McChrystal Gone Petraeus in

Report from Warrenville

As I write this piece I see through my window, Mexican kids walking by from a soccer game in the grammar school field where my son got his elementary education. This country is changing. Both the US and Mexico qualified for the next stage in the Soccer World Cup in South Africa. The kids here love it. Both their teams are making it at the world stage level.

These kids are both, Mexican and American.

Through Democracy Now! I can see also how the issues are seen through different eyes: the US Social Forum .

Another world is possible!

I Like this Skinny Black Boy

Go Obama, go!

This guy finally found his mojo.

First war on BP, next out of Afghanistan.

I love you man.

The Future According to Ward

In his book "The Flooded Earth" paleontologist Peter Ward gives a grim picture. If he is right we should forget the world as we know it. We are not in Kansas Anymore!

Every year sea level is higher, and he doesn't see that trend stopping.

Of course we could always have a big rock coming our way, and then all bets are off. But that is not reassuring either.

From now on, I will assume that I have to get into an adaptive mode. The World Has Changed.

Mexico over South Africa and France

Cinco de Mayo all over again. The French couldn't stop the Mexicans. Uruguay and Mexico pass in South Africa.

Diego Armando Maradona and Peter Ward

Roger Cohen writes today in the NYT about Maradona. Professor Ward just released a book: "The Flooded Earth". Besides my coming across with them the same day, I see another similarity. Both address attention to something the American public doesn't seem concerned about. Bad news.

Peter Ward starts the book with a description of Miami gone to the bad side. The mafia that runs the town gets disconnected from the US government sometime during next century because the sea claimed it. Several feet of sea water flood Miami. Maradona is another story; Roger Cohen points out how this original genius may lead his team to the soccer World Cup, now disputed in South Africa: problem is, he doesn't look like the sadistic coaches Americans are used to, that prepare their children to be cannon fodder in imperialistic wars.

Americans do not like bad news.

Neither event has happened, Argentina is not the the World Cup Champion yet, and Miami is still dry.

I am sorry to bring bad news to my American readers: I believe the World is about to change.

Raymond Louis Wilder

This American thinker looked into the Foundations of Mathematics before Lakoff and Núñez. You can read about him in Wikipedia.

I just bought his book Introduction to the Foundations of Mathematics through Amazon.com

I registered for their Amazon PayPhrase.

They suggested one phrase, I accepted, and then registered a PIN number.

I hope I remember this phrase. It has playwright in it.

Unsettled

I have not written on this blog since I left Mexico. I am in Warrenville; there are several reasons. My daughter has a new eePC from AsusTeK, we bought it at CompUSA; it was less than $500 and it does more than most computers we've bought for more money. It is the Seashell, it is white and nice.

I am new here, in this netbook environment, not yet acclimated. Besides, I am trying to find my place for the last stage of my life. I am not settled in Mexico.

Today I read Jim Lovelock's book: The Vanishing Face of Gaia. Also I heard President Obama call for War against irresponsible humans that are destroying the Earth.


I am unsettled; even if he doesn't mean what he says, I know that we have to treat this as if it is a war. This is more a war than the war on terror, or the war on drugs. Those are fake wars. The war on BP, is a real war.


I hope we come out of this one also, as we did with so many real wars of the past, like the war on fascism.

Macondo Well

From the Telegraph we read:

"Despite BP's continued failure to plug the leaking Macondo well, Mr Hayward and colleagues will divert their attentions from the operation to address shareholders this week."

That was the name of One Hundred Years of Solitude town where the Buendía dynasty lived.

Strange coincidence.

Entrepeneurs

Prof. Reich from Berkely writes an interesting article in the NYT today.

Some people my age are finding themselves out of the big American companies payrolls. They keep working for their old companies as lesser paid "enterpreneurs."

I am considering the enterpreneurial path myself, but unlike those he mentions, I am thinking at trying my hand at something I never did.

I worked for a small startup, maybe that gave me some connections and expertise to fulfill my dreams.

Why Mexican-Americans Make a big Deal of 5 de Mayo?

In a previous note I wrote that the answer to the question above might be that that date was convenient for colleges. Today when I was reading student papers, another idea came to mind. The battle against France was in 1862, the war with the US was in 1846, maybe the Mexicans in the US didn't really feel they were Americans in 1862, and obviously they cheered their brothers and sisters down south when the French were defeated.

In any case, here in Mexico we put more stock on what happened one hundred, and two hundred years ago. The second was Independence, and the first Revolution.

Scientific Research

Science and art sometimes draw eccentrics. Creative persons share similar characteristics. I have been around scientists for over forty years. When I teach I search for students that may qualify. I have known successful scientsts whom do not satisfy the test of my gut feelings; so I know I am not fool proof.

My colleagues, in general, have not been very creative. Maybe I haven't been in the right places.

I was near Richard Feynman for a few hours when he came to Mexico, and to Santa Barbara, he does qualify for a creative person in my book.

I am no Dick Feynman, but I am not about to give up.

Shrimping

Amy Goodman talked today with an upset fisherman in DN!.

The name of this note is how this man defines his life. Shrimping.

What Teachers Work For?

We are winding down our class. Today I received compliments from a good student.

I guess that is why we work on this. The appreciation of other's is valuable. I want to believe that I helped her to be a better person.

Efficiency

I am grading papers. The homework and final project were precise, so many pages for this part, and so on. I was expecting that the students were going to take those as suggestions, around this number of pages; but I found a few that did exactly what I asked for, no more no less.

I guess students have to optimize their time, several people make demands on them, and they need to satisfy them all.

My students then are efficient.

I wonder though, if they could be good scholars, or artists, where demands sometimes are blurred. One has to have the boss in one's head.

How many of them will become autonomous professionals?

I wonder.

Silvio Rodríguez

From the NYC Daily News

"We are a neighboring country; even if we have been pulling our hair out for 50 years we are neighbors, geographically we are condemned to that," he said. "We have to get along well, sooner or later."

Well said Silvio.

Mexico and the US, are in exactly the same position.

We Mexicans are not going anywhere, let's be friends.

Billy Nungesser and Greta Berlin

I did not know about these two people before today. I found out about them reading the news on the Gulf of Mexico and the Gaza Strip. They are not celebrities, they strike me as regular folks that have strong opinions, Ms. Berlin about the luck of the Palestinians, and Mr. Nungesser about his oiled parish in Louisiana, after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Fifteen minutes of fame said Andy Warhol many years ago.

Will this be the time of the underdog?

I hope so; big wigs are overrated.

The Power of Video

"Still, he said, he found himself thinking that his Internet start-up needed policies in place to handle live videos of conflicts in the future. “After the events unfolded,” he said, “I spent most of my Monday wondering if we had helped terrorists or a great humanitarian cause.”"

This is from the NYT.

What is the difference between a terrorist and a humanitarian?

Deaf Math Teacher

Reading one of the papers I found out about a deaf math teacher.

What an image, students shouting and the teacher oblivious of the feedback.

I guess it makes the teacher's life a little easier, but the students suffer the consequences, eventually they stop asking.

How many teachers, without being deaf, act like this?

Within a constructivist mindframe, this is not a way to learn.

On the other hand if everybody makes an effort and students learn sign language, maybe there is a way.

Deaf Math Teacher

Nineteen or Ten?

I ask in the poll this week: How many dead in the Gaza blockade?

Today is Tuesday and we don't know yet. How can that be? Is somebody in charge in Israel? I've seen today reports of ten dead, and nineteen dead; that is a factor of two error. These are real people, they either breathe or not. How hard can it be to find out?