A Friend of Obama Dead

I just saw the video on YouTube, which cannot be embedded here because of an explicit prohibition in YouTube.

Is this the black Al Capone behind this?

I can see all those rightists going through this sad incident.

Yesterday I wrote a somber piece, this does not help.

To top it off, tomorrow my Alma Mater, the University of California, goes on strike, you can watch the news with Amy Goodman's Democracy Now!

Is this how the end looks like?

Chicago Schools President Dead

"The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said Monday that Scott shot himself in the head near the Chicago River. A .380-caliber handgun were found near a riverside loading dock not far from Scott's car about 3:15 a.m. Monday, police said."

What is so bad about the Chicago Schools System, that explains this suicide?

I almost took a job in that Schools System.

Maybe nothing, and the man was just depressed: Who knows?, or as they say around here: Only God knows?

I See the End

I keep asking questions in my posts. I remember listening to John Archibald Wheeler once at the Physics Department of the University of California at Santa Babara.

That man never gave a straight answer.

So I figure, I could go about life the same way; one looks wise. Somehow, reading about the sorry state of the American infrastructure in today's NYT Bob Herbert piece, it hit me.

Empires come and empires go; that is the story of humanity. Why should today be different.  I understand now all those Tea Party protesters, Sarah Pallin et al.. Americans have gone nuts.

 The End of Mexico, tied to the US is now clear. Here we do not even decide who works, and who doesn't, it is all decided in the offices of the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank.

Sad.

End of the World, or End of Oil?

Cantarell in Mexico is reaching its limit. President Calderón just fired 20, 000  electrical industry workers. This looks like the end of oil for Mexico. King Hubbert predicted trouble in 1956. Fifty years later we are in trouble.

It is more likely to have an end of oil, than an end of the world. To some of us, though, there is not much difference.

Tighten your seat belts, here comes a country coming to a standstill, here in Guerrero teachers were marching in Acapulco.

Is this the end?

From the Oil Drum:

"In addition, if debt is decreasing, the price of oil is likely to stay on the low side, because of reduced consumer demand (layoffs and inability to by cars and new houses). The low price will make it difficult for oil companies to generate revenue from cash flow to use for investment, leading to less investment. The low prices will also discourage investment in places where oil is theoretically available, but the cost of extraction is too high.

Why didn’t anyone tell us about this problem?

Common sense tells us that at some point, a finite world is going to run into limits. M. King Hubbert predicted the problem in 1956. A year later, 1957, Rear Admiral Hyman Rickover spoke about the problem:

I suggest that this is a good time to think soberly about our responsibilities to our descendants - those who will ring out the Fossil Fuel Age. Our greatest responsibility, as parents and as citizens, is to give America's youngsters the best possible education. . . . We might even - if we wanted - give a break to these youngsters by cutting fuel and metal consumption a little here and there so as to provide a safer margin for the necessary adjustments which eventually must be made in a world without fossil fuels.

The fact that resources were limited was known, but there seemed to be reasons not to bring up the issue. M. King Hubbert wasn’t really believed until after US production began to fall in 1970. And even if he was believed, with such a distant event, it probably seemed likely that technological advances would increase the amount of oil that could be quickly and cheaply extracted, for many years.

I do not see climate change legislation as terribly helpful. Cap and trade will add huge overhead to the system—something we really cannot afford right now. Peak oil is likely to mean a continuing major recession, and a natural decline in fossil fuel use. To me, we would be better off spending our resources developing local agriculture and local manufacturing, and perhaps even sailing ships."

Volvo in Chilpancingo?

This really looks ominous.

This is the last town I would imagine a Volvo dealership setting up shop. It means that the US market is really going down the drain, these Swedes are really trying to sell cars, eh?

To me it looks eerie, like some 2012 signal or something. Maybe a Matrix sequel, I really don't know. What about Santo against the Viking Moguls?

I guess I should get back to work.

UFOs, 2012, Chilpancingo?

Hey, at this rate I'll make the name of this town as famous as Roswell. Why not, both are cultural deserts.

Yesterday we had our first UFO aficionados meeting, and I went to see 2012 for the second time, at three bucks the ticket I reckoned it was worth it.

What is this nonsense, Orson Welles must be laughing loudly wherever he is.

Why are we so gullible?

I try to keep a straight face, but I am starting to feel like a really odd ball. Who are these people around me? They don't know what a quark is, and they jump into fantasitc explanations to the simplest phenomena around them. If religious leaders in the past were thinking people, I understand now why they wrote those fairy tales that pass as sacred scriptures.

