Oh my childrens...

First day of class was today. Well, first day I've had to teach. I love to teach.

From back in my days on the ICSP I remember very distinctively that even after four years in the program I'd be nervous about presentations before them. It always went away as soon as I started talking, though. The same kind of thing happened today. I had been a bit nervous about teaching here since last week. Mostly because these kids (or their parents, rather) drop $45k or so per year in tuition. That better buy them a knowledgeable TA who can teach them a thing or two. And although I've had plenty of TA experience in the past, I was shaking to my boots.

The lab was just groovy. I like the kids in the class a lot. They are mostly engineering majors which means that, unlike most of the pre-meds that I've normally taught in labs like these, they are not offended when the answer to a question is "well...let's think about this". Of course that's never all I say! I was pleasantly surprised by their willingness to think about things and work them out for themselves. I guess I shouldn't be too pleasantly surprised by their abilities until I grade their labs, though. Still, the lab went fine and that's all I really needed today.

Now I just need little phrase to finish this post...oh wait...cool!

Income Inequality in America

I was reading one of my favorites, Prof. Hsu's blog. The latest post talks about recent research done on income inequality in the US. Trying to understand what was being said lead me to Gini coefficients.

The first thing that struck me as interesting was the color of Bolivia vs that of the US in the world map of Gini indices. That turns out to not be interesting, though, as one finds out by reading the disadvantages section of the article: since Bolivia is a lot smaller of an economy comparison of Gini coefficients between the US and Bolivia yields little or no information about the relative amount of inequality in both countries.

However, one can still make some comparisons in America. The picture is plenty bad. Notice that Canada is green, US is orange and Latin America is red. Maybe including the US in that comparison is not in order as it has an economy (judging by the GDP) ~10 times larger than that of Canada or Latin America. Nonetheless, the redness of Latin America is certainly an unacceptable and sad state of affairs. Specially since it is a place where a lot of people get by on $1/day or less.

The End of Science Part Un: Science no more?

Thanks Zack, for pointing me to the excellent essay.

Horgan has many good points. Specially the one about diminished returns. Even if we experimentally detected extra dimensions or could verify what dark matter is, does it really matter all that much? To us who like this stuff, sure. Will it change the world the way QM did? Not so sure. But, I guess you never know. I still believe, though, that there are enough problems scientists care about to keep us busy discovering stuff for a few decades at least.

Secondly, I agree with the 'technological evangelists' that science is headed towards application. We know the rules of the game now, time to start playing. I think the possibilities here are endless. They may not be the ones we originally thought of (e.g. nuclear fusion) but certainly there are exciting things out there that still need a lot of work. Hey... maybe we'll get a quantum computer in the mid-future and its computing power will lead to some breakthroughs about the nature of the universe.

So is science over? Not quite yet, but we may be getting there.

Narrowing Interests

I was called an "English major in the closet" last night.

I've heard myself say "I am interested in just about any subject you throw at me" multiple times throughout the week to other grad students and professors.

This is bad. Really bad. Well, not really.

I like being interested in just about anything. I like the idea of trying to be aware, knowledgeable, well-informed and well rounded. However, PhD theses are not meant to be broad! Damn... I was hoping I could do mine on the sociological implications that quantum information and CP violation have in literature circles. :-)

Evo and Amy

This one will be long as Bolivian politics are involved. Please bear with.

And I quote Colbert:

Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration? You know, fiction!

Luckily for us, Amy Goodman is not fiction. If you want to know why we are so lucky, this is a good sample. Democracy Now! Nonetheless, I didn't set out to talk about Amy, rather, about her recent interview with Evo Morales.

During my ICSP times I oftentimes got some variation of the question "how do people feel about the US in Bolivia?" My answer was invariably that to Bolivia the US was a lot like a ('84 pun intended) Big Brother: a big brother will always be there to teach you things, help you when you really need it, and also roughen you up a bit or take your candy by abusive means.

