of history is an agony I cannot live with.''

Dr. Hans Ringertz, the chairman of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, which awards the prize established by Alfred Nobel's will, said the Swedish assembly stood by its decision. ''We have had world experts evaluating this issue for years and this has been our final conclusion,'' Dr. Ringertz said.

The issue has been the subject of a dispute between Dr. Damadian and Dr. Lauterbur and has been known for years in academic circles, with some fearing that the Nobel committee would steer clear of magnetic resonance imaging altogether because of the Swedes' supposed distaste for controversial discoveries.

Dr. Lauterbur, 74, is not in good health, and the committee may have decided that its prize, which cannot be given posthumously, needed to be awarded for the discovery now or never.

The prestigious awards are disputed with some regularity, notably when those who have made acknowledged contributions to a discovery find their names are not included in the three-winner maximum allowed by Nobel's will

The M.R.I. case is unusual because the omission of Dr. Damadian, when there were only two winners, is seen by him and others as a pointed oversight. Also, his contribution, though one in a series of advances required to make M.R.I. machines a reality, has been widely acknowledged outside of the academic community.

In the academic community, including the circles whose advice probably reached the Nobel committee, some experts believe that the conceptual work required to make the discovery a practical reality was undertaken by Dr. Lauterbur and others, and that Dr. Damadian's contribution was less significant.

It is also the case that Dr. Damadian, who sees himself as an outsider, has sometimes flouted the behavioral norms of the scientific community, as when he held a news conference in 1977 at which he announced his new M.R.I. machine could detect cancer anywhere in the human body. Even today, M.R.I. machines are usually used to delineate cancers detected by other means.

It took a series of steps to make the machines practical. Essentially, Dr. Damadian and his supporters, backed by the patent courts, view the first of those steps, which he took, as being of critical importance, a view not shared by the Nobel committee and many academic experts.

''If you could take a poll of the research community, they would come out very seriously in agreement with the Nobel committee,'' said Dr. Charles Springer, an M.R.I. expert at the Oregon Health and Science University.

Dr. Damadian ''made an important observation that set people thinking about moving N.M.R. to medicine,'' Dr. Springer said, referring to nuclear magnetic resonance, the basic technique that underlies M.R.I. machines. Until 1970, the technique had been used only by chemists and physicists.

Dr. Damadian's idea was to look at N.M.R. signals from excised lumps of tissue to see if they were cancerous. But it was Dr. Lauterbur, Dr. Springer said, who showed how to use the signal to generate an image of the body.
Photo: Dr. Raymond V. Damadian said he was unfairly excluded. (Photo by Dan Neville for The New York Times)''

Taken from NYT. 

Here is Nicholas Wade piece on the MRI Nobel.

Inland Empire of the North

Lollapalooza Goes Gaga

Heat in Moscow

``Those who remain in the city of 10.5m people were being urged to wear face masks if they ventured outdoors, and to hang wet towels indoors to attract dust and cool the airflow.''

From BBC.

No single event proves Climate Change. A series of events, over many years already, have me worried.

In the summer of 1982 I was in Cambridge, Massachusetts. People were telling me it was hotter than usual. That winter wasn't that cold. That was good for a tropical person like me.

I guess thirty years count as a long time trend.

Itati and Roberto Cantoral

Russia's Troubles

``MOSCOW — As if things in Russia were not looking sufficiently apocalyptic already, with 100-degree temperatures and noxious fumes rolling in from burning peat bogs and forests, there is growing alarm here that fires in regions coated with fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster 24 years ago could now be emitting plumes of radioactive smoke.''

Taken from NYT.

Stephen Hawking recently told an audience to flee Earth in less than 200 years. I wonder if he has to change his estimates now.

UNAM Stars Take Vacations in Europe

My sister and brother in law are coming back from their Summer vacation in Europe. Today reading La Jornada, a Mexican newspaper some people could call a UNAM newspaper, at least their online edition, has an article by another UNAM star, René Drucker Colín.

Good for them, they've earned it.

I am a UAGro star, maybe without tenure, but that is entirely my fault.

I just seize this opportunity to write a little anecdote.

Last time I went to Chicago, he was in the plane, not my brother in law, but Prof. Colín. We don't know each other socially, so even though he was taking a seat one row ahead of me, we didn't engage in conversation.