OK, the point of this ranting is to report that the people of Chilpancingo, me included, went to spend their hard earned money to indulge in fantasy, and some of them believe it. Besides they believe that extraterrestrials are out there, looking towards us.

You can read Dennis Overbye's Essay in the NYT on some of these issues  here.

Cosmic Ray Detectors in High Schools?

Mexicans have done cosmic ray physics for many years. Recently radioastronomers proposed to put some antennas in high schools to monitor the Sun and Jupiter.

What about cosmic rays?

It is not very expensive to install a detector. These detectors usually are in sites with more than ten of them, so they have to be cheap.

One question though, is what are they  good for?

Since the beginning of the year the LAGO collaboration in Puebla has measured an increase in radiation coming from the Sun. This may be caused by the changes in the Sun and Earth magnetic fields. I assume radio signals from the Sun and Jupiter, may also show anomalous behavior. In any case with the data one can discuss with students about the Solar System.

A meteorological station will come in handy also.

It could happen.

Water Back in Mexico City

"La ruptura extraordinaria de un tubo ocasionó que alrededor de 500 colonias de las delegaciones Cuajimalpa, Tlalpan, Magdalena Contreras, Álvaro Obregón, Miguel Hidalgo, Benito Juárez, Coyoacán, Azcapotzalco, Cuauhtémoc e Iztapalapa resintieron la falta total de suministro de agua."

The "extraordinary" breakdown  of a pipe caused that around 500 neighborhoods in Cuajimalpa, Tlalpan, Magdalena Contreras, Álvaro Obregón, Miguel Hidalgo, Benito Juárez, Coyoacán, Azcapotzalco, Cuauhtémoc and Iztapalapa had a complete lack of running water"


This was a programmed repair that went awry.

Water Crisis in Mexico City, November 15, 2009

Today Mexico City has whole swats without drinking water. The Cutzamala Water System broke.

My mother will hopefully get water tomorrow!

Like Big Boy Caprice in the Dick Tracy movie, says in an escape scene,

This is awful!

From La Jornada in Mexico City, I get this:

"Sin embargo, este sábado, la ruptura de un tubo en la línea 1 del acueducto obligó a suspender el suministro de agua en bloque al valle de México en un ciento por ciento."

My translation:

However, this Saturday, the breakdown of a pipe in line 1 of the aqueduct forced the water suspension in block to the Valley of Mexico in ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.

Wow!

Nothing in the NYT. The NYT is not a Mexico City paper. It seems to me that for Americans, Mexicans don't exist, . There is my mother in the city without running water, and nothing in Google!

Wow!

Google 2012 Search

Underground Journalism?

I just read that Durango journalists are threatened by gang members not to mention their names in print.

You know? There is such a thing as BitTorrent and other P2P ways to keep your identity secret.

Can't journalists come up with a way to protect themselves this way?

One Million per Soldier

Let me get this straight. Are you telling me that because three thousand people were killed almost ten years ago, Americans are willing to pay, ONE MILLION DOLLARS per soldier, to feel safe?

Nuts.

U2 One Berlin 2009

Frank Rich NYT

"Perhaps those on the right are correct about Hasan, and he is just one cog in an apocalyptic jihadist plot that has infiltrated our armed forces. If so, then they have an obligation to explain how pouring more troops into Afghanistan would have stopped Hasan from plotting in Killeen. Don’t hold your breath. If we have learned anything concrete so far from the massacre at Fort Hood, it’s that our hawks, for all their certitude, are as utterly confused as the rest of us about who it is we’re fighting in Afghanistan and to what end."

It is refreshing to read logical arguments.

12/12/12

I prefer that date to 12/21/12. It is more symmetric and in Mexico that is Virgin Mary's Day. Besides that is my wedding anniversary. I'll be married 33 years that day.

I just went to the Premiere of the movie, here in Chilpancingo. It cost me $2.923076923 at today's exchange rate.

Neutrinos will metarmophize that day. That is news!

I don't think so, so I guess the rest of the movie should just be enjoyed like any action movie.

They had several very, very close lucky moments. The one I remember  is when the hero; a writer! comes from the water with a yellow broken piece of equipment, like a good plumber. I guess Mario, the plumber video games hero must've inspired some of the kids writing the script.

I'm glad I only paid three bucks.

NYT piece on money made in first weekend.

NYT Review.

