tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51465500656871138812011-04-21T15:21:01.525-04:00Thoughts on Life-in-a-Small-USA-Town, Parenting, American Countries, and Academia.papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.comBlogger311100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-61429570364626611402009-04-02T10:46:00.000-04:002009-04-02T10:47:04.453-04:00

A few days ago the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said at a news conference during a visit by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, that white, blue-eye people are responsible for the financial and economic crisis at this moment (2009). This type of thinking has a long history in America (as in the Western Hemisphere) with is clearest manifestation in the Manifest Destiny that racialized

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-57168124216516386522008-12-13T09:21:00.002-05:002008-12-13T10:15:22.077-05:00

I keep coming back to Twitter. After less than a year using it, I am still wondering about it. It is just random no-sense; it is the broadcasting of trivial information; it is a place for quick conversations; it is a news center; it is becoming a PR tool for companies; and so on. It is many things and navigating all of them can be difficult. In my case, I am following more than 250 people: many

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-61765258443361889652008-11-16T16:43:00.001-05:002008-11-16T16:44:47.692-05:00

This comes in the news: "From California to Maine, police have documented a range of [racist] incidents, including vandalism, threats and at least one physical attack. There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes." These are worrisome signs. We

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-38165303397332288682008-11-02T15:51:00.002-05:002008-11-02T15:55:00.764-05:00

Feynman, 1962: "The purpose of scientific thought is to predict what will happen in given experimental circumstances. All the philosophical discussion is an evasion of the point. The mesons do not go at the speed of light." (Note: "In particle physics, a meson is a strongly interacting boson—that is, a hadron with integer spin."——wikipedia, "Mason") I discussed the difference between scientific

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-74747824417348271692008-11-01T15:41:00.003-04:002008-11-01T15:43:59.558-04:00

I have been using twitter (a micro-blogging tool) for almost six months or so. I am following a number of people connected to particular areas of interest: a group of journalists, a group of Colombians (in Bogotá, Medellín, and Cali), a group of newspapers, a group of social-network entrepreneurs (or whatever they call themselves), a group of postgraduate students; a group of moms working from

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-63976038156878372112008-10-31T11:49:00.002-04:002008-10-31T12:02:08.763-04:00

Blogging has been more difficult for me than I expected because, first, I have not been able to find my voice for this kind of writing and the topics/themes I would like to cover. On the themes/topics, I keep moving the "field": is it about themes related to my teaching? Yes. Is it about every day frames----risotto, geese flying, the snow? Um, yes but not really. The other difficulty is

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-2063718400871305052008-10-13T13:09:00.001-04:002008-10-13T13:09:21.389-04:00

The basis of reality is memory (short-term/long-term memory): without memory there is no way of establishing your own reality, our own reality. If I can not remember the wall behind me, I can not establish the reality of this room.

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-25906942638372498032008-09-30T18:53:00.002-04:002008-09-30T18:56:53.623-04:00

Yesterday I made risotto with shrimps and cilantro. The key for cooking rice is the broth, so I had made a chicken broth in the morning. I had high expectations because I had not made rissoto in a long time. In my risottos I use wine and garlic (nothing especial about that the recipe calls for them) and chicken broth, the rest is whatever I want to put on it. When I finished pouring the broth and

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-3372971249904833652008-09-29T08:23:00.005-04:002008-09-29T08:34:39.611-04:00

Yesterday, my daughter and her friend were playing dolls; they were pretending that one of the dolls was at the hospital. My daughter said, "There is a war in Iraq, let's pretend she is at the hospital in Iraq." After a short silence, her friend responded, "No, let's pretend they belong to a different time." They continued with their conversation. They sounded striking similar to us, adults, in

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-512404958899014222008-09-26T09:37:00.002-04:002008-09-26T09:41:12.175-04:00

McCain is suspending the debate with Obama, he explains that this is because he is going to Washington to discuss the financial crisis. Um. Is he trying to play the heroe? Did he panic? In either case, he has made a mistake: the debates are important and the country needs to hear the candidates, face to face, and make a decision as to whom would be our best leader. I do not have a doubt about it,

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-17967910836842681742008-09-22T22:23:00.000-04:002008-09-22T22:24:06.916-04:00