The anecdote is that when we were entering O'Hare International Airport immigration booth; there was a big line in the non-resident section, and I was surprised to see him go in my line. I do have a green card. He mentioned something to the immigration officer to the effect that the person with him had a right to be in that line, I think. He did get through.

UNAM stars shine everywhere, good for them.

Roberto Cantoral RIP

My father also dyed his hair when he was an older man, maybe a family trait.

Taken from SACM.

This great Mexican composer passed away Sunday at dawn, just like my father almost 29 years ago. I will be careful early on Sundays. My mother also died early on Sunday April 11, 2010.

You can read the Wikipedia page on him.

My father told us that they could have been related. We don't know each other as family, and I do not really know the connection.

In any case I grew up listening my mother singing ``El Reloj'', and later I enjoyed listening to José José singing: ``El Triste.''

Rest in peace Roberto Cantoral.

Wozniak in Mexico

Origin of Life: Pollack, Figueroa, and Zhao

``This paper explores the mechanism of accumulation of molecules into the condensed state. The focus is on the forces responsible for driving condensation, and the energy source underlying those forces. Recent work has provided fresh clues which derive primarily from the recently revealed nature of interfacial water, i.e., water adjacent to hydrophilic surfaces. Such water turns out to have features remarkably different from bulk water, and these features appear to underlie the attraction and repulsion of substances. Oppositely charged substances are attracted naturally; but the above-mentioned features go on to explain why even like-charged substances are attracted to one another to form condensed coascervates — thereby permitting multiple repeats of the same molecule to condense into a proto-cell.''

Taken from Int. J. Mol. Sci.

Lame NYT Editorial

``There is no one way to foster job growth. There are many ways, and they should all be deployed. Maybe after Congress gets back from vacation.''

Taken from NYT.

If they have not done anything so far, why vacation will change that?

Patricia Neal (January 20, 1926–August 8, 2010)

Above, acting with Gary Cooper in the 1949 film “The Fountainhead.” 

``Patsy Lou Neal was born in the coal mining town of Packard, Ky., on Jan. 20, 1926, to a mine manager for the Southern Coke and Coal Company and the daughter of the town doctor. Ms. Neal was raised in Knoxville, Tenn. At 10, she attended an evening of monologues in the basement of the Methodist church and wrote a note to Santa Claus: “What I want for Christmas is to study dramatics.” By the time she entered high school, Patsy Neal was giving monologues at every Knoxville social club and had won the Tennessee State Award for dramatic reading.

In 1942, the summer before her senior year, she was chosen to apprentice at the prestigious Barter Theatre in Virginia. After two years as a drama major at Northwestern University, Ms. Neal learned that the Theatre Guild needed a tall girl to play the lead in Eugene O’Neill’s “A Moon for the Misbegotten” and headed for New York. Alfred de Liagre, the producer of “Voice of the Turtle,” gave her a job understudying the two female leads and insisted that his patrician-looking new actress should call herself Patricia.

Success came quickly and easily. Ms. Neal replaced Vivian Vance in the road company of “Voice of the Turtle” and she had fourth billing in “Bigger than Barnum,” a Broadway-bound play that closed in Boston. When she played a backwoods girl who allies herself with the devil in “Devil Takes a Whittler” in summer stock in Westport, Conn, she was seen by everybody — including Eugene O’Neill, who became her mentor, and the Broadway theater community. In less than 24 hours, she had two offers to star on Broadway .. Ms. Neal turned down Richard Rodgers’ offer of the lead in “John Loves Mary” for “Another Part of the Forest.”

During her affair with Cooper, she became pregnant. She had an abortion and according to her 1988 autobiography, “As I Am,” she cried herself to sleep for 30 years afterward. “If I had only one thing to do over in my life,” she wrote, “I would have that baby.”Desperate to have children, she married Mr. Dahl even though, she wrote in her autobiography, she did not then love him. A complex and authoritarian former RAF fighter pilot who later became a renowned writer of edgy children’s books (”James and the Giant Peach,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”), Mr. Dahl took control of Ms. Neal’s life. After son, Theo, was left brain-damaged when his pram was crushed between a taxicab and a bus on a New York street in December 1960, Mr. Dahl decided that they would move permanently to the village of Great Missenden in England. Two years later, their eldest daughter, Olivia, died of measles encephalitis, perhaps for want of sophisticated medical care that would have been available in a big city.. Ms. Neal survived the brain hemorrhages because of the knowledge Mr. Dahl had acquired during the years when Theo had eight brain operations. After the shunt that drained fluid from Theo’s brain kept clogging, Mr. Dahl worked for two years with a retired engineer and a neurosurgeon to design and manufacture a better one, the Wade-Dahl-Till valve.''

