"UNLIKE its more diverse rivals, Acer directs all its attention toward one goal: selling computers. Such focus has helped Acer establish what analysts regard as the lowest cost structure in the industry."
The quote is from the NYT.
Selling computers. That sounds like a focused approach. I expect Taiwan to do well. There is a new important technological country.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Wikipedia Current Events
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer and businessman. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he made his debut on the professional music scene in 1968 as a member of The Jackson 5. He then began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group and was referred to as the "King of Pop"[2] in subsequent years. Jackson's 1982 album Thriller remains the world's best-selling album of all time,[3] and four of his other solo studio albums are among the world's best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).
Above you can read what I got at 3:46 pm June 29, 2009.
Of course you can go there yourself. My point is that this information will change as days go by and more things are known; nevertheless Wikipedia can be a good reliable source if one knows how to use it. This may be a good example of the famous site.
Above you can read what I got at 3:46 pm June 29, 2009.
Of course you can go there yourself. My point is that this information will change as days go by and more things are known; nevertheless Wikipedia can be a good reliable source if one knows how to use it. This may be a good example of the famous site.
Emergent Information
When thinking about Information, the issue of human intelligence seems to get in the way. If all intelligent life disappeared from Earth, will there be Information?
Our gut instinct is to say no, if Information exists objectively, and yes, if it depends on being understood.
If temperature is emergnet, I don't see a problem in having Information also emergent.
The importance of Information in the evolution of our Universe is increasing; as we see the dangers caused by human activity in warming the Earth.
It is possible that all arrays have Information, whether or not intelligent beings understand them, but it is a fact that patterns are understood by all sorts of animals, plants, and chemical reactions among comnplex molecules. That information that is not understood, may not be so ,in a deeper sense.
Some Yale scientists put quantum mechancis to work for them in an electronic chip. Cool.
Our gut instinct is to say no, if Information exists objectively, and yes, if it depends on being understood.
If temperature is emergnet, I don't see a problem in having Information also emergent.
The importance of Information in the evolution of our Universe is increasing; as we see the dangers caused by human activity in warming the Earth.
It is possible that all arrays have Information, whether or not intelligent beings understand them, but it is a fact that patterns are understood by all sorts of animals, plants, and chemical reactions among comnplex molecules. That information that is not understood, may not be so ,in a deeper sense.
Some Yale scientists put quantum mechancis to work for them in an electronic chip. Cool.
Methane out from Siberia
Scientific American has an article on this imminent danger (see my Twitter links).
The Arctic Thaw Could Make Global Warming Worse
There is a heroine there: Katey Walter; she is a Professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. There are villains also. Businesmen and politicians trying to profit out of the thawning of the North Pole.
The situation is dead serious. Keep on eye on these developments.
The plot thickens. I remember some months ago that the Bush administration had cancelled a satellite project to better monitor the Earth. Now I read in Scientific American that Prof. Walter uses a GERMAN stellite, TerraSAR-X, why does she need help from a foreign country? I'm all for international cooperation, but to me this smells funny, a rat, or methane.
Could it be that American moneyed interests were trying to stop the work, of this courageous woman?
In any case: Keep an eye open on this woman's scentific work.
Class Struggle
Rich people and the leadership of the Army are behind the breakdown of the rule of law in Honduras.
Is this a law of Social Sciences?
Poor people against rich people?
I know people in both camps, I am not very close to the rich ones, otherwise I'll be richer, I guess. What I can tell you is that loyalty is important in both sets of classes. Some times people from the rich classes, like Mao Tze Tung, Fidel Castro, and others, "betray" their class and join the poor people, but these are the exceptions that prove the rule.
What side are you in, Barack Obama?
Is this a law of Social Sciences?
Poor people against rich people?
I know people in both camps, I am not very close to the rich ones, otherwise I'll be richer, I guess. What I can tell you is that loyalty is important in both sets of classes. Some times people from the rich classes, like Mao Tze Tung, Fidel Castro, and others, "betray" their class and join the poor people, but these are the exceptions that prove the rule.
