"This is a country of conflicting messages, of economic growth and decapitated heads. It is the United States’ third-largest trading partner and a majority middle-class country, but one held back by corruption, impunity, poverty, red tape, monopolies and a culture of discomfort with confrontation."
NYT
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Friday, March 30, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Circulation
$$\vec{r}\times \vec{\delta \phi}$$
$$\vec{\delta r}$$
The first equation represents circulation, the second translation.
Circulation is real motion, "motion" in one dimension, is not.
Bejan's Constructal Law, applies to both, but energy stored as in gyroscopes, is the natural source of what I call real motion.
From elementary particles to black holes, from tornadoes to galaxies, rotation stores energy, translational motion changes direction when stored rotational motion, is in the way. All known forces involve circulation. Gravitons have spin 2, Photons, Gluons, and Intermediate Mesons, 1.
What is the Higgs doing there?
Giving mass, whatever that means.
I expect more clarity when this particle is well identified.
This Summer?
Maybe.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Hoodies in Naperville
Today I saw two young men wearing hoodies!
Bravo, one should not be afraid of being black, or Latino, or white. All the colors are needed for a rainbow!
Bravo, one should not be afraid of being black, or Latino, or white. All the colors are needed for a rainbow!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Monday, March 26, 2012
Zombies in Naperville?
My wife and I were having a nice picnic at Central Park in Naperville. There was a mother with a few kids in the games section. We saw a young man and an older one approaching us, this is Saturday afternoon. The older man started asking for directions for a statue. My wife made it clear we were not going to give him these directions, he told her she needed to go to a Hospital for mental treatment. They left. Then another woman approached us asking for help. We told her we couldn't help, and she kept walking towards the other two men that by then were in another part of the park.
After a while the two men left in a small truck.
This morning I felt like they had approached us like zombies, not very coherent, trying to get something from us.
Are we living through the end of an Era?
After a while the two men left in a small truck.
This morning I felt like they had approached us like zombies, not very coherent, trying to get something from us.
Are we living through the end of an Era?
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Daniel Kahneman
Professor Kanheman is an Emeritus Professor at Princeton. He started his research at a young age. The influence of Paul Meehl was decisive. It is better to have a simple formula, than to bring human judgement for some complex problems. It seems that the success of Physics can be understood with more than just the old argument that this discipline only studies simple phenomena. Simple methods for simple problems, has advanced with the work of Kanheman and Meehl, to simple methods for complex problems.
I am considering a new scientific method which uses computers and mathematics to explain prior scientific success, and to start a new era for science.
I am in the middle of reading Thinking, Slow, and Fast. I strongly recommend this book by Nobel Prize winner Kahneman.
I am considering a new scientific method which uses computers and mathematics to explain prior scientific success, and to start a new era for science.
I am in the middle of reading Thinking, Slow, and Fast. I strongly recommend this book by Nobel Prize winner Kahneman.
Friday, March 23, 2012
High on Caffeine
I try not to drink coffee. I grew up in a household where everybody drank coffee. When I was a teenager I felt that I was not getting nutritional substances from this habit. I stopped cold turkey. I didn't see the point.
Now I am older. I find this substance of some help.
My financial situation is fragile. I have to get out of this rut. I have to think straight.
Now I am older. I find this substance of some help.
My financial situation is fragile. I have to get out of this rut. I have to think straight.
Jorge Valdes Flores
Jorge Valdes Flores of the Institute of Physics, UNAM
On February 12, 1998 the National Autonomous University of Mexico appointed Dr. Jorge A. Flores Valdes, Researcher Emeritus of the Institute of Physics, UNAM. This distinction is the fruit of a lifetime of work and dedication to academic life: research, teaching and dissemination of science. And who better than Jorge Flores to exemplify what academic excellence in these three pillars that sustain the life of our University.
Jorge, the researcher
Jorge Flores was born in Mexico City on February 1941. He studied physics at the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, where he graduated in 1962. In his professional thesis, conducted jointly with Dr. Pier A. Mello and directed by Dr. Marcos Moshinsky is studied theoretically tensor forces and the energy levels of atomic nuclei, using the transformation brackets developed by Marcos Moshinsky. This thesis resulted in his first research paper, along with fellow Pier Mello, published in 1963 in the journal Nuclear Physics . This article has been cited in the literature for articles published 20 years later, marks the beginning of a fruitful scientific career.
Three years later, in 1965, when he was only 24 years old, Jorge obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, also under the direction of Dr. Marcos Moshinsky. The subject of his doctoral thesis was the theory of groups and the particle-hole problem. This work resulted in three publications, which have received hundreds of citations in the literature.
Immediately after obtaining his doctorate, the new Dr. Flores performed during the two years following a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University in America.During this stay made applications of the model SU (3) a realistic nuclear interactions. This work carries out in collaboration with Rafael Perez Pascual, then his pupil.
On his return to Mexico continues to collaborate with his companion of many scientific adventures, Pier Mello and initiates fruitful collaborations around theoretical nuclear physics, with Germinal Cocho, Mauricio Fortes, Alfonso Mondragón and the late and beloved Thomas Brody.
In 1970 he traveled to France as a Visiting Professor at the Institute de Physique Nucléaire, University of Paris, Orsay. During this period (1970-1971), began a collaboration with Oriol Bohigas which results in two important articles published in the journal Physics Letters B in 1971 and have been cited over 150 times. In this work we study the statistical properties of Hamiltonian ESTOC sticos that model the interaction between two particles, this statistic became known in the literature as TBRE ( two-body random ensemble ).
During the early 70's, Jorge Flores continues to work on issues related to the statistical theory of nuclear reactions and the theory of random matrices, working closely with JB French, University of Rochester, MJ Giannoni Orsay and SSM Wong of the University Toronto. Towards the second half of the decade, this time collaborating with Estela Blaisten, J. Barojas and Ernesto Cota, Jorge enters the study of fluctuations in the electronic spectra of small particles licas met, for this purpose using techniques previously employed in the study of atomic nuclei. In 1972, the Academy of Scientific Research (now the Mexican Academy of Sciences), gives, for his career to date, the award in the area of Mathematics.
