A Theory and a Request

A THEORY OF THE PLANETARY EVOLUTION OF THE EARTH WITH AN EMPHASIS ON ANTARCTICA FOR A GRANT

To whom it may concern, August 29th, 2008
When we get to the National Science Foundation’s website after we utilize this mobile internet we just got today, as we have heard about the foundation on National Public Radio. We are [names removed] and are students at Indiana/Purdue University’s IPFW campus in Fort Wayne Indiana. We approach you however, independent of the Universities’ credentials, because we would like to conduct this idea under our own studies, having access to the professors, staff, information, and equipment that all students who attend do. We have been in attendance in []’s instance since January of 2005, where she is on the brink of more than one minor degree, and a chemistry course away from General Education. Amongst other profound endeavors that is, including these proposals, theoretical hypothesizes, and parenting. We have many calculations and information assembled in this cause, and have written NOAA about the following ideas and have received correspondence from them on this to follow, with links to exceptional maps and data; everything involved of the world. We understand the theories and mechanics needing to be changed, challenged, properly how, citations included, and perhaps how to make lots of noise.

Just look at the continents, it is taught in the science courses of elementary school and therefore known that the largest fit back together on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge; Greenland, North America, South America, Africa, Europe… There is exceptional movement in the Indian Ocean of Australia and the islands of the pacific. There is the location in the northeastern Euro-Asian continent where a great depression underlain of that was deepest; and then thereby filled by the eastern Euro-Asia landmass, evident by the mountain bunching phenomena that is exclusive to the Northern and Southern Asian complexes. All, over billions of years in those matters indeed.

But none have moved as far as Antarctica, having traveled down the pacific basin before the supercontinent separated much, part of that grand cataclysm and wrought out of the Arctic Ocean in the north. This is why the Pacific Floor is so smooth on the ocean floor off the West coast of America; one can view the equilaterally vertical trenches that gape across the horizontal decline from the Arctic Ocean basin to Antarctica multiply in succession and disappear under the Western North and South American continents; among other places crashed open by the cataclysm that laid open the worlds entire surface in and at the many huge cracks over the globe. These are in addition to the oppositional characteristics, as the Atlantic Trench and with the many other fractures certainly provide the evidence of their own existence. It is almost as if the original supercontinent was stamped out of the entire pacific basin originally, then oriented however to then be divided by another cataclysm whereby knocking Antarctica from the Arctic Basin to the South Pole and possibly breaking the supercontinent in two at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Antarctica is broken into three segments of land, the main body, and then conjunctively to the great ice shelves, to a contacting medium land mass, that is also oppositely connected to a third land mass which is small and tail like. The middle mass bares a unique and nearly 180 degree rotation from the affixing coastal point upon the main land mass, and the small tail mass affixes directly towards the main mass, non-rotated. We believe that the opposite side of Antarctica hit hard and fast at the bottom of the Earth, and is rumpled.

We feel as though we can discount any contrary geological or geographical evidence that is against this rough theory and since it is stated by us that we are seeking a grant of money to take the time and effort to research and propose a tectonic explanation and descriptive evolution of the general processes that caused this geography to come into is present being as the known surface of the earth. If you would play heavy to us, we will devise the mechanics of the unified fields of the universe, explain gravity, and produce a superior algorithm to define the process of quantitative analysis and resolution that will define the physical structure of numbers as the most efficient process therefore, and show the world the shape of a finite core’s connection that progresses uniformly into higher quantitative fields that will define the universal mechanic in work over the entire universe. This by the definition of the field as was the old definition and applied to thus; while being uniform to many of the rules and laws of Physics.

But for now, won’t you supply us a grant for the sake of the planet in the name of Antarctica from the Arctic Ocean? You know, there is a great oval ring of mountains as a crater near 15percent of our planet large, when you generate that which has moved and that which has not moved much at the top of the planet? It is evident by the Aleutians and the northern mountain ranges. What a puzzle indeed. What we desire for the formulation and establishment of the mechanics are around 72,000 dollars for the year in which we would like to conduct our research analysis, and challenges to existing theories. That is 36,000 for each of us for this very year. If there are formalities or greater extrapolations necessary to attain such grants from you, then please forward the appropriate forms and requirements for us to complete. Thank you for you time, and considerations.