Taken from NYT.

Are These Clowns Running America?

``When Carly Fiorina, Mr. Hurd’s flashy predecessor, began the contentious acquisition of the PC maker Compaq Computer, some veterans argued it would put an end to H.P.’s culture. Ms. Fiorina went on to preside over years of inconsistent financial performance and large layoffs.''

Taken from NYT.

Ms. Fiorina wants to run California with Meg Whitman, when she couldn't even keep me gainfully employed at Lucent Technologies in 2001!

``According to his peers, Mr. Hurd has set a high bar for any successor. “He has done such a brilliant job at H.P.,” wrote Lawrence J. Ellison, the chief executive of H.P.’s partner and rival Oracle, in an e-mail. “He will be very hard to replace.”''

Is Larry (Ellison) joking? I'm too dense to understand in jokes by these clowns.

Something on Fiorina.

Update on Hurd.

Hurd is hired by Larry!

``On August 9, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, in a letter, slammed HP's decision to oust Hurd, his close friend, calling the actions of HP's board "cowardly. ''

Update

``But Oracle had some well chosen words. “By filing this vindictive lawsuit against Oracle and Mark Hurd, the H.P. board is acting with utter disregard for that partnership, our joint customers, and their own shareholders and employees,” Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle’s chief executive, said in a statement. “The H.P. board is making it virtually impossible for Oracle and H.P. to continue to cooperate and work together in the I.T. marketplace.” Historically, H.P. and Oracle have been among the closest partners in Silicon Valley. H.P. sells billions of dollars a year of servers that run Oracle’s database software. ''

``Mr. Ellison joined in the dispute early on, offering his support for Mr. Hurd and criticism of H.P.’s board last month in an e-mail message to The New York Times. Mr. Ellison chided H.P.’s board for making “the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.” ''

Clowns saga: NYT.

September 13, 2010

Now Bribes

NYT

September 21, 2010

Settlement

NYT

``“In losing Mark Hurd, the H.P. board failed to act in the best interest of H.P.’s employees, shareholders, customers and partners,” Mr. Ellison wrote. ''

Somehow I do not believe Mr. Hurd is that good, nor Mr. Ellison. I am a simple math professor, I guess these two gentlemen won't be hurt by my opinion.

 NYT

Who pays for these clowns to run?

What Makes Living Cells Living?

``Gilbert N. Ling

Damadian Foundation of Basic and Cancer Research FONAR Corporation

110 Marcus Drive
Melville, NY 11747-4292
March 15, 1989

A Physical Theory, of the Living State was written in 1957-1961 at the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, Philadelphia. Chapter 8 of the book describes research I conducted in the preceding five years; the results unequivocally disprove the traditional membrane-pump theory. Neither the experiments nor the conclusion have been disputed in print since their publication; the essence of the conclusion has been twice confirmed. Other chapters present the association- induction (Al) hypothesis, a first of- its-kind, coherent, and comprehensive theory of the living cell. The disproof of the membrane-pump theory and the development of the Al hypothesis prompted me to write the volume.

In the 27 years following 1962, three types of advances have been made: (1) further development of the theory (for example, the subsidiary polarized multilayer theory of cell water was introduced in 1965); (2) verification of the theory on inanimate models that satisfy the criteria that, according to the theory, underlie the physiological manifestation of their living counterpart (3) worldwide testing of the predictions of the Al hypothesis (and the membrane- pump theory). The results have been overwhelmingly in favor of the AI hypothesis.

In the last 10 years, I have written two more books: In Search of the Physical Basis of Life was published in 1984.’ A Revolution in the Physiology of the Living Cell will soon follow; though much shorter, it documents the completion of a scientific revolution.

These dramatic developments elicited enthusiastic endorsements as well as intense hostility, neither unexpected. However, the universal adoption of the peer review system has “thrown a monkey wrench” into the delicate balance between the old and the new in the renewal phase of biomedical science. Thus, my scientific opponents, unable to challenge the validity of my scientific positions by normal means, were nevertheless given the absolute power to decide whether or not my research (and others’ like mine) should receive continued support from public funds administered by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Based on their recommendation, NIH officials withdrew all my research support, forcing the closing of my laboratory on October 30, 1988.