In the early 80's, Jorge venturing into a new field: the solid state of disordered systems. This line of research developed in collaboration with Jorge Joseph and Guillermo Monsivais, among others. The work of all, a whole decade is crowned with the appearance of one of the classic review articles of the 80's. I refer to the article: `` Random Matrix Physics: Spectrum and Strength Fluctuations,'' which was published in the prestigious American journal Reviews of Modern Physics in 1981. At that time it was thought that this article, besides being a review of the field, containing many new results would be useful to a somewhat limited field of specialists, mainly in the area of nuclear physics. But to the surprise of many, the techniques exposed there were central to understanding a whole new field of study that emerged in the late 70's and early 80's: Quantum Chaos. As a result of this unexpected turn in the development of physics, the article by Jorge Flores and his colleagues has been widely quoted in the literature. The September 19, 1985, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake shakes Mexico City. And not only the city but also to the conscience of its inhabitants. During the quake, hundreds of buildings collapsed or were badly damaged totally, as a result of this devastation, thousands of people were killed and thousands left homeless. In those days, of course not talking about something else, and the attention of many of the inhabitants of Mexico City focused on the disaster. Jorge Flores was no exception: a few days after the quake began appearing in newspapers the first capital city city maps showing the location of the buildings damaged during the quake. By observing these preliminary maps, Jorge saw a pattern of damage that caught her attention. Apparently, this pattern of damage was similar to the resonance patterns that arise in the physics of waves. Shortly after the earthquake, Jorge Flores began a new collaboration with Octavio Novaro and Thomas Seligman for understanding the peculiar phenomenology had been observed during the earthquakes of September 1985. This intense collaboration came a model of the seismic response of the Valley of Mexico, which allowed to understand in a coherent and unified the type of earthquake. This model consisted of analysis of the entrapment of longitudinal elastic waves in the Valley of Mexico. When trapped seismic waves generate a stationary wave pattern, which qualitatively explains the pattern of damage observed after the earthquake of September 19, 1985. Jorge Flores, Octavio Novaro and Thomas Seligman, sent the first results of this model to the prestigious British journal Nature , not only agreed to publish the work, but gave him the cover of the magazine at that time.
From that moment, Jorge Flores spent much of his time to analyze and to extend the model resonant Valley of Mexico. In 1987, when I was a graduate student, I was invited to participate in this exciting research project, which became my doctoral thesis. Over the next 10 years, published a series of papers in Geophysics and Seismology in which this model was extended. Today, Jorge Flores remains very active in this line of research, working with Octavio Novaro, Thomas Seligman and some students and, more recently, Cinna Lomnitz, Institute of Geophysics of the UNAM.
As a researcher, Jorge Flores has dabbled in many different areas: atomic nuclei, the structure of solids, the seismic response of sedimentary valleys, etc ... Even recently worked on optimization problems in Operations Research, as the traveling salesman problem. It reveals the great diversity of interests and vitality of Jorge as a researcher.
As a result of his career as a researcher, Jorge Flores has won several awards. It's National Researcher (Level III) of the National System of Researchers since 1985. He received the National University Research Sciences awarded by the UNAM, in 1988. Finally, the government of the Republic awarded him the National Prize of Sciences and Arts 1994 in the area of physical and mathematical sciences and natural.
Jorge, the discloser
The wide variety of topics of interest that grows Jorge Flores is manifested most clearly in his career as a popularizer of science. Throughout his career he has published dozens of popular articles on countless subjects. To illustrate this, simply select, arbitrarily, the titles of some of his popular articles: `` The shape of a drop of liquid,'' `` The Laplacian operator,'' `` A spinning wheel and does not slide ,'' `` The game of billiards'', `` ¨ do we know the atomic nucleus?'', `` Falling cat'', `` The center of percussion,'' `` ever had atmosphere the moon ?'', `` quasiparticles and collective modes'', `` Implications of the third law of thermodynamics,'' `` The investment of time,'' `` The magic of elliptical orbits,'' `` Images Albert Einstein,'' `` Games for parents and children,'' `` Guy and the Sinai billiard,'' `` crazy'' The Frisbee, etc., etc., etc. All of these items, totaling more than 80, were published in journals such as Physics , Nature , Science and Development , Science , Prenci, Spark , etc..
Jorge not only has written popular articles, but has also published over a dozen popular books. Along with Luis Estrada edited the book Perspectives in Biology and Physics , in two parts (1978 and 1989). Julia and C. Tagüeña wrote Elements of Calculation in 1980 and most recently in 1998 for High School Physics . With Rio Ferdinand, Concepts of Physics I: Classical Models (1986). With G. Anaya, Rigid Body Dynamics (1989). Within the series `` Science'' from Mexico, along with Guillermo Aguilar and Salvador Cruz, A Glimpse of Matter (1986). In this series, Jorge Flores wrote his own series, `` The Great Illusion,'' which refers to phenomena that have challenged experimentalists and are the great hope of many. The grand illusions, according to Jorge Flores, are: The Magnetic Monopole (1986), Quarks (1987), Gravitational Waves (1988), Cold Fusion (1992), the latter in collaboration with Arturo Menchaca.
Since its founding in 1982 to 1992 was in charge of `` program'' Sunday in the Science Academy of Scientific Research. For over a thousand sessions, hundreds of Mexican scientists gave lectures to children and youth throughout the country. Many of these sessions took place at the Museum of the Federal Commission of Electricity in the Bosque de Chapultepec. Most Sundays, there was Jorge Flores in the audience, supporting this unique project.
Jorge has held various positions related to the dissemination of science. From 1968 to 1984 he was member of the Editorial Board of Nature , a magazine dedicated to the dissemination of science. From 1969 to 1973 he served as Director of the Journal of Physics , during which he founded Applied Physics Supplement in 1972 and the Education Supplement in the same year. He was a member of the Editorial Board of the series `` Science'' from Mexico, since 1985 Editorial Board of Studies Economic Culture Fund since 1990 and the Editorial Committee of Science of the UNAM, since 1989. It has also been a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Science and Development (1983-1993) and member of the Advisory Council of Science since 1996. He founded and was the first president from 1987 to 1989 of the Mexican Society for the Dissemination of Science and Technology. In 1989, the rector Jose Sarukhan Kermez appointed him Director of the University Center for Communication Science of the UNAM, a position he held until 1997.