Sincerely Yours Truly,
[names removed...]

====

I was suitably impressed, but not convinced that this merited an award.

Screen Sharing gone mad:

This is what happens when you screen share from one machine, and then screen share back to the original:

The interesting part is that the farther back you go, the farther back in time you are, so it is much like the display of Time Machine itself, with the past receding into the background. As each screen refreshes, it carries its events backwards by one step.

This is the first time I have been able to get "Back to My Mac" working through all the various firewalls.

Jaque: El bien germina ya

I am always proud to be Colombian on the 20th of July, but this year it was the 2nd of July that I was most proud of.

Well done!

Libérenlos ya!

iPhone 3G

July 11 is the word



Hmm. I've held off until now - my current non-iPhone contract is up soon. ...temptation strikes, especially with the push-synchronization features with my Outlook setup at work...

USD$199 for an 8 gig model, USD$299 for the 16 gig.

More here, at Apple.

Oh crap

Not an e-mail you want to receive:

Dear Mr. Fulano,

As you may have seen in the Director General’s May 27, 2008 ALDAC “Announcing the 2009 Iraq/Afghanistan Cycle (State 056058)” and in the Secretary’s personal message to the field (link below), the Department has begun recruiting for summer 2009 openings in Iraq. I am writing to inform you that the Department considers you among those particularly well qualified for the key positions listed below and is asking you to seriously consider volunteering for an opportunity to tackle our nation’s top foreign policy priority.

20700000 ECON Officer (ESTH) FS-03

You are considered well qualified because your record of achievement indicates that you have the skills and experience, as defined by Embassy Baghdad, to be successful in these positions. Information about the Embassy’s criteria as well as the position descriptions for these and other jobs in Iraq can be found on the following website:

http://hrweb.hr.state.gov/prd/hrweb/dg/assignment_iraq/.

HR/CDA and others will soon be contacting you to discuss further your interest in these positions.

The Director General is confident that with your help, and that of others who step forward, we will staff Iraq with volunteers as we have in the past. As noted in the cable, however, the Director General will assess at an appropriate time how best to complete the cycle. If positions remain unfilled, you would be among the pool of qualified individuals potentially subject to identification for one of these positions.[Italics added] In the interest of fairness and transparency, this is something we wanted to communicate to you at the earliest possible point in the assignments process. Again, our goal is 100% volunteers.

I will give you a call next week (June 2-6) to discuss more in depth what this might mean for you, but please feel free to contact me sooner if you wish. In the meantime, I urge you to take another look at the ALDAC referenced in paragraph one for details on the Iraq-Afghanistan cycle and the overall timeline for 2009 assignments. If you will be in Washington, I also urge you to attend the upcoming Iraq brown bag event on June 3 and to watch for the upcoming Iraq/Afghanistan Open House as well as other events, including DVCs with selected posts. We will be announcing details about these events soon.

I look forward to working with you as you consider stepping forward for one of these critical assignments.

Regards,

Your Career Development Officer

Link to the Secretary’s message:

(http://bnet.state.gov/viewClip.asp?clip_id=1148),

In accordance with the policies and procedures outlined in Executive Order 12958, this e-mail is UNCLASSIFIED.

The passage in italics is the code for "volunteer or else." The only hope for escape from this is to a) quit, b) get pregnant, or c) hope they reach 100% capacity before reaching your name in the list.

Colibri:

We saw our first hummingbird of the year today.

The male scouts are here, looking for likely sites to nest and for feeding spots. Our feeders have been out for several weeks now, but the hummers are pretty consistently here around the date of last frost, April 15.

It will be interesting to watch this date change as the climate shifts:

2003: April 21
2004: April 19
2005: April 19
2006: no record
2007: no record
2008: April 17

Not a statistically significant trend, but it bears watching.