What side are you in, Barack Obama?
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Coup In Honduras
Forces of the status quo are doing in Honduras what they cannot do in the US, or the rest of the Americas. The weaker institutions in that country show us what can happen if we don't participate in the democratic process. Here in Mexico there are some well intentioned people calling to boycott the elections. But if not elections, then what? Coups?
No, thank you.
Go vote!
No, thank you.
Go vote!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Intelligent Life
It took life on earth close to four billion years to develop intelligence. Can it just disappear with a big rock coming from above?
Yes.
Yes.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Cosmic Rays
"This research may also help in understanding similar acceleration processes occurring in gamma-ray bursts and radio jets, says Don Ellison (North Carolina State): “Supernova remnants offer the best laboratory to study the mechanism.”
This is the first time that a lead from Twitter leads to relevant science for my research. I am studying Gamma Ray Bursts Eveline Helder from Astronomical Institute Utrecht, Netherlands, provides proof that half the energy produced in a Supernova explosion goes into making Cosmic Rays.
This is the first time that a lead from Twitter leads to relevant science for my research. I am studying Gamma Ray Bursts Eveline Helder from Astronomical Institute Utrecht, Netherlands, provides proof that half the energy produced in a Supernova explosion goes into making Cosmic Rays.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Information
Claude Shannon at Bell Labs clarified mathematically the idea on Information. Earlier Ludwig Boltzmann had connected entropy with probability for Statistical Mechanics. Here I want to add some thoughts on the concept of Information.
Ethimologically we have form and inside,in-form-ation, something like the structure, arrangement, or parts that make up an object; that form the object. Nevertheless I wrote concept, not object, so what is it, a concept, or an object?
The issue is even harder with Shannon's Communication Theory, because as he formulated it, it had to do with human communication, at least the telephone company he worked for was not interested in bird communication, those animals don't pay telephone bills, unless they are some wealthy parrots.
Be it as it may, it is clear that we are just one of a group of animals that communicate, we just happen to be the animal "in charge" right now. I believe we are in front of an object. Information exists, in the following sense.
This universe is ordered, there are other possible universes less ordered. The given order is Information. We have the scientific method, to find that order, when we do, we'll know the Information in this Universe. This may be a never ending process, we do not know that, and that is precisely what Information is, that we cannot know beforehand; we have to figure it out as we go along.
The arrangement of the parts of the Universe is an object: the Universe itself.
Ethimologically we have form and inside,in-form-ation, something like the structure, arrangement, or parts that make up an object; that form the object. Nevertheless I wrote concept, not object, so what is it, a concept, or an object?
The issue is even harder with Shannon's Communication Theory, because as he formulated it, it had to do with human communication, at least the telephone company he worked for was not interested in bird communication, those animals don't pay telephone bills, unless they are some wealthy parrots.
Be it as it may, it is clear that we are just one of a group of animals that communicate, we just happen to be the animal "in charge" right now. I believe we are in front of an object. Information exists, in the following sense.
This universe is ordered, there are other possible universes less ordered. The given order is Information. We have the scientific method, to find that order, when we do, we'll know the Information in this Universe. This may be a never ending process, we do not know that, and that is precisely what Information is, that we cannot know beforehand; we have to figure it out as we go along.
The arrangement of the parts of the Universe is an object: the Universe itself.
There is a sense in looking for the Information, because the Information is there, like an object is there.
Neda Agha-Soltan,
She could have been my daughter!
A 27 year old Philosophy student killed in the streets of Tehran, in my book this is a tragedy of global proportions.
My heart aches, so much beauty ending so fast.
Hugo Chávez, shame on you!
These events remind me of the Communist Party in Mexico defending Joseph Stalin when he killed Lev Trotsky in Coyoacán.
