The World is Flat. Chapters 1 to 4

Before Columbus, the world was thought to be flat. From 1492 onwards, people knew it was spheric (or almost). From 1989 it went into a flattening process which has almost been accomplished all round the globe.

There were ten forces which haves are making the world flat: the fall of the Berlin wall (11/09/89), when Netscape went public (8/9/95), the work flow software (standards, etc), uploading to the net, outsourcing, offshoring, supply-chaning, insourcing, in-forming (Google, Yahoo, etc), and finally what he calls the 'steroids' (digital, mobile, personal and virtual).

This flattening went together with the process of globalization, divided in 3 eras: "Globalization 1.0 was countries globalizing... Globalization 2.0 was companies globalizing... Globalization 3.0 is the new flound power for individuals to collaborate and compete globally".

Thus, this flat world has brought the capacity for individuals to compete in the market against anybody, whether it is a country, company or other individual from anywhere in the world and with very few resources.

This is given because people can access information in an extremely easy way (search engines are the tool in this case), they can share information in many fashions (sites, blots, etc), economies ar open for that sharing, and even if they don't, the Internet facilitates it. In few words, this flattening was brought about by the opening of people, the PC, the Internet, the browsers and all the tools that come along with that. But th flat world has to be taken advantage of with hard work.

March of the sandbots

IEEE Spectrum
Issue April 2009
Pages 26 onwards

Until now many robots have been created which can move efficiently on or in many different surfaces: water, climbing, roads, etc. But none is able to move efficiently on all, nor any one is able to move on sand.

Even our vehicles are not able to move well on surfaces which haven't been paved, imagine automated robots.

In 2001 some robots were sent for the rescue work at World Trade Centre, and in no time they were not able to continue due to the tough surface conditions. In 2006 some robots were sent to a rescue mission in a collapsed mine... they made it 700 meters until they were totally stucked in mud. Thus it is required to get robots to move efficiently on various different tough surface conditions.

The team of researchers authoring this article made a robot SandBot which is 6 legged with some sort of flippers that turn to give the forward movement. They are testing movement on sand. But sand does not yet have a good mechanical model. Thus they have been studying the movement of beings such as lizards, crabs and snakes to imitate their skills.

We are also looking below ground inspiration. Using high speed X-rays, we are now studyng lizards called sandfish that can burrow into sand in the blink of an eye and then "swim" through the material underground... With nature as our guiid, we expect that robots will soon master some incredible new abilities.

El Hombre de Villa Tevere. Chapter XII.

St. Josemaria is the Father of a large family, Opus Dei, the best place to live and the best place to die. He would always remind his children to have details of affection with one another, and would preach it with example, noticing when people were not feeling well even if they didn't say it.

A fellow of the Roman College, Illanes, was with fever just by Christmas time; so that he wouldn't miss the happiness of the festivities, he asked the administration to make a mini-Christmas tree with chocolate decorations and he himself brought a mall child-Jesus for his room.

He had attempted three times along with his sons, to buy a piano for the Roman College, but each time when they had saved enough money, they had to buy somehting more important, thus they "ate 3 pianos". When finally they bought it, he suggested to gift it to his daughters, and even before finishing the sentence, they all said "YES".

When visiting his daughters in Germany he realized they were very badly economically and didn't have a washing machine (they had to do a lot of washing for many people). Before he went back to Rome, he made sure (he had it bought) they had a washing machine and other few useful tools.

In this family there are no levels or hierarchies. If there are any governors or bishops, when they reach home, they remove all their stuff, put it in a drawer and are the same at home.

The directors of this family are there to serve, and when they stop being directors, they go back to be one more. Encarnita Ortega had been in the central governement for over 20 years, and when she went back to spain, the Father told her to go back to serve and to teach with example.

Whenever some of his children would die, he would be very deeply moved, he loved them all the same but would certainly be more moved by the dead of those he had been living with for a longer period of time.

When Salvador Canals died he was really destroyed. He knew he was about to die but had to go out of town, before leaving, he went to visit him and made sure of getting him a box of sweets he knew Salvador liked a lot. St. Josemaria didn't remember the name, made the effort to find out and had them bought. The box was too small and got a bigger one. He was really enjoying when seeing Salvador delighted with the sweets.

When Wladimiro Vince died in a place accident, three other people of the Work went to the island where the accident had been. While relatives of the otehr victims couldn't get close to them because of not being able to bear the fould smell, the members of the Work did it... The Work si the best family, best to live and best to die.

El hombre de Villa Tevere. Chapter XI

In Opus Dei St. Josemaria is called, from the very beginning as The Father. and this is not just a beautiful poetical or figurative way of doing so. This chapter is full of examples of why he was called the Father.

Being a very busy man, never felt it was a waste of time to spend a few minutes with his 'children'. Once a daughter of his asked him to draw a duck for her while she played the violin for him, just like that, in the middle of the corridor.