The harder part is tracking the last bird to leave, in autumn. You have to track every day you do see one, and then as it gets more and more sparse, you eventually give up hope and look up the last day you had a check mark on the calendar. Kind of depressing, compared to the excitement of the first visitor.

Who's on first?

These are the types of thoughts that strike a scientist as he showers in the morning: "Hmm. I wonder which properties of numbers are base-independent?" It actually made me drop my soap.

Some things, like whether a number is prime, irrational, or whether it is Pi or e or some other property or constant are most likely independent of the base one is working in. We are familiar with, and tend to work mostly in base 10, but perhaps some of these numbers would look different in other bases? Is there a base in which numbers have different properties? What about irrational bases? Can you have imaginary number bases?

I pondered these questions as I lathered up what is left of my hair, and it occurred to me that certain properties of numbers are actually only psychological, and not rooted in number theory at all.

Here's an example from the news: the famous 'milestone' reached recently of 4,000 U.S. military casualties in Iraq. Four thousand is significant to us because it represents a round thousands number, like 1,000 2,000 3,000 et cetera. In this particular case, the 4,000 was being portrayed as a psychological breaking point for the will of the American public to keep fighting (more on death tolls from different events in a future post).

However, it turns out that 4,000 has only a psychological significance, rather than a truly numerical one, because just what is it about 4,000 that intrinsically makes it different from 3,999 or 4,001? After all, it's only when it is written in base 10 that it looks this way. In hexadecimal, or base 16, a system just as valid as base 10, that number looks like FA0, which is not particularly significant next to 3,999 and 4,001, which look like F9F and FA1 in hexadecimal. In fact, in hexadecimal, the psychologically significant numbers 1000, 2000, 3000 turn out to be (in base 10): 4,096, 8,192 and 12,288, which don't look very interesting at all to us base-10 biased folk.

So it turns out that certain things about numbers depend on which base you are using. Those things which are fundamental (like being prime), are independent of the base being used to represent the number itself. If the property depends on the base being used, that's probably a good sign that the property is not intrinsically part of formal number theory (but I'd love to be proved wrong).

So we could fully expect, on that auspicious day where we met an alien species with a different number of digits (fingers), that they would have a completely different set of psychologically significant numbers, because it is likely that they would count in a different base. It occurred to me that the more fingers they had, the more difficult they would be to defeat in battle, because it would take more 'kills' to reach their psychological breaking points!

Anyway, that was enough science fiction, and by this point I was towelling off anyway.

We have lots of these psychologically significant number categories floating around: centuries, decades, dozens (an example of working in a non-base 10 system), and the famous pricing strategy of leaving something at one cent below (e.g. "ON SALE FOR ONLY $2.99!!!" etc. etc.).

It was now time to adjust my bowtie, and go off and count my eggs before they hatched, and decide whether the count was significant or not.

SC or CA, SC or CA? Hmm...

A friend of mine from Charleston South Carolina asked me recently whether she should buy some farm property in California. She was worried about living in an earthquake zone.

I spoke to her for a bit about simply being prepared for hazards, etc. but what I should have recalled is that Charleston itself is an earthquake zone. In fact, the August 31, 1886 Charleston earthquake is the largest historical earthquakes on the East coast, and was felt as far away as Toronto and Cuba. It's estimated that it was somewhere between 7.3 and 7.6 in magnitude. Here's a historic photo of some of the damage on Tradd Street in Charleston:



What I should have done was guided her to some of the Geological Survey resources:

Earthquake Hazards 101
Earthquake Probability Map Tool

Zip... ...zoom!

A clever fellow in Germany, Till Kredner, who co-authors the great website All the Sky, has a a great clip of the Jules Verne transport vehicle and the space station passing over Hohenzollern Castle.

It's greatly sped up, and the smaller, dimmer Jules Verne ATV is in front of the International Space Station (ISS). You can just catch an airplane as it passes 'near' the departing and much brighter ISS.

The ATV is now docked to the ISS, and will remain there for many weeks. It's used to take supplies up, boost the orbit of the ISS, and take garbage away.

MS Word Misery:

Here's the latest puzzling message from the engineers in Redmond:


My question is simple: "Isn't that what templates are for?"