Ideology does not trump a human life. Ideology is a tool to make sense of the world, not to justify atrocities.
No matter how small each one of us is, we are the children of stars; we are made out of star ashes.
I will remember you; Neda Agha Soltan.
A 27 year old Philosophy student killed in the streets of Tehran, in my book this is a tragedy of global proportions.
My heart aches, so much beauty ending so fast.
Hugo Chávez, shame on you!
These events remind me of the Communist Party in Mexico defending Joseph Stalin when he killed Lev Trotsky in Coyoacán.
Ideology does not trump a human life. Ideology is a tool to make sense of the world, not to justify atrocities.
No matter how small each one of us is, we are the children of stars; we are made out of star ashes.
I will remember you; Neda Agha Soltan.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Why Lula is Acceptable to Obama?
In his press conference today President Obama praised Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva President from Brazil.This is odd.
One community organiser and a union organiser are Presidents. How did this happen?
Maybe the world is getting fairer, or the real powers are not the ones we see.
Take your pick.
One community organiser and a union organiser are Presidents. How did this happen?
Maybe the world is getting fairer, or the real powers are not the ones we see.
Take your pick.
Am I Doing Right?
Some family members make me feel like I am out of my mind. Am I?
I have been excentric. I try to use a thumb rule. I try hard things, if they don't work, I try to fix them.
I hope I can fix these ones.
I have been excentric. I try to use a thumb rule. I try hard things, if they don't work, I try to fix them.
I hope I can fix these ones.
Dana Rohrabacher
I am listening to C-SPAN. I have the pleasure to hear Rep. Dana Rohrabacher from Costa Mesa California. Republicans live in a parallel Universe.
How much I wished Representative Rohrabacher was right.
Then I would not have to listen to James Hansen Ph.D. Go away reason, we have well paid lobbyists to take care of us.
How much I wished Representative Rohrabacher was right.
Then I would not have to listen to James Hansen Ph.D. Go away reason, we have well paid lobbyists to take care of us.
Monday, June 22, 2009
René Descartes
Today one idea of this man leads me to write this note. I think, therefore I am. I mention also Guillermo González, More names: Andrea Ghez, Carlos Frenk, James Cronin , and I.
Most of all this is inspired by Stephen Wolfram.
As Guillermo González says, it is like somebody put that lab there so we can learn what a black hole is.
Our senses lie. As we age we don't have the same quality of perception. When young we hear from 20 cycles per second to twenty thousand, when old, both ranges change, the low frequencies and the high frequencies are perceived differently. So which is the true sound of our voice?
Most of all this is inspired by Stephen Wolfram.
I hope I am clear and tie these men and a woman together in a coherent fashion. It all started last night when I was reading a White Paper by some Astronomers, Ms. Ghez among them. It happens that we have a physics laboratory in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Since 1992 new telescopes in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, for the first time in Human History
were directed in that direction and we saw what lurks in there. A huge black hole, called Sagittarius A*, Sgr A* (pronounced "Saj A-star") for short, has over one hundred stars moving around it at relativistic speeds, i.e. close to the speed of light. In fifteen years one of them, S2, has gone around a whole elliptic orbit. Only an intense force can make a star move so fast.
As Guillermo González says, it is like somebody put that lab there so we can learn what a black hole is.
The purpose of the White Paper is to request research funds for that study. We have a General Relativity Laboratory waiting so we direct our telescopes there and learn Einstein's theory in action.
Now let me turn to Carlos Frenk. This Mexican-British scientist published a paper on the Los Alamos National Laboratory electronic repository with a report on the use of Artificial Neural Nets (ANNs)to calculate the properties of many galaxies for an electronic catalog for future research. The ANN speeds up the calculations, that would take one hundred years otherwise.
James Cronin successfully organized an international collaboration to study what may well be the highest energy particle accelerator we will get information from in the foreseeable future. The south part of the detector is operating in Argentina already. This is the Pierre Auger Observatory for cosmic rays. The north section part of the apparatus is planned for construction in Colorado, USA. This collaboration already spent money to look into the results of another experiment set up for us more than fifty million light years away.