As if this were not enough, Jorge Flores in 1989 undertook the formidable task of building a science museum to compete with the best museums in the world.From 1989 to 1992, heading the Science Museum Project, Jorge led the conceptualization, design, construction and operation of more than 30 exhibits that allowed the construction of Universum, which opened its doors on December 12, 1992. Jorge was, without doubt, the creative force of Universum, and was its director from 1992 to 1997. From 1993 to 1997, he organized 94 exhibitions, and in total, has organized 130 exhibitions and temporary partial between 1990 and 1997, across the entire country. Note the `` exposure'' and Sport Science at the University Museum of Arts and Sciences, November 1990 to November 1991. To get an idea of the impact of this effort, suffice it to say that this single exposure to more than 192,000 people attended. In 1991, Jorge Flores was awarded the Alfonso Pruneda ``'', which is the highest academic distinction for the promotion of sport. Also in 1992 the `` exposure'' Science and Sport awarded the Sport and Olympism'' `` Joan Antonio Samaranch of the Cultural Olympiad in Barcelona 92.
Subsequently, the indefatigable Jorge Flores, was given the task of realizing another museum. This time it was a themed museum around the light, from the standpoint of both scientific and artistic. This beautiful Light Museum, opened in Mexico City in 1996, and Jorge Flores was its first director from 1996 to 1997.Throughout this massive outreach, Jorge Flores was awarded the Kalinga Prize for Science Communication 1992, UNESCO awarded annually to those who have excelled internationally in the noble task of disseminating science.
Jorge, the master
Jorge Flores has always considered a priority to human resource training and has been in direct contact with students of all levels. Since young children attending Sunday in `` Science'' to advanced students in graduate school. He has given, over his academic career, dozens of courses in the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, in both undergraduate and master's and doctoral degrees. He has also taught short courses at the universities of Princeton, Paris, Zaragoza, among others. He has also given numerous seminars and conferences in Mexico and abroad.
He has directed, sometimes in collaboration with some colleagues, 21 dissertation, and has provided advice in preparing the General Review of knowledge, to obtain a master's degree in Physics at UNAM to 18 students. Has also directed the following theses: Rafael Pascual Perez (1970), Enrique Yepez (1972); Clicerio Avilez (in collaboration, 1973), Ernesto Cota (jointly, 1976), Guillermo Monsivais (1980), Jose Luis Mateos (in collaboration, 1992).
Jorge, the organizer
Another facet of Jorge Flores is his capacity for organization and leadership, not only in the National Autonomous University of Mexico, but also outside it.
Jorge was Director of the Institute of Physics, UNAM from 1974 to 1982. In his years as director, Institute of Physics was overhauled with new equipment and laboratories; also were founded with the idea of decentralizing science, laboratories and Cuernavaca Ensenada. Currently both have independent laboratories of the Institute of Physics, the Laboratory of Ensenada is now the Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, and the Laboratory of Cuernavaca became very recently in the Physical Sciences Center, Jorge Flores which is its principal .
During the administration of President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, he served as Assistant Secretary of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Ministry of Education, during the period 1982-1985. It was in this period when Jorge Flores drove, along with Salvador Malo, the creation of the National System of Researchers, which was central to remedy in part the effects of the economic crisis at that time.
From 1973 to 1975 he served as president of the Mexican Society of Physics. In 1975 he was vice president and the next year the Academy of Scientific Research (now the Mexican Academy of Sciences). From 1987 to 1994 he was vice president of the International Center of Physics and Applied Mathematics. He is currently president of the International Center for Science in Cuernavaca, where scientists come together from many parts of the world to conduct workshops, seminars and meetings. From 1997 to date is the Coordinator of Graduate Physical Sciences at UNAM, and as recently as 1998, the rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Francisco Barnes de Castro appointed Jorge Flores, director of the Center for Physical Sciences at Cuernavaca .
Jorge, the man
When you write a profile like this, one gets the impression that this is not one, but several people: first, a successful researcher at the Institute of Physics, UNAM, then one of the great popularizers of science in Mexico, and finally, of a prominent university official. What is really surprising is that this is one person: Jorge Flores.
I had the pleasure and the privilege of working closely with Jorge since I was his graduate student. Together with him I learned what doing research. Not only that, as Jorge Flores, by example, also teaches you what the discipline and love of work.
Currently, Jorge is entering a new stage in life, directing the brand new Center for Physical Sciences at UNAM in Cuernavaca. What other projects addressed in the future? I do not know. What I do know is that likely to be important and ambitious projects, like everything he undertakes.
Congratulations Jorge and deserved congratulations for your achievements!
On February 12, 1998 the National Autonomous University of Mexico appointed Dr. Jorge A. Flores Valdes, Researcher Emeritus of the Institute of Physics, UNAM. This distinction is the fruit of a lifetime of work and dedication to academic life: research, teaching and dissemination of science. And who better than Jorge Flores to exemplify what academic excellence in these three pillars that sustain the life of our University.
Jorge, the researcher
Jorge Flores was born in Mexico City on February 1941. He studied physics at the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, where he graduated in 1962. In his professional thesis, conducted jointly with Dr. Pier A. Mello and directed by Dr. Marcos Moshinsky is studied theoretically tensor forces and the energy levels of atomic nuclei, using the transformation brackets developed by Marcos Moshinsky. This thesis resulted in his first research paper, along with fellow Pier Mello, published in 1963 in the journal Nuclear Physics . This article has been cited in the literature for articles published 20 years later, marks the beginning of a fruitful scientific career.
Three years later, in 1965, when he was only 24 years old, Jorge obtained his Ph.D. in Physics from the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, also under the direction of Dr. Marcos Moshinsky. The subject of his doctoral thesis was the theory of groups and the particle-hole problem. This work resulted in three publications, which have received hundreds of citations in the literature.
Immediately after obtaining his doctorate, the new Dr. Flores performed during the two years following a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University in America.During this stay made applications of the model SU (3) a realistic nuclear interactions. This work carries out in collaboration with Rafael Perez Pascual, then his pupil.
On his return to Mexico continues to collaborate with his companion of many scientific adventures, Pier Mello and initiates fruitful collaborations around theoretical nuclear physics, with Germinal Cocho, Mauricio Fortes, Alfonso Mondragón and the late and beloved Thomas Brody.
In 1970 he traveled to France as a Visiting Professor at the Institute de Physique Nucléaire, University of Paris, Orsay. During this period (1970-1971), began a collaboration with Oriol Bohigas which results in two important articles published in the journal Physics Letters B in 1971 and have been cited over 150 times. In this work we study the statistical properties of Hamiltonian ESTOC sticos that model the interaction between two particles, this statistic became known in the literature as TBRE ( two-body random ensemble ).