Sheesh. Yet another mis-categorized document in my files. Thanks guys, it's not as if I need any help in making messy filing systems.

Legitimacy in Exchange for Mistreated Hostages:

My translation of an article from Madrid's El País newspaper. The Author is Joaquín Villalobos, who was a leader of El Salvadorean guerillas during the 1980's and 90's.

January 16, 2008

When I began to learn about the Colombian conflict, I found it hard to believe that the FARC commanders travelled around in air-conditioned cars, and that their camps had many comforts. I was also surprised that some of their commanders were so evidently overweight. Whereas the Salvadorean civil war could be explained by an excess of power of the State, the Colombian conflict is essentially explained by the weakness of the State in controlling its own territory. Colombia has places where there has been no government for over forty years. This vacuum has been filled by paramilitaries, guerillas, drug traffickers, and bandits who have become the default authorities before the indifference or under the consent of the government.

As Salvadorean guerillas, we fought for each square metre of our small country against authoritarian governments who were militarily supported by the United States. In Colombia, the FARC have been a sedentary guerilla force, who without much fighting were able to control extensive territory in which there was no government. They have spent forty-three years in the mountains, and some of their leaders have died of old age. Even so, in Colombia the April 19th Movement (M-19) was the first Latin American guerilla group that, at a price of many dead, negotiated democratic political reforms. Now, the M-19, as part of the Alternative Democratic Pole [a legitimate political alliance], is the second largest political force in the country. That is to say, that in Colombia the left could win the next elections, as has already occurred in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Guatemala, and Nicaragua.

There are those who continue to see Latin America as a set of banana republics in which political violence is legitimate. The map, the times, and money from cocaine coincided with the increase in violence of the FARC during the 1990's. Prior to this, they were a lazy insurgency, and as such, had little relevance. In 1990, after the death of their political leader Jacobo Arenas, the FARC was left without ideological guidance against the proliferation of coca plantations in their territory. They began by practicing extortion on the drug traffickers and ended up the owners of the largest cocaine production facilities in the world. Their journey took them from being the newest Latin American political guerilla force to being the first irregular drug trafficking army, and becoming a real threat to the Colombian State.

The governments of the last twenty years had to reverse the weakness of the State and to correct past abuses. First, they agreed to peace with the political insurgencies, then they broke up the large drug cartels that Pablo Escobar had led, followed by successful efforts to combat the culture of violence, and finally they began to recuperate control of terrain. The government proposed negotiations with the FARC which failed, due to the kidnapping of twelve Congress members who were executed in June of 2007. The strength of the Army and Police were increased and these forces were permanently mobilized into the 1,120 municipalities of Colombia. They began to fight and demobilize the paramilitary forces. The guerilla leaders lost their air-conditioned cars and their camps with refrigerators. Cornered, the FARC turned to terrorism. One hundred and seventeen citizens died taking refuge in Bellavista church when it was destroyed by the FARC; a car-bomb with 200 kg of explosives demolished a club in Bogotá full of families -- this type of thing became routine, and the numbers of civilian dead and wounded mounted into the thousands. Despite this, the violence of the FARC is currently decreasing, and during 2007 they were unable to seize any towns now controlled by the State. Their fighters are demobilizing in large numbers (2,400 in the last year alone), and there is public evidence that some guerilla leaders are enjoying their lost comforts in Venezuelan territory.

The FARC have no future as guerillas, although they do have one as drug traffickers. The immense Colombian jungle allows them to keep the hostages they kidnapped in the past, and to use them as their last pieces of political ammo. The harsh conditions in which they keep them are evidence of their own demoralization and loss of control; they didn't even know where they were holding baby Emmanuel. The FARC has made kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking its principal activities. It is now the largest hostage-taking operation on the planet.

An insurgency negotiates from a position of legitimate political demands or from the military strength it projects, but to demand legitimacy in exchange for mistreated hostages threatened with death is the moral equivalent of asking for respect because you are an evildoer. Anti-neoliberalism cannot justify exploiting the pain of the hostages' families. If Chávez were only helping to save hostages it would be positive, but his political recognition of the FARC has revived Colombian violence, opens the doors of his own country to cocaine, and makes him into the protector of cruel drug traffickers.