In between the nationalization, books are evil, unemployment-induced crime rates and the "constituyente a golpes", I have lots of mixed feelings about Morales' presidency. Regardless, though, Morales does deserve quite a bit of credit in terms of getting international exposure, obtaining a majority (a first for elections in Bolivia) and, most importantly, for having done what few Bolivian politicians have done in the past couple of decades of democracy: make a stance that is what people wanted, not what the US embassy would approve of, and remain consistent with it throughout.

I like that Evo seemed relatively humble, and of course, his sweater. Nah, really... why exactly should he have to dress in a suit and tie? Now, I won't start talking about why the article really bothers me, but y'all can probably guess. I liked that Evo brought what I see as his main shortcoming out to the open: he never went to college. Certainly, though, his past as an activist and union leader makes him more qualified for his job than the US-college education and IBM-sales posts that Tuto had and certainly Evo's VP is a well-read man to say the least.

In February, when I heard about it, I was very pleasantly surprised that Morales cut his salary and that of many of his colleagues. It is a noble thing to do. Why do politicians need to make so much money anyways? Notice that this topic worked itself into the interview with Goodman. I believe that most people will have that reaction: think it is a noble thing to do. But, only as long as they are not from Bolivia! I see the 50% salary-slashing as a bit of a international-marketing stunt. Everyone in Bolivia will tell you that the relatively large salaries the politicians make is not a problem and much less the problem. The problem is the atrocious level of corruption in all sectors of government. Skyrocketing corruption is probably the only constant that Bolivia has seen throughout its governments and that's where all of politician's money comes from. So, their salaries are highly irrelevant. But, to Evo's credit he did talk a bit about corruption.

I'd be surprised if Amy did not know about Marcelo Quiroga Santa Cruz. Either way, I am glad she asked the question about who he was. His was probably one of the most lucid and brave minds Bolivian politics has ever seen. His death was one of the most despicable acts committed by the 'condor' dictatorships. It always saddens me how unknown he is to people here.

I liked the fact that Evo pointed out that coca is not white. Even if it was, though, I still think it should be legal. The illegality of cocaine feels too much like prohibition. The illegality does not seem to do anything in terms of people not using the drug, it only formidably helps the rate at which those who profit from it do so. But, more importantly, chewing coca in Bolivia is a tradition much older than the name Bolivia, the Spanish colony and even the Inca empire. It is completely unreasonable to expect that people just drop it because government in the US has decided to fight a war on drugs. How would the US feel about some third country imposing that corn should be illegal in the states? Jim Schultz pointed out that it is very ironic that the police guard in front of the DEA office in Cochabamba probably chews coca to withstand his night shift.

The gas nationalization is tricky business. I am yet to read the democracy center's analysis of the decree along with several other pieces of literature about it (including the decree itself). Nevertheless, so far I think that nationalization is almost a misnomer for what is going on. I think Morales is playing a rhetorical game with that more than anything. The decree seems very 'mild' and aims just at looking out for the countries interests a bit more than the "capitalization" of the 90s did.

I also liked how Evo tried to distance himself from Chavez a little bit, or at least from his statement at the UN. Now, don't get me wrong, anyone who wonders about dubya smelling of sulfur is cool in my book, but I think Chavez was way out of line with that and it probably hurt his causes more than help them. I like a lot of the Venezuelan's policies; but, mom is right about one thing, he is just a bit too 'folklorico' for his own good. It'd be a smarter move for Evo to distance himself from Chavez in front of Bolivian audiences, though. There seems to be a fairly popular fear back home that Venezuela is gaining too much terrain in Bolivia through Evo's closest ally.

My main dissatisfaction about the interview was the lack of 'tough questions'. I would've liked to see what Evo has to say to an American audience about how the constituent assembly is going, what his plans are to reduce the unemployment rate and to better the terrible economical crisis that is happening. But, those questions are probably better suited for the Bolivian media (and yes, they ask them) and not for the audience up here. Maybe Amy knows what she's doing :-). A question relevant both back home and here, though, would be what his efforts are in terms of reducing the outward-immigration of Bolivians. I foresee this as being one of the main problems Bolivia will deal with in the intermediate future if not sooner. And yes, I'm guilty when it comes to that issue.

Alright, this is long enough, but I can't guarantee that a second installment won't follow. </rant>