Sun Microsystems

Category           Projects                    Maturity                  Sun Offering

Database              MySQL,                          12 years                  MySQL, MySQL
                              PostgreSQL                                                      Cluster

Application and    GlassFish, JBoss,          10 years                  GlassFish
Web platform        Apache                                                  Portfolio

Integration            OpenESB, Mule             4 years                 Open ESB
platforms

Development        NetBeans^TM,                 12 years               NetBeans
Tools                     Eclipse
                                                                                   
Identity                 OpenSSO,                      4 years                OpenSSO,
                                                                                                Identity Manager
                              OpenDS,
                              OpenLDAP
                                                                                  
Operating             OpenSolaris,
systems                 Linux — various,          25 years           OpenSolaris
                               BSD
                                                                                   
Virtualization     Xen, OpenxVM                 6 years                 xVM Portfolio

Storage              Open Storage                  3 years                 Sun Storage 7000
                                                                                         Varies   NFS, Lustre, ZFS

File Systems       NFS, UFS, ext,
                                                                                          included in
                            Lustre, ZFSTM and
                                                                                           OpenSolaris
                               many more
                                            
Browsers               Mozilla^TM                     15 years

Productivity tools OpenOffice.org^TM        20 years            StarOffice

Tasting the Moon

“We practically tasted it with the impact.”

Prof. Peter H. Schultz

The NYT reports this epochal discovery.

Don't forget it was the Indians that first found conclusive evidence for this presence of water on the Moon.

When somebody asked me back when Lcross was thrown in last month. I told her that Mao Zedong said that to know how an apple tastes we have to bite it.

It is impossible to know the Universe without disturbing it.

I find it amusing that Prof. Schultz used a similar metaphor.

This Guy Got Me Going

Here I am wondering if unemployed youths are going to organize in huge gangs and take over my country. The conservative government in power in Mexico is ideologically incapable of taking care of these millions of bright and strong Mexicans.

Now I read this guy, Paul Krugman, he tells us today in the NYT that Germany is  doing just that. Taking care of all their beautiful young people - boy am I glad my dear niece is living there.

Waste of human potential. Shame on the National Action Party (PAN) in the Mexican White House, Los Pinos.

Our President great idea is to put forty thousand Mexican workers out of their electric company jobs, for some harebrained, mashugana plan.

I feel like Felipe Calderón, our President, is picking with a stick a huge sleepy tiger in the ribs .

If he keeps it up, I'm out of here!

Gustavo Dudamel

Los Angeles Philarmonic Orchestra has hired a talented 28 year old Venezuelan. LA has more Mexicans than any Mexican city  besides the capital, D.F..

He has a bright future in the town with a Mexican American mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa.

The only problem is that California is broke, see below.

All Together Now

Eduardo-

Next week, following the UC Regents' meeting, I will be submitting a budget proposal to Governor Schwarzenegger that seeks to begin the urgently needed reinvestment in the University of California, Santa Barbara by the State of California.

The budget proposal for 2010-11 would restore a level of State funding for UC equivalent to what was provided in the 2007-08 fiscal year. It also calls for the State to fully fund student enrollments at UC and to meet its funding obligation to employees in the UC Retirement Plan. This restoration of funding is critical if the University is to continue providing student access and serving Californians with superior educational, research and medical facilities.

This proposal comes as the governor is developing his January budget proposal that will be considered by the California State Legislature - and that is why we are encouraging people like you, who care deeply about UC, to email the Governor now.  Much more work will need to be done when the Legislature begins its budget deliberations in the new year. Click here to take action today. 

Take Action

 

Limits to opportunity. State budget cuts limit opportunity for students and endanger our teaching and research missions, which create new knowledge and new jobs.  The effects of the budget cuts are evident across the UC system - from layoffs and pay cuts to fee increases and program reductions.  Today, the State doesn't even provide funding for 14,000 of the students we enroll.  Given what's at stake, it is imperative that the state provide the $900 million we are requesting to preserve access and quality for the people of California. 

 

Governor Schwarzenegger knows the value of higher education.  He's also facing a continuing state budget challenge.  It is important that we take this time to remind the governor that UC is not a luxury or a "cost." Rather, to quote one of my predecessors, it is an investment - the best investment this state can make in its future.  If you agree, now is the time to let the governor know.  He needs to know how much you care, and how you're prepared to be vocal and persistent this coming year to prevent the University from a slide toward mediocrity through chronic budget cuts. All of us must join together to deliver this message.

 

Join the movement today. Write the governor today telling him how UC has made a difference in your life and why it's important to you that the State re-invest in higher education. Send your message to your friends and family, urging them to become UC advocates by signing up at http://www.ucforcalifornia.org/uc4ca/mlm/signup. Join us in standing up for the University of California, and standing up for the future.

 

With best wishes, I am,

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Mark G. Yudof

President

 

PS - Although I will read all your e-mails, I am not able to personally respond to every one. I encourage you to follow me on Facebook and Twitter, where you can share your ideas and look for answers to many of your questions. There you may also view my video to advocates.