Now we come to Rene Descartes and I finish with Wolfram and I.
Descartes follows an old sceptic tradition in Philosophy. How do we know? What is true?
Now let me turn to Carlos Frenk. This Mexican-British scientist published a paper on the Los Alamos National Laboratory electronic repository with a report on the use of Artificial Neural Nets (ANNs)to calculate the properties of many galaxies for an electronic catalog for future research. The ANN speeds up the calculations, that would take one hundred years otherwise.
James Cronin successfully organized an international collaboration to study what may well be the highest energy particle accelerator we will get information from in the foreseeable future. The south part of the detector is operating in Argentina already. This is the Pierre Auger Observatory for cosmic rays. The north section part of the apparatus is planned for construction in Colorado, USA. This collaboration already spent money to look into the results of another experiment set up for us more than fifty million light years away.
Now we come to Rene Descartes and I finish with Wolfram and I.
Descartes follows an old sceptic tradition in Philosophy. How do we know? What is true?
Our senses lie. As we age we don't have the same quality of perception. When young we hear from 20 cycles per second to twenty thousand, when old, both ranges change, the low frequencies and the high frequencies are perceived differently. So which is the true sound of our voice?
It stands to reason that our thoughts also change, we know more, and think less fast. So again: How do we know, and what is true?
Descartes gave a simple answer. I think, therefore I am. Cogito, ergo sum.
To me this statement seemed useless when I was younger. Now I am starting to understand. We live in a specific Universe of many we can think of. In this place Newton's laws, and Einstein modifications are useful. Ghez black holes in her laboratory in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, can be used to test for the first time the extent to which General Relativity is true. Electromagnetism as expressed by James Clerk Maxwell, and modified by Feynman, Schwinger and Tomonaga is good to describe what elementary particles do at the highest energies we can test them on. Cronin's laboratory will help us sort that out. This is the universe we live in, it is not an arbitrary place, laws seem to be obeyed. Natural Laws, we call them.
It is because there are three stable space and one time dimension that we can ponder these questions at all. It is becasue that S2 star takes exactly fifteen years to go around Sgr A* that we can set up out our telescopes in that direction and check. It is because of all this, that I think therefore I am, is possible. It is not an idle statement that everybody knows and is therefore useless. Descartes was a deep thinker, as his work in Analytic Geometry demonstrates.
Now I come to Wolfram and a conclusion for this note.This scientist invites us to look into concrete mathematics. I mean by this that computer programming teaches us, when run in digital instruments what we would've not known otherwise, or at least not that easily. Mathematics is not just inside our heads, it has gone outside, towards our artificial brains, that can run the Artificial Neural Nets, or any other program we choose to try. We gain objectivity by using the New Kind of Science, as he calls his proposal. This universe of ours seems to run as a computer program, how else if not for that, Frenk's calculations can be used instead of galaxies? How else if not for that, the predictions made with computers can guide Auger cosmic ray observations?
Now I finish with me.
I do not believe that some intelligent being set up these experiments for us. I do not believe that the usefullness of mathematics in Physics is a proof of the existence of God; but I do believe that we live in a peculiar universe where a New Kind of Science, and I think, therefore I am, are very important guides for our efforts to understand the world around us. A code word I use for this is, Information. There is information out there, just waiting for us to wise up and get it. There are records all around us, that we can decipher and live happier in the world.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Black Hole in the Center of the Milky Way Galaxy
" Since the beginning of the observations in 1992 one of the stars, called S2, has now completed one full orbit. Its orbit (Sch ̈del et al. 2002;Ghez et al. 2003) has a period of 15 years. Since 2002 the number of reasonably well-determined orbits has grown from one to 28; in total we currently monitor 109 stars, see Figure 1."
This quote is from a recent report on 15 years of study.