However, a valid theory cannot be suppressed for long. For, among other reasons, such a theory generates useful products. Here the useful product magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. It was MRI that has provided one essential element that had made possible the preservation of my laboratory and what it stood for. Thus, my laboratory, forcibly closed in Philadelphia, has reopened in Melville, with the prospect that it will grow into a major Bell Laboratories type of research institution. The second, more important element that has made all this possible is, of course, Dr. Raymond Damadian.

According to Damadian, the inventor and patent holder of MRI, his invention of MRI “originated in the modern concepts of salt-water biophysics (introduced by the association-induction hypothesis.” (AI).

For his contributions, Damadian has received the nation’s highest honor for scientists and technologists, the National Science and Technological Award, from President Ronald Reagan on July 15, 1988. He was also inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame on February 12, 1989, sharing the honor with such legendary inventors as Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. I must add in gratitude that my survival as a scientist is an expression of his high mindedness.,

MRI illustrates the creative development from the associative aspect of.the Al hypothesis. The inductive aspect of the Al hypothesis may also benefit mankind, by opening-the door to the creation of a rational drug therapy. Such a rational drug therapy will one day enable us to cure cancer and other “incurable” diseases, as easily as a skilled auto mechanic repairs a stalled automobile.''


Taken from``This Week's Citation Classic.''

Dr. Gilbert N. Ling

It seems that this man has been misunderstood by senior scientists, harming human knowledge.

From Dr. Ling Web site:

``Thus a theory... long ago disproved scientifically, was made as if still tenable by the practice of large scale, open "cooking" ("retaining only those results that fit the theory and discarding others" ) ..had been steadily and generously supported for years and years to this date by the regular Physiology Study Section, whereas the alternative theory, extensively supports by world-wide testing for the past thirty years, ....has been denied support by the regular Study Sections altogether."(cited from pp. 10-12 of my letter to 57 top NIH officials dated December 12, 1986).''

I thought I was the only one out of the money loop.

Prof. Pollack has this to say about Gilbert N. Ling:

``Gilbert Ling, whose five pioneering books and numerous works spanned five decades, has emphasized interfacial water’s central role in all of cell function (e.g., [14]). Our own contributions stand on the shoulders of such giants [15]. As for the most recent experimental evidence from this laboratory, the reader is referred to the papers listed herein, as well as to a recent public award lecture [16]. This hourlong lecture concisely summarizes the basic as well as very recent evidence, and limns these findings’ unusually broad implications for science and technology. From this presentation, one can readily judge the strength of the evidence.''

Taken from Int. J. Mol. Sci.

Private First Class Manning: Gay Hacker

``Although hacking has come to mean a lot of different things, at its core, those who do it say, is the philosophy that information should be free and accessible to all. And Private Manning had access to some of the most secret information on the planet.''

``In his computer chats with Mr. Lamo, Private Manning described how he downloaded the video and lip-synched to Lady Gaga as he copied hundreds of thousand of diplomatic cables.''

From the NYT.

Alan Turing was another British Gay Computer Great.

A little hope, that those of us that are different will stop this ``Road to Nowhere'' syndrome that Paul Krugman just identified.

Thank you Dr. Krugman, and Lady Gaga.

Dark America

Paul Krugman has this to say today in the NYT.

``America Goes Dark
 
The lights are going out all over America — literally. Colorado Springs has made headlines with its desperate attempt to save money by turning off a third of its streetlights, but similar things are either happening or being contemplated across the nation, from Philadelphia to Fresno.''


Kill the beast. Ronald Reagan wherever you are: Shame on you.


Krugman finishes thus:


``So the end result of the long campaign against government is that we’ve taken a disastrously wrong turn. America is now on the unlit, unpaved road to nowhere.''

Like in the Talking Heads song below.

Road to Nowhere: Talking Heads

G. Peschel and R. Schorrer

``It is by now well established that a number of pure liquids, particularly water, exhibit a molecular long-range orientation near solid surfaces [l, 2]. Measurements of the disjoining pressure [3 - 6] and the altered viscosity in thin liquid layers between solid surfaces [7 - 10] have provided important tools for detecting these structural anomalies in liquid surface zones.''