During the early 70's, Jorge Flores continues to work on issues related to the statistical theory of nuclear reactions and the theory of random matrices, working closely with JB French, University of Rochester, MJ Giannoni Orsay and SSM Wong of the University Toronto. Towards the second half of the decade, this time collaborating with Estela Blaisten, J. Barojas and Ernesto Cota, Jorge enters the study of fluctuations in the electronic spectra of small particles licas met, for this purpose using techniques previously employed in the study of atomic nuclei. In 1972, the Academy of Scientific Research (now the Mexican Academy of Sciences), gives, for his career to date, the award in the area of Mathematics.
In the early 80's, Jorge venturing into a new field: the solid state of disordered systems. This line of research developed in collaboration with Jorge Joseph and Guillermo Monsivais, among others. The work of all, a whole decade is crowned with the appearance of one of the classic review articles of the 80's. I refer to the article: `` Random Matrix Physics: Spectrum and Strength Fluctuations,'' which was published in the prestigious American journal Reviews of Modern Physics in 1981. At that time it was thought that this article, besides being a review of the field, containing many new results would be useful to a somewhat limited field of specialists, mainly in the area of nuclear physics. But to the surprise of many, the techniques exposed there were central to understanding a whole new field of study that emerged in the late 70's and early 80's: Quantum Chaos. As a result of this unexpected turn in the development of physics, the article by Jorge Flores and his colleagues has been widely quoted in the literature. The September 19, 1985, a magnitude 8.1 earthquake shakes Mexico City. And not only the city but also to the conscience of its inhabitants. During the quake, hundreds of buildings collapsed or were badly damaged totally, as a result of this devastation, thousands of people were killed and thousands left homeless. In those days, of course not talking about something else, and the attention of many of the inhabitants of Mexico City focused on the disaster. Jorge Flores was no exception: a few days after the quake began appearing in newspapers the first capital city city maps showing the location of the buildings damaged during the quake. By observing these preliminary maps, Jorge saw a pattern of damage that caught her attention. Apparently, this pattern of damage was similar to the resonance patterns that arise in the physics of waves. Shortly after the earthquake, Jorge Flores began a new collaboration with Octavio Novaro and Thomas Seligman for understanding the peculiar phenomenology had been observed during the earthquakes of September 1985. This intense collaboration came a model of the seismic response of the Valley of Mexico, which allowed to understand in a coherent and unified the type of earthquake. This model consisted of analysis of the entrapment of longitudinal elastic waves in the Valley of Mexico. When trapped seismic waves generate a stationary wave pattern, which qualitatively explains the pattern of damage observed after the earthquake of September 19, 1985. Jorge Flores, Octavio Novaro and Thomas Seligman, sent the first results of this model to the prestigious British journal Nature , not only agreed to publish the work, but gave him the cover of the magazine at that time.
From that moment, Jorge Flores spent much of his time to analyze and to extend the model resonant Valley of Mexico. In 1987, when I was a graduate student, I was invited to participate in this exciting research project, which became my doctoral thesis. Over the next 10 years, published a series of papers in Geophysics and Seismology in which this model was extended. Today, Jorge Flores remains very active in this line of research, working with Octavio Novaro, Thomas Seligman and some students and, more recently, Cinna Lomnitz, Institute of Geophysics of the UNAM.
As a researcher, Jorge Flores has dabbled in many different areas: atomic nuclei, the structure of solids, the seismic response of sedimentary valleys, etc ... Even recently worked on optimization problems in Operations Research, as the traveling salesman problem. It reveals the great diversity of interests and vitality of Jorge as a researcher.
As a result of his career as a researcher, Jorge Flores has won several awards. It's National Researcher (Level III) of the National System of Researchers since 1985. He received the National University Research Sciences awarded by the UNAM, in 1988. Finally, the government of the Republic awarded him the National Prize of Sciences and Arts 1994 in the area of physical and mathematical sciences and natural.
Jorge, the discloser
The wide variety of topics of interest that grows Jorge Flores is manifested most clearly in his career as a popularizer of science. Throughout his career he has published dozens of popular articles on countless subjects. To illustrate this, simply select, arbitrarily, the titles of some of his popular articles: `` The shape of a drop of liquid,'' `` The Laplacian operator,'' `` A spinning wheel and does not slide ,'' `` The game of billiards'', `` ¨ do we know the atomic nucleus?'', `` Falling cat'', `` The center of percussion,'' `` ever had atmosphere the moon ?'', `` quasiparticles and collective modes'', `` Implications of the third law of thermodynamics,'' `` The investment of time,'' `` The magic of elliptical orbits,'' `` Images Albert Einstein,'' `` Games for parents and children,'' `` Guy and the Sinai billiard,'' `` crazy'' The Frisbee, etc., etc., etc. All of these items, totaling more than 80, were published in journals such as Physics , Nature , Science and Development , Science , Prenci, Spark , etc..
Jorge not only has written popular articles, but has also published over a dozen popular books. Along with Luis Estrada edited the book Perspectives in Biology and Physics , in two parts (1978 and 1989). Julia and C. Tagüeña wrote Elements of Calculation in 1980 and most recently in 1998 for High School Physics . With Rio Ferdinand, Concepts of Physics I: Classical Models (1986). With G. Anaya, Rigid Body Dynamics (1989). Within the series `` Science'' from Mexico, along with Guillermo Aguilar and Salvador Cruz, A Glimpse of Matter (1986). In this series, Jorge Flores wrote his own series, `` The Great Illusion,'' which refers to phenomena that have challenged experimentalists and are the great hope of many. The grand illusions, according to Jorge Flores, are: The Magnetic Monopole (1986), Quarks (1987), Gravitational Waves (1988), Cold Fusion (1992), the latter in collaboration with Arturo Menchaca.
Since its founding in 1982 to 1992 was in charge of `` program'' Sunday in the Science Academy of Scientific Research. For over a thousand sessions, hundreds of Mexican scientists gave lectures to children and youth throughout the country. Many of these sessions took place at the Museum of the Federal Commission of Electricity in the Bosque de Chapultepec. Most Sundays, there was Jorge Flores in the audience, supporting this unique project.