He was very attentive to the needs of people; while a son of his, Carlos, was reading, because of his work, very heavy stuff (theology, philosophy, etc), the Father suggested him he could read 'El Quijote de la Mancha' for his spiritual reading.

He would respect freedom but would help people to live with human tone. He saw an elderly fellow dressing like a youngster, thus he asked to be told delicately to improve his way of dressing to his age. Another fellow, a young man, who had long hair he told him he thought it was good for him: "una muestra de sinceridad" [a token of sincerity].

He had to correct when he had to, but always looking at that the person corrected was not hurt. A daughter of his who lost an important document had to be strongly (but tenderly) corrected by the Father. But later on, he made sure that she wasn't hurt. A few days or weeks afterwards, he called her to thank her for giving a class about the love and care for that kind of documents (el catecismo).

He did not like being a tyrant, thus, he would always ask "please" without giving strong orders, even for the minutest detail.

He was always with good humour, looking for ways to help people have a good time, enjoying the time he spent with his children and enjoying when they "cheated" him so as to spend more time with him. Once he told a fellow after looking into his watch to tell him after 5 minutes to stop the get-together. After 15 minutes he realized that that son had not told him, and the fellow reacted "that watch sometimes goes too fast, don't trust it" and he had a good laugh.

He would go out of his way not to loose anybody. For instance, one day he spent the whole day at a station with Don Alvaro, waiting for a lady of the Work from an Italian city who had decided to "run" away. When she saw him waiting for him, showing his love for his daughters, she decided to stay. And another time he was found crying because of a son of his who was about to loose his vocation because of not struggling far away from the "muros capitales de la fortaleza" [capital walls of the fortress].

HE REALLY WAS A FATHER.

Friday Fax appeal.....Help us stop Hillary Clinton and her global abortion plans...‏

Friday Fax sent on 28 April by Austin Ruse, telling of the atrocities which Hillary Clinton is going to do in her pro-abortion campaign. Not much time to summarize it, so I just copy-paste the message:

Only a few days ago Hillary Clinton appeared before the US House of Representatives and in sworn testimony said the following. Keep in mind, she promised all these things in her official capacity of US Secretary of State!

• Clinton praised Margaret Sanger, the racist and eugenicist founder of Planned Parenthood Federation. She compared Sanger to Thomas Jefferson!
• Clinton praised the UN Population Fund, the UN agency that helped set up and run the Chinese one child policy which is responsible for millions of forced abortions.
• Clinton said the US would ratify the pro-abortion CEDAW treaty, meaning the last meaningful CEDAW holdout will now fall.

These things are awful and dangerous enough but she also said this:

• The full force of the US government will be used to get governments to change their laws on abortion all over the world.

You likely know that the US has the most radical abortion laws in the world: abortion for any reason and no reason through all nine months of pregnancy. Hillary Clinton wants this for the entire world.

You likely know that most of the world has abortion either against the law or heavily regulated. Radical pro-abortion feminists like Hillary Clinton cannot stand this. They hold abortion to be a kind of secular sacrament, a sacrament that everyone must worship!

I know Hillary Clinton. My staff and I did battle with her throughout the 1990's when her husband occupied the Oval Office. I watched her work at Cairo+5, Beijing+5 and I can tell you first hand that Hillary Clinton is among the most radical pro-abortion advocates in the whole world.

I truly fear that with Hillary Clinton as US Secretary of State and with Barack Obama as President of the United States, and with their allies at the UN, we are in for the most wicked four years in our global battle to protect the unborn child from abortion.

Mr. Ruse says that they are the only ones reporting and fighting first-hand this issue. I hope they aren't. But whether they are or not, I hope they get all the support they require.

Lent: 40 Days, 40 Thoughts from the Pope

An article published at the Opus Dei web-site.

The article gives a series of 40 thoughts from the Pope in the last 4 years about lent.

Is hard to summarize that, but something that remains clear in my mind is that lent should be a time of fasting that helps us to get closer to God and to the people around us, family, friends, society.

Two points which talk about poverty and detachment:

16. We are not owners but rather administrators of the goods we possess: these, then, are not to be considered as our exclusive possession, but means through which the Lord calls each one of us to act as a steward of His providence for our neighbor. (2008)

17. In those countries whose population is majority Christian, the call to share is even more urgent, since their responsibility toward the many who suffer poverty and abandonment is even greater. To come to their aid is a duty of justice even prior to being an act of charity. (2008)

In an obese world, children obsessed with thinness

From the blog Family Edge

Author Carolyn Moynihan

Anorexia and eating disorders is highly increasing in kids 10-12 years old, both boys and girls.

They say the reason is because of the obsession in the media about the obesity problem. And they suggest that the outlook to it should be changed to a positive one, say "running around all day". Also the reality shows seem to be a cause for this.

But Carolyn adds:

There’s a deeper issue, though: a focus on the self that has been building for several decades and probably owes something to small families and over-solicitous parents who want to give their children everything -- except the opportunity to forget themselves and look after others.