Taken from: Dielectric Properties of Liquid Surface Zones.

The current study of water may explain life better than previously thought. Maybe new tools are helping; but  probably also old prejudices were in the way to a scientific understanding of this vital liquid.

Political Ideology and Science

From Oparin's book below one reads:

``The laws of organic chemistry cannot account for those phenomena of a higher order which are encountered in the study of living cells.''

There is a proposal by Pollack et al., on the origin of life here.

It seems to me that Oparin's ideology, which is a guide as good as any, took the better of him. I haven't read the whole book, but what I do know is that basic properties of water were neglected, to say the least, by a good sized group of scientists for over fifty years.

Pollack's study of water could open a door to a better life for all of us. One that starts by understanding: What is Life?

Origin of Life: Oparin

Taken from Google Books.

Time Magazine: Sect of Revolutionaries

``But unlike other guerrilla groups in Greece, Sect of Revolutionaries appears to have no clear ideology or goals, says Bossis. "If you read their proclamations explaining their motives, they're all over the place," she says. "They say things, like they want to be close to nature and run free in the fields, but they want to achieve this fanciful vision by killing. They want to overthrow someone, or something, but they have no idea what to do beyond that."''

Taken from Time.

I was afraid of this. In Cali, Colombia, and now in Juarez, Mexico. We see a new bred of dissatisfied traumatized youth, willing to kill for no apparent reason.

We lost some of our children.

:(

From Mr. Teufel obituary today in the NYT.

``“We were young, carefree and inexperienced,” Mr. Teufel told Die Tagesspiel in an interview he gave not long before his death. “In 1967 and 1968, confidence and cheerfulness prevailed, and an unbelievable sense that a new beginning was under way.”''

Prof. Pollack on Water

Lady of Burlesque

Maybe written, maybe not by Craig Rice.

The Sunday Pigeon Murders: Craig Rice

Georgiana Ann Randolph Craig (1908-1957), was an American mystery writer. You can get this e-book for free here. I finished it today. My mother died in April, so we have been looking around her apartment; since she didn't read English, my siblings thought the book was mine. I really do not remember buying it; the place I grew up is almost downtown Mexico City, there are more used book bookstores than you can really visit. I did like to walk around home looking for bargains. Since Mexicans are Spanish speaking, you get only a few books in English in those joints.

I guess I bought it, but by now I completely forgot. In the States it came out in 1942, and the edition I have cost then $0.25, that is right, one quarter. I don't remember how much I paid for it, it must've been less than ten Mexican pesos, that is around $0.80.

Anyways you can get it for free in the link above. I do like my old ``real paper'' copy. It is kind of falling apart, but it lasted until I finished it today.

I was wondering who sold something like that in Mexico, I was thinking of this expatriate, maybe a beautiful woman, maybe an adventurous young man. I guess European bookstores may be even more mysterious, or Middle Eastern ones. There you could find books from Gutenberg's time.

Something else to wonder is, why did she named herself Craig Rice, at first I thought it was a man, but then reading the back cover I found otherwise. Just a few pages, 204, and 71, 567 words. I didn't count them; I guess since now it is digital, it is easy to count words.

I liked it; but then again I like many things; after more than ten years I finally read something I must've bought. My siblings would have not bought it. Yes it must have been me.

I won't spoiled it for you, if you have a few reading summer hours to spare, I do recommend it.

There are references to La Paz, Bolivia, and Simón Bolívar. whose complete name was: Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios. There is a character named Rinaldo Juan Pablo Simon Bolivar Tinaja, in the book.

I liked the end: the author does not tell you which boy the girl chooses. I go for Bingo.

``"Oh, sure," Handsome said.

Bingo picked infinitesimal specks of dust from his suit, while Handsome brushed his hair and retied his tie. Then they went down the stairs, side by side, and knocked at her door.

It was Baby who opened the door, her face freshly made up, her black hair tied up with a bright-red ribbon. From the look on her face, Bingo realized that she knew why they were there. She'd probably already made up her mind and chosen between them.

Only, he didn't know which one of them it was. In another minute now, she'd tell.
Then both of them went in and shut the door.

THE END''

One takeaway point for me, is that even if you want to jump ahead of everybody and get money in crooked ways, it is human decency that really gets you ahead. At least in the book.