Jorge has held various positions related to the dissemination of science. From 1968 to 1984 he was member of the Editorial Board of Nature , a magazine dedicated to the dissemination of science. From 1969 to 1973 he served as Director of the Journal of Physics , during which he founded Applied Physics Supplement in 1972 and the Education Supplement in the same year. He was a member of the Editorial Board of the series `` Science'' from Mexico, since 1985 Editorial Board of Studies Economic Culture Fund since 1990 and the Editorial Committee of Science of the UNAM, since 1989. It has also been a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Science and Development (1983-1993) and member of the Advisory Council of Science since 1996. He founded and was the first president from 1987 to 1989 of the Mexican Society for the Dissemination of Science and Technology. In 1989, the rector Jose Sarukhan Kermez appointed him Director of the University Center for Communication Science of the UNAM, a position he held until 1997.
As if this were not enough, Jorge Flores in 1989 undertook the formidable task of building a science museum to compete with the best museums in the world.From 1989 to 1992, heading the Science Museum Project, Jorge led the conceptualization, design, construction and operation of more than 30 exhibits that allowed the construction of Universum, which opened its doors on December 12, 1992. Jorge was, without doubt, the creative force of Universum, and was its director from 1992 to 1997. From 1993 to 1997, he organized 94 exhibitions, and in total, has organized 130 exhibitions and temporary partial between 1990 and 1997, across the entire country. Note the `` exposure'' and Sport Science at the University Museum of Arts and Sciences, November 1990 to November 1991. To get an idea of the impact of this effort, suffice it to say that this single exposure to more than 192,000 people attended. In 1991, Jorge Flores was awarded the Alfonso Pruneda ``'', which is the highest academic distinction for the promotion of sport. Also in 1992 the `` exposure'' Science and Sport awarded the Sport and Olympism'' `` Joan Antonio Samaranch of the Cultural Olympiad in Barcelona 92.
Subsequently, the indefatigable Jorge Flores, was given the task of realizing another museum. This time it was a themed museum around the light, from the standpoint of both scientific and artistic. This beautiful Light Museum, opened in Mexico City in 1996, and Jorge Flores was its first director from 1996 to 1997.Throughout this massive outreach, Jorge Flores was awarded the Kalinga Prize for Science Communication 1992, UNESCO awarded annually to those who have excelled internationally in the noble task of disseminating science.
Jorge, the master
Jorge Flores has always considered a priority to human resource training and has been in direct contact with students of all levels. Since young children attending Sunday in `` Science'' to advanced students in graduate school. He has given, over his academic career, dozens of courses in the Faculty of Sciences of the UNAM, in both undergraduate and master's and doctoral degrees. He has also taught short courses at the universities of Princeton, Paris, Zaragoza, among others. He has also given numerous seminars and conferences in Mexico and abroad.
He has directed, sometimes in collaboration with some colleagues, 21 dissertation, and has provided advice in preparing the General Review of knowledge, to obtain a master's degree in Physics at UNAM to 18 students. Has also directed the following theses: Rafael Pascual Perez (1970), Enrique Yepez (1972); Clicerio Avilez (in collaboration, 1973), Ernesto Cota (jointly, 1976), Guillermo Monsivais (1980), Jose Luis Mateos (in collaboration, 1992).
Jorge, the organizer
Another facet of Jorge Flores is his capacity for organization and leadership, not only in the National Autonomous University of Mexico, but also outside it.
Jorge was Director of the Institute of Physics, UNAM from 1974 to 1982. In his years as director, Institute of Physics was overhauled with new equipment and laboratories; also were founded with the idea of decentralizing science, laboratories and Cuernavaca Ensenada. Currently both have independent laboratories of the Institute of Physics, the Laboratory of Ensenada is now the Center for Condensed Matter Sciences, and the Laboratory of Cuernavaca became very recently in the Physical Sciences Center, Jorge Flores which is its principal .
During the administration of President Miguel de la Madrid Hurtado, he served as Assistant Secretary of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Ministry of Education, during the period 1982-1985. It was in this period when Jorge Flores drove, along with Salvador Malo, the creation of the National System of Researchers, which was central to remedy in part the effects of the economic crisis at that time.
From 1973 to 1975 he served as president of the Mexican Society of Physics. In 1975 he was vice president and the next year the Academy of Scientific Research (now the Mexican Academy of Sciences). From 1987 to 1994 he was vice president of the International Center of Physics and Applied Mathematics. He is currently president of the International Center for Science in Cuernavaca, where scientists come together from many parts of the world to conduct workshops, seminars and meetings. From 1997 to date is the Coordinator of Graduate Physical Sciences at UNAM, and as recently as 1998, the rector of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Francisco Barnes de Castro appointed Jorge Flores, director of the Center for Physical Sciences at Cuernavaca .
Jorge, the man
When you write a profile like this, one gets the impression that this is not one, but several people: first, a successful researcher at the Institute of Physics, UNAM, then one of the great popularizers of science in Mexico, and finally, of a prominent university official. What is really surprising is that this is one person: Jorge Flores.
I had the pleasure and the privilege of working closely with Jorge since I was his graduate student. Together with him I learned what doing research. Not only that, as Jorge Flores, by example, also teaches you what the discipline and love of work.
Currently, Jorge is entering a new stage in life, directing the brand new Center for Physical Sciences at UNAM in Cuernavaca. What other projects addressed in the future? I do not know. What I do know is that likely to be important and ambitious projects, like everything he undertakes.
Congratulations Jorge and deserved congratulations for your achievements!
José Luis Mateos
Institute of Physics, UNAM
Taken From Sociedad Mexicana de FisicaInstitute of Physics, UNAM
Translated with Google Translate.
Daniel Kahneman
Reading Kahneman's book: Thinking, Fast and Slow, I am becoming his fan. Professor Kahneman received a Nobel Prize in Economics with Amos Tversky. Here I apply what I've understood to two situations.
On Tuesday Mexico had a repeat of a 1985 situation, unlike that awful day on September 19, this time buildings did not collapse. You can read in the Nature note above the comments on the differences in both situations. Professor Jorge Flores explained that event. I will say that these two events are good examples of System 2 in action. According to Kahneman, the slow System 2 calculates, and ponders, System 1 reacts. A chimpanzee does not plan as much as we do, its society cannot produce complex megalopolises as we can, it mainly reacts fast to threats. Humans do better than that.
The other example is what a friend of mine is doing in Mexico. He is married with kids and with little money, very little money. My situation is not that different; I hope that by using our two systems, we both can get out of the financial holes we are in.
Knowledge is possible, and beats just reacting to events.
Thanks Professor Kahneman!