An interesting taunt from Villalobos, a "comrade in arms" to the original FARC movement. I have written about the rise of the cartels and the corrupting influence of the drug trade on all aspects of Colombian society before.

What you should realize, as you sit in your safe countries abroad, are two things: I have endangered myself and my family by posting these things, and second, that these thugs are also settling quite nicely into properties they buy in Europe and the United States, and working their way into the established "mara" system. Good luck getting rid of them.

A Story of Dogged Dedication:

An amusing story of determination by a software engineer unofficially at Apple.

Colombia's Misery:

This is a stunningly long list of people held hostage in 2003 by Colombia's FARC guerrillas. It does not count those already kidnapped and released, or those murdered while in captivity. A few childhood friends of mine would figure on the latter.

The FARC is a military wing of Colombia's communist movement, and is classified by most of the West as a terrorist group. Predictably, Cuba and Venezuela have hailed them as legitimate freedom fighters.

This is only a list for ONE of the many political groups that operate in Colombia and raise funds by kidnapping. It is even more sobering to realize that this does not even begin to represent the misery of the thousands more families that fall victim to the much more pervasive criminal activity that engages in this singularly cruel practice. Our family has already agreed that we will not ever pay these animals, and we have arranged for specific goodbyes. Cruel but pragmatic.


A
• Acevedo Raigosa Juan Diego
• Acosta Gabriel
• Acosta Albeiro
• Acosta Gloria Esperanza
• Acosta Alvaro
• Acosta Charrys Cesar Augusto
• Acosta Galeano Jorge Alonso
• Acosta Gutierrez Alberto
• Acosta Lopez Olman Rodelo
• Acosta Silva Wilder
• Acuña Sanabria David Enrique
• Afanador Ayala Jorge Enrique
• Agámez Pacheco Darío
• Agredo Guesia Hernando
• Agudelo Duvan Alejandro
• Agudelo Gonzalo
• Agudelo Gina Katerine
• Agudelo Arbeláez Ignacio
• Agudelo Arenas Miguel Angel
• Agudelo Gonzalez Samael Arfhayl
• Agudelo Henao Carlos Andrés
• Agudelo Hoyos Alexander
• Agudelo Hoyos Luz Eugenia
• Agudelo Preciado Andres Felipe
• Aguilar Jurado Luis
• Aguilera Juan David
• Aguilera Agudelo Hernan
• Akil Ali (Lebanese)
• Alba Rupertino
• Albarracín William
• Albornoz Brito Lilián Estela
• Alcala Zabaleta Euclides
• Alfonso Rodriguez Claudia Milena
• Altafulla Atehortua Edwin
• Alvarado Sergio Alfonso
• Alvarado Cespedes Natalie
• Alvarez Anselmo Belisario
• Alvarez Bolaño Ruprecht
• Alvarez De Rocha Isabel
• Alvarez Gardeazabal Carlos Fernando
• Alvarez Olivera Fredy
• Alvarez Rodriguez Hector
• Alvarez Rodriguez Luis Miguel
• Alvarez Rojas Yesid Gustavo
• Alzate Flor Maria
• Alzate Cano Norman Rodolfo
• Alzate Yepes Saulo
• Amador Tapias Diezmar Alonso
• Amador Jose Yesid
• Amaya Luis
• Amaya Silva Luis Mario
• Anaya Leon Melkis
• Andrade Leonardo
• Andrade Falla Juan Pablo
• Angarita Landinez Mesias
• Angarita Meneses Javier Eduardo
• Angarita Montealegre Jorge Enrique
• Angarita Peña Julian Andres
• Angel Dario
• Angulo Gerardo
• Angulo Jimenez Javier
• Angulo Navia John Edgar
• Anichiarico Barros Luis Lorenzo
• Aranda Esquivel José Manuel
• Arandia Valentín Gerardo Alberto
• Arango Juan José
• Arango Mario
• Arango Escobar Juan José
• Arango Maya Delio
• Arango Mora Carlos Mario
• Arango Tabares Jose Uriel
• Araujo Cook Mario
• Aray Suárez edgar A
• Arbeláez Arbláez Ruben Dario
• Arbelaez Castaño Rodrigo De Jesús
• Arce Luis Arturo
• Arciniegas Cacua Abdon
• Arciniegas De Arenas Amalia
• Arcos Guerrero Alvaro Iginio
• Ardila Luis Francisco
• Ardila Becerra Carlos
• Ardila Gonzalez Alfonso Elias
• Ardila Luengas Alirio José
• Ardila Madina Jairo Alexander
• Arellano Macias Hermel
• Arenas Luis Delio
• Arenas Luis Alberto
• Arévalo Luis José
• Arias Isidro
• Arias Garcia Medardo
• Arias Rojas Roberto
• Arias Suarez Misael
• Arias Tabares Lina Yisela
• Aristizabal Betancour Jaime
• Aristizabal Quintero Eulalia
• Aristizábal David Mauricio
• Ariza Pérez Clodomiro
• Arizmendy Héctor Fabio
• Arrazola Ospina Olga Beatriz
• Arredondo Martinez Fadul Alberto
• Arredondo Urrego Lisimaco
• Arredondo Urrego Isidro
• Arregoces Nelson
• Arrellano Macias Hermel
• Arriaga Marcelina (Ecuadorean)
• Arroyave Restrepo Abigail
• Arteaga José Miguel
• Ascanio Carlos Andres
• Assis Montoya Yaser De Jesus
• Astaiza Julio
• Astaiza Sanchez Julian
• Atehortua Rios Ramiro Antonio
• Atencio Navarro Angel David
• Atzmon Ran
• Aubenas Florence
• Avellaneda Miryam
• Avendaño Rafael
• Avila Nieto Climaco Ernesto
• Avila Rios William
• Avila Torres Felix
• Ayala De Nart Andrés
• Ayala Galvis Gilma
• Ayala Montoya Raúl
• Abarro Melo Carlos Alberto
• Abondano Fernando
• Abondano Cazzareli Fernando (Italian)
• Abregú Daniel Alejandro
• Abril Jhon
• Acalo Tenorio Ananias
• Acevedo Camilo
• Acevedo De Acevedo Carolina
• Acevedo Granados Ernesto
• Acevedo Jaramillo Ovidio De Jesús