You can find a link to a biography of Ms. Rice here.

Local Governments Out of Money

The NYT reports on extreme measures US municipalities are taking to keep afloat, while tax revenues collapse.

Western civilization millennial fears, come to mind. Xenophobia in Arizona, and elsewhere in the world also seem related.   I write in this blog about social distress signs. Civilized societies are complex, at least as much as the weather. We only get around two weeks to know what temperature we will have. I cannot say when a major catastrophe, for lack of city revenue, will occur, anywhere in the US.

Nonetheless, seven billion people seem to be Earth's carrying capacity. Fires in Greece and Russia; floods in Pakistan, and Mexican and American politicians have me worried. Here in Mexico, the criminal elements of society seem to be out of control in some parts of the country.

The State of Guerrero, in Mexico, where I am now,  is underdeveloped. Sometimes I wonder if they have more of a chance of survival in those Indian areas, where they have managed to stay for 400 years out of Mexican economic influences. A man can plant corn to feed his family, have enough children, and wait for the new children to have children, like they have done for nine thousand years already. That could have been a blessing in disguise, when the rest of civilized society collapses, because nobody pays taxes to keep  communities on welfare alive.

:-(

Gore in Mexico

Narco News reports on Al Gore visit to the State of Mexico. Governor Peña Nieto wants to be president of Mexico in 2012.

Gore does not seem to know how to stay away from a very turbulent political climate down there.

At times like this I feel that the world does not seem to know what is at store for us for neglecting Gaia.

At first I did not want to use this source, because the special issue of Proceso Magazine, I just read, did claim that drug dealers were scaring journalists in Mexico.

An American, Al Giordano , seems like a good person. So I use this source.

Hiroshima August 6, 1945

Hiroshima (広島市 Hiroshima-shi?) ( listen (help·info)) is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshū, the largest island of Japan. It became the first city in history destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States of America dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M. on August 6, 1945, near the end of World War II.[1]

Taken from Wikipedia.Hiroshima.

Boiling Country?

``To take just one example from the past 10 days, the federal government continues its standoff with the state of Arizona over how to handle illegal immigration. The point of view of our thought leaders is, in general, that borders that are essentially open are good, or not so bad. The point of view of those on the ground who are anxious about our nation's future, however, is different, more like: "We live in a welfare state and we've just expanded health care. Unemployment's up. Could we sort of calm down, stop illegal immigration, and absorb what we've got?" No is, in essence, the answer.


An irony here is that if we stopped the illegal flow and removed the sense of emergency it generates, comprehensive reform would, in time, follow. Because we're not going to send the estimated 10 million to 15 million illegals already here back. We're not going to put sobbing children on a million buses. That would not be in our nature. (Do our leaders even know what's in our nature?) As years passed, those here would be absorbed, and everyone in the country would come to see the benefit of integrating them fully into the tax system. So it's ironic that our leaders don't do what in the end would get them what they say they want, which is comprehensive reform.''

Taken from WSJ.

Cool it; the world is not going to end: Or is it?

John McCain Doesn't Want More Mexicans

``It’s true that air travel was not a big focus in 1868, but this is not about a horde of pregnant jet-setting Brazilians, if, indeed, such a thing even exists. The targets are Mexicans, and the other mostly Spanish-speaking people who are the subjects of a spurious campaign against “anchor babies” — children of illegal immigrants supposedly brought forth to invade and occupy.''

Taken from NYT.

I have news for you Mr. McCain:

I am not going away, Mexico City may be closer to Phoenix, than Ms. Palin's  Sandpoint Idaho. What are you thinking?

Food Fights?

``MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin banned all exports of grain on Thursday after millions of acres of Russian wheat withered in a severe drought, driving up prices around the world and pushing them to their highest level in two years in the United States.''

From the NYT.

Guerrero run out of corn: Oh my, oh my!

Animation Advances

``Although animation is one of the most compelling aspects of computer graphics, the possibilities for depicting the movement that make dynamic scenes so exciting remain limited for both still images and animations. In our work, we experiment with motion depiction as a first-class entity within the rendering process. We extend the concept of a surface shader, which is evaluated on an infinitesimal portion of an object’s surface at one instant in time, to that of a programmable motion effect, which is evaluated with global knowledge about all portions of an object’s surface that pass in front of a pixel during an arbitrary long sequence of time. With this added information, our programmable motion effects can decide to color pixels long after (or long before) an object has passed in front of them. In order to compute the input required by the motion effects, we propose a 4D data structure that aggregates an object’s movement into a single geometric representation by sampling an object’s position at different time instances and connecting corresponding edges in two adjacent samples with a bilinear patch. We present example motion effects for various styles of speed lines, multiple stroboscopic images, temporal offsetting, and photorealistic and stylized blurring on both simple and production examples.''