On Tuesday Mexico had a repeat of a 1985 situation, unlike that awful day on September 19, this time buildings did not collapse. You can read in the Nature note above the comments on the differences in both situations. Professor Jorge Flores explained that event. I will say that these two events are good examples of System 2 in action. According to Kahneman, the slow System 2 calculates, and ponders, System 1 reacts. A chimpanzee does not plan as much as we do, its society cannot produce complex megalopolises as we can, it mainly reacts fast to threats. Humans do better than that.
The other example is what a friend of mine is doing in Mexico. He is married with kids and with little money, very little money. My situation is not that different; I hope that by using our two systems, we both can get out of the financial holes we are in.
Knowledge is possible, and beats just reacting to events.
Thanks Professor Kahneman!
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Müller and Masanes
1. The state of a composite system is characterized
by the statistics of measurements on the individual
components.
2. All systems that effectively carry the same amount of information have equivalent state spaces.
3. Every pure state of a system can be transformed into every other by continuous reversible time evolution.
4. In systems that carry one bit of information, all measurements which give non-negative probabilities are allowed by the theory.
Postulates for Quantum Mechanics
kinematic Sudayev Zel'dovich
Discussion and Prospects. The signal in Fig. 1 represents the first measurement of the cosmic velocity field made directly with respect to the rest frame of the universe. It is consistent with simulations based on the standard cosmological model. This signal is also the first detection of the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect.
The measurement we have presented here is the first step on a new path to constraining structure growth in the universe.
Hunger Games and Trayvon
Trayvon is going to be remembered tonight in NYC.
Hunger Games opens on Friday.
It is sad to know that our kids are aware that they are killed randomly in the streets. That is how I understand their fascination with this horrible dystopia.
Shame on us!
We have made Hansel and Gretel very, very passé.
Time Magazine on Trayvon
Hunger Games opens on Friday.
It is sad to know that our kids are aware that they are killed randomly in the streets. That is how I understand their fascination with this horrible dystopia.
Shame on us!
We have made Hansel and Gretel very, very passé.
Time Magazine on Trayvon
On a lighter note than this post, and maybe more productive optimistic tone read:
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Why Didn't the Dog Bark?
American Thinker
Sometimes it is more important to know: What did not happen, than what happened?
Sometimes it is more important to know: What did not happen, than what happened?
- Why Computer Physics has not produced a Nobel Prize?
- Why haven't ETs been discovered?
- Why there is not a Theory of Everything?
I assume the Higgs particle will be announced this summer.
By now, I expected the proton mass computer calculation to have been recognized by the Nobel Committee. I believe this has to do with the politics of Physics, as when Einstein got the Prize for the Photoelectric Effect. As the late Abraham Pais, explained in his book, "Subtle is the Lord". As it happened, nobody in that Committee was qualified to understand other major Einstein works.
Enrico Fermi gave one answer to the second question: There aren't any.
Finally, I believe that the answer to the third is: There is only an Effective Theory.
At this point in human evolution, all we can aspire to have is a better and better Effective Field Theory.
Uplifted!
Why Nations Fail?
In their new book linked above; Acemoglu and Robinson claim it is politics that makes countries fail.
After living all my life in an almost failed state, Mexico, I vow to that.
The level of corruption makes my country practically a dictatorship. Gangs of kids in Tamaulipas State, just across the border from Texas, terrorize law abiding citizens. This is the "Lord of the Flies" writ large, very large, as you can read in the NYT, [link].
I feel well; I brought my immediate family out of harm's way. We are all in the US.
Thanks US!.
In their new book linked above; Acemoglu and Robinson claim it is politics that makes countries fail.
After living all my life in an almost failed state, Mexico, I vow to that.
The level of corruption makes my country practically a dictatorship. Gangs of kids in Tamaulipas State, just across the border from Texas, terrorize law abiding citizens. This is the "Lord of the Flies" writ large, very large, as you can read in the NYT, [link].
I feel well; I brought my immediate family out of harm's way. We are all in the US.
Thanks US!.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Nobelists or Almost Nobelists I Have Met
- Richard P. Feynman
- Robert Brout
- Pierre de Gennes
- George E. Uhlenbeck
- Julian Schwinger
- John A. Wheeler
- Alexei V. Filippenko
- Kenneth Wilson
- Stephen Hawking
- Leon Lederman
- Carlo Rubbia
- Richard E. Taylor
- Wolfgang Paul
- James Bjorken
- Gerardus 't Hooft
- James Cronin
Monday, March 12, 2012
The Information Law
Physics categories recapitulate human consciousness. Eyes allowed animals to move mass more efficiently, Bejan's Constructal Law, clearly states that flow produces conditions for better flow, in an evolutionary theory of natural pattern formation, time acquires a direction, a so-called arrow of time, when the river beds become better and better at moving water from point A to point B.
Before eyes, used by animals to better move fluids, rivers were moving water in huge rivers all over the world. Drops formed, and found their most efficient way down, guided by the Earth's gravity field without eyes. Before eyes then, we had two physics categories: Mass and motion. Motion is associated by humans, with three dimensional space and one dimensional time.
Another category has to be added, namely Information.
It is not enough to only answer; what moves? we also need to answer how it moves? The answer to the first question is mass, and the answer to the second is; it moves according to Newton's Laws. Actually I believe we also have to answer; how does mass finds the path? Newton just postulated a mysterious action at a distance, a force moves mass at a distance. The only force he proposed was Gravity, which goes as:
$$F = - \frac{GMm}{r^2}$$
Wikipedia
Now Bejan leads us a step ahead, how does the fluid "know", how to move, Bejan says, follow the path of easier movement, changing that path all the time, in an evolutionary way. This is new. Nobody I know, has stated it so well.
Now I say: A new Physics category is Information. Information is the pattern in space-time that matter follows. There is a field marking the path which the fluid will take. More precisely, the pattern made by moving matter is an Information field, telling the fluid which way to go.
I do not know the nature of fields. Physicists have identified four fields: Gravity, Electromagnetic, Weak Nuclear, and Strong Nuclear, in the so-called Standard Model. To be exact Gravity does not fit in the Standard Model yet, but after the recent detection of the Higgs Particle (it may be made official this Summer), invented by François Englert, and my Professor Robert Brout, the only loose end for a theory of the four forces or fields is Gravity.
We only have an abstract description of these forces, but I do not know what they are made of, I even feel that the question is not well posed, they may not be made of anything, the only thing we know is that matter follows paths: therefore I prefer to think of this Information Field, and Professor Bejan has taken the first step as to its nature with his Constuctal Law.