B
• Baldovino Guerrero Martin
• Ballesteros Miguel Fernando
• Ballesteros Sierra Hermes
• Baquero Jorge
• Baquero José Edgar
• Barbosa Carlos
• Barbosa Luis Eduardo
• Barragán López Carlos Alberto
• Barrera Luz Marina
• Barrera Alvares Janeth
• Barrera Moreno Luis Alfonso
• Barreto Acuña Eder
• Barrios Fabián Farid
• Barrios Antonio Rumbo
• Barrios Guzmán Isaac Manuel
• Barrios Hernandez Rafael
• Barros Pedro
• Bastidas Mauricio
• Bastidasibarraibarra Hector Edmundo
• Bautista Peña Edgar
• Bautista Rincon William
• Bayona Hernando
• Bayona Camacho Alexander
• Beaine Hernandez Carlos Arturo
• Becerra Eliécer
• Bedoya Luis Eduardo
• Bedoya Margarita
• Bedoya Giraldo Angel De Jesús
• Bedoya Grajales Adriana Maria
• Bejarano Bonilla Carlos Alberto
• Bello Gauta Carlos Orlando
• Bello Silgado Luis Eduardo
• Belluscio Pablo Martín
• Beltran Carlos
• Beltran Miguel Antonio
• Beltrán Burbano Carlos Andrés
• Beltrán Cuéllar Orlando
• Beltran Franco Luis Alfonso
• Beltran Giron Efrain
• Beltran Pacheco Julio Ernesto
• Benavides Lucero Eva Sandy
• Benjumea Loaiza Luis Arbeiro
• Bermeo Covaleda Juan Carlos
• Bermudez Arboleda Einer
• Bermudez Carlos Augusto
• Bernal José
• Bernal Narciso
• Bernal Lopez Edwin Libardo
• Berrio Torres Juan Manuel
• Berrocal López José
• Betancourt Javier
• Betancourt Pulecio Ingrid
• Betancourt Restrepo Orlando De Jesús
• Betin Bedoya Rodrigo Manuel
• Blanco Abril Benjamin
• Blandón Javier
• Boada Alvarado Carlos Guillermo
• Bohorquez Rodriguez Vianny
• Bolaños Cuello Elisa Dolores
• Bolaños Lozano Carlos
• Bonilla Enrique
• Bonilla Juan Guillermo
• Bonilla Gomez Pablo Enrique
• Bonilla Vallejo Luis Enrique
• Borrero Luis Fernando
• Borssotti Santiago (Italian)
• Botello Ojeda Danilo
• Botero Botero Francisco
• Botero Botero Fabio
• Botero Garcia Natalia
• Botero Hoyos Marco Tulio
• Botero Mejia Antonio Maria
• Botero Patiño Guillermo Leon
• Bravo De Chacon Nohemi
• Brugnani Claudio
• Buckley John (British)
• Bueno Jovany
• Bueno Arevalo Parmenio
• Buitrago Ramiro
• Buitrago Cuesta Julio César
• Buitrago Tellez Siervo Antonio
• Bula Agamez José Domingo
• Burgos De Castillo Maribel
• Bustos Díaz Hernán