Taken from CartoonBrew

Programmable Motion Effects

Barnes & Noble

``Barnes & Noble Inc., put itself up for sale Tuesday, succumbing to pressure from shareholder activists as digital books erode the traditional business of the nation's largest bookstore chain.''

``Mr. Shatzkin, of Idea Logical, said Borders recently acquired a new investor and recapitalized, and that this may have had an impact on the Barnes board as well. "Starting with the iPad, everything that is moving things to e-books faster is bad news for bookstores," he said. "Borders has bought more time. At the same time, Barnes is in a battle with a very powerful guy, and that's draining cash and energy as well."''

Taken from Wall Street Journal.

I saw the Wheaton, IL, store closing. I even took a picture, but my phone is crappy, so I never posted it.

Billy Graham's Alma Mater; Wheaton College, gave that bookseller many clients through the years. B&N actually started there in 1873.

If only religious people were more, how to say this, modern? They would've seen the e-book tsunami coming and had taken precautions.

No such luck.

I love bookstores; this is a personal loss for me :(

Paul Ryan

Not all Pauls are created equal. Today the good Paul, i.e. Krugman, writes in the NYT.

``But they don’t. The Ryan plan is a fraud that makes no useful contribution to the debate over America’s fiscal future.''

People do not think much, gut feeling; can only take so far.

Muppet Metal Music

Israel Shame on You!

You can see this beautiful girl, Emily Henochowicz, today in DN!

Visit her blog: Thirsty Pixels.

Fear

I just finished reading a special edition of the Mexican magazine, Proceso.

Violent people v.s. violent people, and peaceful people like me in between.

Mexico is in crisis. It seems that every 100 years we get into these massive brawls. There are always reasons, freedom fighters and all that. Now these guys do not even claim to fight for anything else than power and money. The death of utopias, leads to death oriented nihilism.

I don't like this.

Chrome 5.0.375.125 beta

Automatically I got this Chrome update. Also the Linux kernel now is 2.6.28.19.24

Neat!

The Kids Are Alright

Today the Chicago Tribune has a piece on Digital Natives attachment to parents. Some worry about independence; I worry about everything, but I see this trend as the continuous trend towards extended childhood. I am for that.

If you put a child to work at age six, you get a useless person for the current economy. More school years are needed to use the complex equipment present nowadays in the workplace.

In fact, I almost see this trend as the building of the Noosphere. These kids really have to be protected so they can build, the ideas, the software and the hardware for this World Brain.

Neutrinos?

``"The Committee also recognizes the recommendation made in the 2008 report of the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel to develop a world-leading program of neutrino science to understand the role neutrinos play in the evolution of the universe. The United States has unique capabilities and infrastructure at Fermilab to advance this area of science. The Committee supports design work for two new potential construction projects--the Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment and the Muon to Electron Conversion Experiment. However, the Committee directs the Office of Science to submit a report not later than 180 days after enactment of this act that lays out (1) the expected benefits of intensity frontier science, (2) a strategy for maintaining the U.S. lead, and (3) the funding needs over the next 10 years, including construction activities, of implementing the proposed strategy. The Committee also is concerned about the status of the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory [DUSEL] funded by the National Science Foundation [NSF]. The neutrino program relies on the construction of DUSEL and any delays in the DUSEL program would impact advances in this area of science." If enacted, probably after November 2. ''

Taken from The Library of Congress: Thomas.

I myself do not know what neutrinos are good for; I'm lucky I do not have to explain to The Senate.

20,000,000,000 Tweets

GGGGGGo_Lets_Go sent the 20 billionth tweet.

He has this to say.

``He later posted another message, saying: "Looks like I posted the 20 billionth tweet. I'm getting replies from people all over the world. It's scary. What are the chances? Maybe I'm going to die.

"Is it more amazing than winning the lottery? I thought it was a joke."''

One more landmark in the making of the Noosphere.