Read the Book.
Before eyes, used by animals to better move fluids, rivers were moving water in huge rivers all over the world. Drops formed, and found their most efficient way down, guided by the Earth's gravity field without eyes. Before eyes then, we had two physics categories: Mass and motion. Motion is associated by humans, with three dimensional space and one dimensional time.
Another category has to be added, namely Information.
It is not enough to only answer; what moves? we also need to answer how it moves? The answer to the first question is mass, and the answer to the second is; it moves according to Newton's Laws. Actually I believe we also have to answer; how does mass finds the path? Newton just postulated a mysterious action at a distance, a force moves mass at a distance. The only force he proposed was Gravity, which goes as:
$$F = - \frac{GMm}{r^2}$$
Wikipedia
Now Bejan leads us a step ahead, how does the fluid "know", how to move, Bejan says, follow the path of easier movement, changing that path all the time, in an evolutionary way. This is new. Nobody I know, has stated it so well.
Now I say: A new Physics category is Information. Information is the pattern in space-time that matter follows. There is a field marking the path which the fluid will take. More precisely, the pattern made by moving matter is an Information field, telling the fluid which way to go.
I do not know the nature of fields. Physicists have identified four fields: Gravity, Electromagnetic, Weak Nuclear, and Strong Nuclear, in the so-called Standard Model. To be exact Gravity does not fit in the Standard Model yet, but after the recent detection of the Higgs Particle (it may be made official this Summer), invented by François Englert, and my Professor Robert Brout, the only loose end for a theory of the four forces or fields is Gravity.
We only have an abstract description of these forces, but I do not know what they are made of, I even feel that the question is not well posed, they may not be made of anything, the only thing we know is that matter follows paths: therefore I prefer to think of this Information Field, and Professor Bejan has taken the first step as to its nature with his Constuctal Law.
Read the Book.
Friday, March 9, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Constructal Law
If I want to apply this Law to Physics, I have to understand it better.
Here I compare it to Julian Barbour's ideas as expressed in his book "The End of Time".
Barbour pays attention to patterns, patterns in 3D, as seen in a 1D timeline. The time dimension for Barbour is not real. He can do Physics without time. Time is just a useful mathematical convention.
For Bejan, time and flux are very real. Nevertheless his emphasis is new. He sees a regularity that nobody had seen before. Matter not only flows, it flows in such a way, that it gets easier and easier for it to flow, in a never ending evolutionary process, by producing a pattern.
Finally, this pattern - I call it an Information Field - directs the Design in Nature. That is my take inside of Physics of Bejan's discovery. Now I have to apply it to the Expanding Proton.
Here I compare it to Julian Barbour's ideas as expressed in his book "The End of Time".
Barbour pays attention to patterns, patterns in 3D, as seen in a 1D timeline. The time dimension for Barbour is not real. He can do Physics without time. Time is just a useful mathematical convention.
For Bejan, time and flux are very real. Nevertheless his emphasis is new. He sees a regularity that nobody had seen before. Matter not only flows, it flows in such a way, that it gets easier and easier for it to flow, in a never ending evolutionary process, by producing a pattern.
Finally, this pattern - I call it an Information Field - directs the Design in Nature. That is my take inside of Physics of Bejan's discovery. Now I have to apply it to the Expanding Proton.
Symmetry breaking and the Scalar boson - evolving perspectives
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
So What?
OK now I know why protons get bigger as they accelerate. Can I patent that?
I have kept a blog for high school students called Relevant Science; the intention is to encourage them to follow a scientific career. Right now my brother in law is the head of the Mexican Mathematical Society, he is telling young students why they should study mathematics, that it is good for business and all that. But then, why the richest Mexican, who is himself the richest man on Earth, is not a mathematician? Carlos Slim Helu only has a bachelors degree in Civil Engineering. No; the only valid reason to study mathematics or physics, is because one wants to know why does the proton grow perpendicular to its motion.
Now I know; and other people, likely in the future, will profit from this fact. For now, I can go to sleep peacefully.
You know what? My brother in law does mathematics because he loves it!
I have kept a blog for high school students called Relevant Science; the intention is to encourage them to follow a scientific career. Right now my brother in law is the head of the Mexican Mathematical Society, he is telling young students why they should study mathematics, that it is good for business and all that. But then, why the richest Mexican, who is himself the richest man on Earth, is not a mathematician? Carlos Slim Helu only has a bachelors degree in Civil Engineering. No; the only valid reason to study mathematics or physics, is because one wants to know why does the proton grow perpendicular to its motion.
Now I know; and other people, likely in the future, will profit from this fact. For now, I can go to sleep peacefully.
You know what? My brother in law does mathematics because he loves it!
Expanding Proton and Constructal Law
Professor Bejan designed a microcircuit cooling system without moving parts. He arranged the system in such a way that heat will go from hot to cold in a tree-like path.
My Ph.D. thesis was on the Expanding Proton. The calculations are elaborate, but now reading Bejan's book, "Design in Nature," I understand it differently.
The flow of energy goes from the line where the high energy proton moves, towards the edges perpendicular to it. This produces a kind of halo, which we call a Expanding Proton.
After almost forty years, I finally understand.
Thank you Adrian Bejan!
My Ph.D. thesis was on the Expanding Proton. The calculations are elaborate, but now reading Bejan's book, "Design in Nature," I understand it differently.
The flow of energy goes from the line where the high energy proton moves, towards the edges perpendicular to it. This produces a kind of halo, which we call a Expanding Proton.
After almost forty years, I finally understand.
Thank you Adrian Bejan!
Monday, March 5, 2012
Sofia Wilen, Design in Nature and All That
Professor Adrian Bejan has discovered a fundamental principle of Nature. He calls it "The Constructal Law." We can see an example in Highway 12, not far from Duke University where he works. Read the NYT article here. You can find the book here. I am reading it right now.
Here I write my thoughts so far.
Why Sofia Wilen?
I looked for her picture online some time ago, and I posted it here. It seems to me that she, or her friends are intent on suppressing her picture from my site, I can only speculate on the reasons; but I found it and posted it again.