Between 1970 and 2003, the USA has invaded five countries——in what the US calls "operations":2003: Iraq: Operation Iraqi Freedom.1994: Haiti: Operation Uphold Democracy.1989: Panama: Operation Just Cause.1983: Granada: Operation Urgent Fury.1970: Cambodia, part of the Vietnam War, not particular name.People who were in their 20s in the 1970s have witnessed five invasions already. These people are

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-72352941151886780222008-09-22T21:58:00.001-04:002008-09-22T22:01:51.225-04:00

I am back to my blog. I was quite busy this week after my trip to Madrid. I met not only scholars in the history of alchemy but also practitioners of alchemy (distillation practices). This group came from Canada, USA, Germany, England, and Spain and they knew their symbols and recipes and talked about energy fields and lunar influences. The existence of this group was a surprise to me: I did not

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-11828918885551054872008-09-22T21:08:00.003-04:002008-09-22T21:15:21.527-04:00

The Bush Administration is now in conversations with Congress to design $700 billion intervention plat to rescue the financial system. The Chavez administration has been intervening in the Venezuelan economy for some time now. As mentioned in previous posts, the Bush and Chavez administration share a number of striking similarities: both have placed their administration above their respective

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-71714300513371659902008-08-31T16:49:00.003-04:002008-08-31T17:13:21.689-04:00

I recently came back from Colombia. Colombia seems to be doing better now than few years ago. People is traveling within the country. Foreigners are coming back to the country, especially from Europe. During a visit to a tropical jungle in near the Magdalena River, I met a women from Wales, England, who was traveling by herself and who mentioned that Colombia is once again a destination for

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-77982247875654848522008-06-16T10:57:00.003-04:002008-06-16T11:37:58.175-04:00

Yesterday I talked to a friend who mentioned she tries to be self-sufficient in terms of food (and, so she grows her own food). She can not be fully self-sufficient, she explained to me, so she buys from farmers in the area. She said, "food is important to me." I responded, "food is also important for me, and most people, but I am not trying to be self-sufficient. I buy at the supermarket and the

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-39470242960767893722008-05-30T09:39:00.002-04:002008-05-30T09:54:32.477-04:00

I have been using twitter for few weeks already. I have read some people refer to it as a community, as utility, as a broadcasting tool. I am still intrigued by it: it is a tool, a medium, to create communities and foster conversations. In many cases, groups of friends and colleagues have created those communities and continue conversations that began in living-rooms, coffee shops, conferences,

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-54618326068283727482008-05-23T10:37:00.002-04:002008-05-23T10:39:29.554-04:00

Blogs seem to have opened this incredible opportunity for almost everybody with a computer to write about almost everything and "publish" it. Those in their 20s, people who have finished college recently and are now at the beginning of their professional lives, seem to have embraced blogs and social networking fully (not that people in their 30s and 40s have not done so themselves but I am

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-3717321563573401532008-05-19T18:28:00.002-04:002008-05-19T18:30:20.981-04:00

Sunday was graduation day at my institution. It rained and rained and we (students, parents, and faculty) sat throughout the ceremony: some of us shrank a little bit, just enough to make our clothes a little bit looser. The 08 graduates are moving into a complicated world (but, then again, who has not): a war with no end in sight; gas prices rising; food prices also rising; and a dollar weak and

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-33078589681951279632008-05-19T09:56:00.005-04:002008-05-19T18:29:41.961-04:00

A "Twitter Moment" is an ordinary moment that becomes interesting and public by blogging it; or it is just an ordinary moment that becomes public. Whatever it is, a twitter moment is now a temporal category. I am intrigued by Twitter. I began a week or so ago: I opened my account after reading about a professor who used it in his class. I thought I would give it a try during the Summer and then,

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-81414073093544980012008-05-15T10:07:00.001-04:002008-05-15T10:09:45.776-04:00

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-70367408406996092492008-05-12T14:45:00.002-04:002008-05-12T16:28:54.291-04:00

I tell my students that their thinking process (in general) do not belong to the papers they write for me: a paper is about (in general) the argument and the evidence, not about their actual thinking process. The kind of thing I am doing here does not belong to a paper about the development of empirical practices at the House of Trade (Casa de la Contratacion) in Seville, Spain between 1520s and