LA and DF

``If successful, the novel plan to borrow billions from the federal government, led by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, would result in the largest transit expansion project in the nation.''

``In the first half of the 20th century the Los Angeles region boasted an extensive system of streetcars and high-speed electric railways including the famed Red Cars. After World War II, Southern California began abandoning those systems in favor of personal automobiles and freeways, leaving mass transit to buses.''

Taken from Google.

You may not know this; after Mexico D.F. (Federal District), LA has more Mexicans than any city in the world.

When I was a kid in Mexico City, I did ride electric trains, then they disappeared, and the subway system came along in the 60s.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, like Mayor Villaraigosa, almost seem to come from the same Political Party!

Same concerns, same solutions.

I never thought I'd see this day. All I can say is that I am glad Antonio Villaraigosa speaks Spanish.

Strong Mexican Women

`` First, there is my great-grandmother, my bisabuela, who was one of five kids born in Mexico. She once told my mother that her family was so poor, that she remembered having to eat the banana peels thrown out by the richer families. And she wasn’t exaggerating, either. I suspect that this memorable event is where her love affair with la comida was born. She was the most extraordinary cook, and later became the owner of one of the best restaurants in Dallas, Texas. She told me that as a child, one of her favorite things to do was to sit en los mercados de San Luis Potosi and watch the women cook. She would sit for hours, quietly memorizing every ingredient that las mujeres used in their rich, spicy dishes… and eventually became la cocinera for her familia. She was very proud of her talent with food and the opportunities it created for her. (Family legend has it that she once fed Pancho Villa and his men, who passed through her town. For real? ¿Quién sabe? But it’s a good story!) Despite her great skill, she was one of the most humble, loving, peaceful, and religious people I have ever had the fortune to meet. She truly was a good person on the inside and the outside. Never did she forget the poverty and suffering that she and her family had experienced when she was a child. Always compassionate and giving, she gave strict orders never to turn away anyone who came to the restaurant asking for food. Her greatest joy came from taking care of others…especially if that included cooking! Was she a feminist? In my eyes yes, because of her strength, compassion, entrepreneurial spirit, determination and success. ''

Taken from Viva la Feminista.

Google Docs Translation

Renormalization Group and ``Non, je ne regrette rien''

Solar Storms this past Sunday

``Is this week's event a solar storm?
Yes, and it's the first to be directed at Earth for "quite some time," say astronomers. It is predicted to cause a "killer light show" in northern regions of the globe, and may be visible from some parts of the United States.''

Taken from: The Week

Tehuacalco Trip

Non, je ne regrette rien (Inception)

Edith Piaf sang this beautiful song. I went to see Inception at Reforma 222, in Mexico City. Christopher Nolan, made a good choice. No, I don't regret anything.

More on ...rien.

Cobb does not regret anything either, he comes to terms with himself at the end.

Two issues I want to mention here, one I already wrote something about here recently. Consciousness, the other is "The Renormalization Group."

Consciousness is a social construct, if enough people claim something we start to believe it. Cobb gains his freedom by sticking to "reality," at the end we wonder when the top doesn't seem to do what I was expecting, I was expecting it to fall; but yes it does not fall, so we have to keep skepticism alive. Is this reality or not? Calderón de la Barca wrote many years ago, ``Life is a Dream.''

Kenneth Wilson received a Physics Nobel Prize, among other things for his work on critical phenomena and the Renormalization Group.

In the movie, every layer of dream state, there were four, goes faster and faster. One minute at a high level could be hours at a lower level. Each level has its clocks, and they don't have the same scale. One may be tempted to say slower, and slower. The issue is that one high level second corresponds to many low level seconds. More things happen, down there in deep sleep, than in one of the high level seconds.

Feynman said many years ago now: "There's plenty of room at the bottom.."

Wikipedia note on the movie.

Edith Piaf

Calzada San Rafael Until 1928

I went to check the BMW incident near our apartment in Mexico City.

Yes the tree was gone, and the BMW. The traffic light was up already.

I asked a small businessman right in front of the incident; he said: Good riddance!

It seems the BMW was broken even before the tree fell on it. One cannot report incidents without visiting the scene, you know.

I also learned that the street was not Guillermo Prieto all the time, until 1928 it was called Calzada San Rafael.

I must've done something right, my son recognized me as kin in facebook.