The information, in this case her picture, has been appearing and disappearing from my site. According to Professor Bejan, as I understand his theory at this point in my studies, flow and pattern go together. Flow not only obeys two Thermodynamic Laws, - The Law of Conservation of Energy, and what is called the Second Law - but also a New Law, one which he calls, "The Constructal Law, " I paraphrase it here: The flow of extended objects, produces changes to the environment. The result of these changes is to improve the flow. In other words, they produce their own path, they produce structure. In short, matter moves, and that motion makes a path. Of course then the path changes the flow, in a never ending Thermodynamic Process, that shapes the Universe we live in. Einstein discovered a similar, but more abstract principle, almost a hundred years ago, in 1916. He said, matter curves space, and space moves matter; or as John Archibald Wheeler used to say: Matter Tells Space How to Curve, and Space Tells Matter How to Move.
Wilen's picture changes my website. I try to put it there, and somebody, or something, is trying to take it off from there. The flow of information depends on the html marks I put, and the marks in other sites. The end result is that the Noosphere is morphing as you read this. We are witnessing the fastest change in our history, the Noosphere change. The Sea Level in North Carolina is changing as well, and the people whose livelihood depends on that level, are doing everything they can to keep it as it was. They made money with the old sea level; the new one is costing them.
If any businessman from Rodanthe N.C. is reading this, and wonders on her or his course of action, she or he, can consult me. At this point now, they can get a more professional assessment from Professor Bejan at Durham N.C.. Do not waste your time putting more sandbags. Those won't work, I can tell you that much.
Here I write my thoughts so far.
Why Sofia Wilen?
I looked for her picture online some time ago, and I posted it here. It seems to me that she, or her friends are intent on suppressing her picture from my site, I can only speculate on the reasons; but I found it and posted it again.
The information, in this case her picture, has been appearing and disappearing from my site. According to Professor Bejan, as I understand his theory at this point in my studies, flow and pattern go together. Flow not only obeys two Thermodynamic Laws, - The Law of Conservation of Energy, and what is called the Second Law - but also a New Law, one which he calls, "The Constructal Law, " I paraphrase it here: The flow of extended objects, produces changes to the environment. The result of these changes is to improve the flow. In other words, they produce their own path, they produce structure. In short, matter moves, and that motion makes a path. Of course then the path changes the flow, in a never ending Thermodynamic Process, that shapes the Universe we live in. Einstein discovered a similar, but more abstract principle, almost a hundred years ago, in 1916. He said, matter curves space, and space moves matter; or as John Archibald Wheeler used to say: Matter Tells Space How to Curve, and Space Tells Matter How to Move.
Wilen's picture changes my website. I try to put it there, and somebody, or something, is trying to take it off from there. The flow of information depends on the html marks I put, and the marks in other sites. The end result is that the Noosphere is morphing as you read this. We are witnessing the fastest change in our history, the Noosphere change. The Sea Level in North Carolina is changing as well, and the people whose livelihood depends on that level, are doing everything they can to keep it as it was. They made money with the old sea level; the new one is costing them.
If any businessman from Rodanthe N.C. is reading this, and wonders on her or his course of action, she or he, can consult me. At this point now, they can get a more professional assessment from Professor Bejan at Durham N.C.. Do not waste your time putting more sandbags. Those won't work, I can tell you that much.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
The Weather
Yesterday I went to pick up my daughter and her boy friend at the train station. They had a literary presentation in Chicago. While I was waiting, there were these strange winds, coming from the North West, and going towards the South East. There was snow in the wind. At that time thirty or so people died a few miles to the South East around Marysville Indiana, [link].
Weird.
Weird.
Rachel Rabinowitz
“She [Rachel] was the five senses, and she led one into a sharper state of awareness—an almost extrasensory response.”
Rachel Rabinowitz loved learning. She was never deterred in her desire to improve her mind. This led her to challenge conventional thinking. She had a keen sense of humor, coupled with the ability to delight everyone with original, pithy, witty phrases that came from her wide range of experiences throughout the world.
Rachel was an avid reader and a voracious seeker of knowledge. Although she worked hard with her small body and great mind (five feet tall and 100 pounds brimming with energy), she always made time to read—if not during the day, at least in bed at night before falling asleep. She loved to share the knowledge she gained. This credo has been a guiding light in the writing of this book
Examples of Her Wit, Wisdom, and Insights:
To see mankind in one child
And with war be reviled.
To hold the future in your arms
And in everyone find charms.
Whenever possible to avoid strife.
These are true purposes in life.
Opinions are expendable, but life and love are not. When you have love, you don't need anything else.
I am not getting old. I'm only getting seasoned.
At one time everybody thought that the world was flat.
Then they decided that it is round.
Today we all know that it is crooked.
For some people a kiss is upstairs bargaining for downstairs shopping.
One needs education to serve others as well as yourself. But education without purpose is like a ship without a rudder, carrying a cargo of never to be read books.
God let's the laws He created do the micromanaging.
There are all too few helping hands, and all too many obstacles that lead to life's failures. That is why life contains more trials and tribulations than triumphs.
What's the answer to war – hot or cold?
We must embrace both – so we are told.
To deny this is bold.
But we'll not be sold.
Not because we are old.
We just don't fit the mold.
A memory is as faithful to us as we are to the memory.
The beauty of humanity is that we are alike in general and yet each of us is different. We are like beautiful flowers that differ in fragrance, appearance, and purpose.
At times life is beyond our control.
Life also seems useless without a goal.
Don't blame anyone for feeling despondent
When fate keeps you from being resplendent.
Whenever I'm dreary with such despair,
I beseech God with Reinhold Niebuhr's prayer.
A mature person bears injustices without anger or wanting to get even. Don't let others change you from what you are in the face of inequities. Be good in your own right. When people treat you badly, even though it really hurts, don't retaliate.
In Plato's Republic, democracy was the second worst form of government—just below tyranny. Plato considered democracy to be vulnerable to mob rule that could easily become tyranny if a rabble-rouser convinced the mob that he could give them what they want. This is how Hitler came into power.
The history of civilization shows that more civilized people are more consistent.
Yet consistency is not only not inherent in human nature, it is not inherent in all living things.
The more we know, the more ways there are to combine knowledge and facts. It is not obvious that this will lead to a convergence of knowledge. It may also lead to a divergence.
Product Name: Rachel, The Little Lady that Could: Her Life, Wisdom, Wit, Poetry, and Singular Insights. eBooks. Kindle Edition. Manufacturer: Mario Rabinowitz. ASIN: B005QV5AT4. Price: $3.99
Mario Rabinowitz
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