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-75404257895837219292008-05-09T22:08:00.019-04:002008-05-09T23:36:06.325-04:00

Via discurse.net

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-60265534727638711472008-05-09T16:17:00.003-04:002008-05-09T16:55:46.296-04:00

From the storm in Burma to the civil war(?) in Lebanon, high oil prices, the war (of choice) in Iraq, the political situation in Zimbabwe, the Darfur tragedy, the shaky economy in the USA, the rise in food prices, we are facing difficult times at the global, regional, and local levels. These mega-events, events that seem to be outside our control, come on top (or behind or below) our own

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-36517161322769606772008-05-07T10:36:00.002-04:002008-05-09T16:22:26.053-04:00

My neighbors decided to cut down the tree on their backyard——it had become a hazard. It was a beautiful, tall, old pine tree. I could hear the sawing machines outside while I was working when Lola came running into my studio, “papá, papá, come and see.” “What?” “Ven, ven,” she said as she grabbed my hand and took my flying to the door: they had just cut the top half of the tree and the crane had

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-63417026720689908392008-05-06T10:36:00.004-04:002008-05-06T10:46:33.615-04:00

Are we witnessing the Rise of the Rest? Are we witnessing a reconfiguration of historical forces (political, social, cultural, and economic forces)?"Look around. The world's tallest building is in Taipei, and will soon be in Dubai. Its largest publicly traded company is in Beijing. Its biggest refinery is being constructed in India. Its largest passenger airplane is built in Europe. The largest

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-39636472581974153772008-05-04T16:39:00.003-04:002008-05-04T16:46:54.629-04:00

The US War on Terrorism seems to be part of a larger strategy to control (or have military access to) oil and gas fields in the Middle East and Central Asia (the Greater Middle East) by establishing small air bases in that area. The Manas Air Base, in Kyrgyzstan, serves as a model of the bases the US is establishing there:"at Manas Air Base, nestled in a valley surrounded by the snowcapped,

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-57061321159377069932008-05-04T16:31:00.003-04:002008-05-04T16:36:57.001-04:00

The Hispanic population is increasing and the increase between 2006 and 2007 came from births. The economic consequences of this increase are important for the US economy: "As Americans age and the baby boom generation retires, Hispanics may help buttress the economy and the Social Security system. The average white woman in the U.S. has 1.8 children, which is under the replacement rate of 2.1

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-69612116205172759702008-05-04T16:30:00.000-04:002008-05-04T16:31:39.267-04:00

A few days ago, I was taking the garbage out to the curb. On the yard I found a small rock. I thought it could harm my mowing machine so I took it and put it into the garbage can. I thought whoever put it there, my children playing probably, did not think about the consequences of leaving it there, which is hard because there is always a set of unintended consequences in our acts. This blog’s

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-54000726937859623112008-04-28T22:31:00.006-04:002008-04-28T23:24:44.556-04:00

Today in Macondo, NY, it rained for most of the day. “Qué llueva, qué llueva, la vieja está en la cueva” sang my memory on and off throughout the day. My son and I had our radio show——our last show for the semester. He decided to play Manu Chao’s La Despedida (as in our despedida from the audience: “Ya estoy curado, anestesiado/ya me he olvidado de ti [audience]/Hoy me despido/de tú ausencia/ya

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-20751950509408324502008-04-27T21:25:00.005-04:002008-05-06T10:39:51.251-04:00

In the morning, I coached my daughter’s football (as in soccer) team. I told them soccer was called football (as in fútbol) almost everywhere else in the world (but the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand). If they travel one day outside the USA, they will know, when people talks about football, they mean people hitting a ball with their feet. Traveling is about gaining familiarity with new

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5146550065687113881.post-12426835315578346202008-04-24T22:26:00.002-04:002008-04-27T21:50:36.257-04:00

I just put my daughter in bed. She was tired; we did not read tonight. It was my night to decide the reading. Oh, well. Yesterday was World Book Day (April 23), and Amsterdam, Holland, succeeded Bogotá, Colombia, as the World Book Capital. On the 23rd of April 1616 the writers Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, Miguel de Cervantes, and William Shakespeare died and that is why April 23 is World Book Day.

papermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15917172837628823867noreply@blogger.com0