C
• Cabal Orjuela Clara Ines
• Cabana Fonseca César
• Cabrera Maria Agustina
• Cabrera Roger
• Cabrera Monje Juan De Jesus
• Cáceres Fuentes Oscar Orlando
• Cachay Alexander
• Cadena Lozada Narciso
• Caicedo Henao Juan Alberto
• Caicedo Muñoz Gustavo
• Caicedo Portura Leonardo
• Caicedo Ulloa Carlos Eduardo
• Cala Amaya Maria Teresa
• Caldas Carvajal José Anselmo
• Calderon Pantoja Alfonso
• Calderón Rangel Raúl
• Calderon Rodriguez Yanira
• Calderon Suarez Ana Marcela
• Calle Oscar
• Calle Betancourt Francisco Armando
• Calvo Guillermo Leon
• Calvo Antonio
• Calvo Rigo Alberto
• Calvo Quintero Miryam De Jesús
• Camacho Manuel
• Camacho Jairo Jesús
• Camacho Canasteros José Ruben
• Camacho Chacon Henry
• Camargo Rey Sergio
• Camargo Torres Luis Alberto
• Camargo Vasquez Leonel
• Camelo Sanchez Jose
• Camero Galvis Luis Alfredo
• Campo Pinedo Portho David
• Campos José
• Canal Pésico Gonzalo
• Cañaveral Osorio Claudia Yaneth
• Cano Figueroa Juan Carlos
• Cano Quiroz Adriana Maria
• Cano Zapata Jhonny Alexander
• Cantillo Sandra Ester
• Cantillo González Emil
• Cantillo Sánchez Emil
• Cantor José Luis
• Caraballo Cantillo Martha Elena
• Cardenas Omar Ovidio
• Cárdenas Gerlein Guillermo
• Cardona Jorge Iván
• Cardona Julia
• Cardona Arenas Guillermo
• Cardona Caldera Carlos
• Cardona Hernandez Faiber
• Cardona Maya Jorge Arturo
• Cardona Trujillo Cesar
• Cardozo Vasquez Henry Leonardo
• Carmen Ruiz Maria Lucelly
• Carmona Hernando
• Carmona Osorio Miguel Angel
• Caro Hernan
• Caro Luis Fernando
• Carrascal Rangel Jorge
• Carreño Saulo
• Carreño Gilberto
• Carreño Peña Rafael Alberto
• Carrillo Helbes Sergio Andres
• Carvajal Gabriel
• Carvajal Arteaga José Emilio
• Carvajal Franco Jose Jaime
• Carvajalino Chago Israel
• Casallas Torres Omar Giovanny
• Casas Joaquin
• Casas Rodríguez Camilo Alejandro
• Castañeda Carmenza
• Castañeda Enciso Manuel
• Castañeda Quiroz Balmoris Alberto
• Castañeda Vergara Javier De Jesús
• Castaño Orlando
• Castaño Montiel Giovany
• Castellanos De Figueroa Teresa
• Castilla Cleodomiro
• Castillo Francy Rocio
• Castillo Carlos Alberto
• Castillo Jaime Alberto
• Castillo Ana Milena
• Castillo Arredondo Julio Cesar
• Castillo Bustamante Jesús Enrique
• Castillo Charris Noraldo José
• Castillo Gallego Gloria Enith
• Castillo Montenegro Miyer Alexander