I just realized that my son has been alive during all those years. So S2 went around the center of the galaxy in the time my son has gone from Mexico to Chicago.
He is not back in Mexico though : (
This quote is from a recent report on 15 years of study.
I just realized that my son has been alive during all those years. So S2 went around the center of the galaxy in the time my son has gone from Mexico to Chicago.
He is not back in Mexico though : (
Up; and the Dreams we run Towards.
I just saw Docter's most recent animated feature film for the third time. I feel touched by his work.
Mr. Carl Fredricksen represents the adventure we all feel inside us. Since humans first left Africa many thousand years ago. There were at least two memorable scenes. When he lets all the stuff behind, so his house-ship can sail off; and when he reads the last entries of Ellie's Diary. He understands the meaning of life: it is to always look for adventure.
Cannes and Disney together. Who would've guessed!
I loved this film.
Mr. Carl Fredricksen represents the adventure we all feel inside us. Since humans first left Africa many thousand years ago. There were at least two memorable scenes. When he lets all the stuff behind, so his house-ship can sail off; and when he reads the last entries of Ellie's Diary. He understands the meaning of life: it is to always look for adventure.
Cannes and Disney together. Who would've guessed!
I loved this film.
Summer Solstice
36,500 people went to Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice today. This is the first year I know what this means. I have been largely oblivious of Astronomy and even more of New Age types. Does it mean something that now I know about the Solstice?
I don't believe in fate, but right now my situation is unsettled to say the least.
This being the International Year of Astronomy, since four hundred years ago Galileo Galilei looked up at the sky with a telescope, I've been busy inviting kids to look up.
There are some Mexican traditional ideas about the ball game and the four important sun positions in the sky. Let's start with today's. The Sun was going away towards the North, more and more each day, then today it stops and starts going South. At the Vernal Equinox, on September 22, day and night will be equal. Then comes Winter Solstice, when the Sun seems to be going South to not come again. But it does stop on the Solstice. In its way North, we have the Spring Equinox, equal day and night again.
Nearby in Teopantecuantitlán, there is the Ball Game, oriented with the San Andrés Cross, not like Christ's, which is crossed, but more like the X in MeXico. The lines in X are aligned towards the solstices. I've been told, that it was no game, the warriors actually died to stop the Sun from leaving us.
Is there a message here?
I leave that to those more informed on New Age lore. Maybe this year when I know what the solstice is, 23.44o missalignment between the Earth's spin, and the Solar System plane, I can start thinking on 2012. Maybe something will happen, maybe nothing. But now I know that people around here in Guerrero, Mexico, have been looking up for a long time, and if they start talking about sky signals, I'll listen.
I don't believe in fate, but right now my situation is unsettled to say the least.
This being the International Year of Astronomy, since four hundred years ago Galileo Galilei looked up at the sky with a telescope, I've been busy inviting kids to look up.
There are some Mexican traditional ideas about the ball game and the four important sun positions in the sky. Let's start with today's. The Sun was going away towards the North, more and more each day, then today it stops and starts going South. At the Vernal Equinox, on September 22, day and night will be equal. Then comes Winter Solstice, when the Sun seems to be going South to not come again. But it does stop on the Solstice. In its way North, we have the Spring Equinox, equal day and night again.
Nearby in Teopantecuantitlán, there is the Ball Game, oriented with the San Andrés Cross, not like Christ's, which is crossed, but more like the X in MeXico. The lines in X are aligned towards the solstices. I've been told, that it was no game, the warriors actually died to stop the Sun from leaving us.
Is there a message here?
I leave that to those more informed on New Age lore. Maybe this year when I know what the solstice is, 23.44o missalignment between the Earth's spin, and the Solar System plane, I can start thinking on 2012. Maybe something will happen, maybe nothing. But now I know that people around here in Guerrero, Mexico, have been looking up for a long time, and if they start talking about sky signals, I'll listen.
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