• Castillo Polo Jaime Luis
• Castillo Sánchez Nicolás
• Castillo Vergara Francia Margarita
• Castrillon Andres
• Castrillon Garcia Wilmer
• Castro Everardo (Mexican)
• Castro Ascanio Albeiro
• Castro Conrado Alfredo Rafeel
• Castro Lopez Nestor Alberto
• Castro Lopez Deiber Stiven
• Castro Mafla Nelson
• Castro Mafla Miller
• Castro Patiño Manuel Alejandro
• Cayewya Leila
• Ceballos Yezid
• Ceballos Sierra Rafael Ricardo
• Cediel Herrera José Olvein
• Celedon Julio Habib
• Celis José
• Celis Gutierrez Jose Joaquin
• Cepeda Erick
• Cespedes Garcia José Orlando
• Chacon Bravo Luis Roberto
• Chacón Bravo Ligia Fanny
• Chamorro Jairo
• Chaparro Naranjo Luis Hernan
• Charris Hugo Gilberto
• Charris Figueroa José Del Carmen
• Charris Figueroa Omar Andres
• Charry Carlos Alberto
• Charrys Rodriguez Cesar Augusto
• Chavarro Alfaro Ever
• Chaverra Junca Jimmy
• Chavez Bonilla Luis Alberto
• Chavez Hurtado Luz Amparo
• Chavita Burgos Lino
• Chimigui Higuildo
• Chinchilla Alvarez Luis Fernando
• Chinchilla Munar Jorge Alberto
• Chisco Jaime Humberto
• Chisco Espinosa Jaime Humberto
• Chitiva Prieto Jesus Antonio
• Chivata Fonseca Samuel
• Cifuentes Juan Ignacio
• Cifuentes Rodriguez Hector Gonzalo
• Cifuentes Rodriguez German
• Claro Arévalo Neftalí
• Claros Pinzón Roberto
• Clavijo Gasca Marlon Andres
• Cobaleda Oscar
• Cobaleda Jairo
• Collazos Jorge Ricardo
• Colorado Cadavid Jaime Luis
• Conrado Bolívar Ostuardo
• Contreras Florez Pascual
• Contreras Hernandez Jairo
• Contreras Rojas Beyer Antonio
• Coral Parra Richard Anderson
• Córdoba Daniel Isidoro
• Cordoba Alvarez Marien Del Pilar
• Cordoba Iles Paulino
• Cordón Herrera Reynaldo
• Cordón Herrera Guillermo
• Coronado De Lopez Doris
• Corrales Castro Francia Helena
• Corrales Cuadrados Deivis José
• Correa Marco Antonio
• Correa Oscar
• Correa Alejandro
• Correa Tamayo Tamayo Astrid Veronica
• Correa Arteaga Guillermo Leon
• Correa Maldonado Ovidio
• Correa Tamayo Laura Cristina
• Correa Tamayo Angie Caterine
• Correa Velásquez Luz Dary
• Corredor Pedro
• Cortes Acero Pedro Hernan
• Cortes Aragon Rogelio
• Cortes Espinosa Cesar Aureliano
• Cossio Andrés Cossio
• Covelly Luz Mery
• Cruz Marcos
• Cruz Perez Orfanelly
• Cuadrados Fredy
• Cubides Caballero Nelson
• Cubides Carvajal Luis Mario
• Cubides Plazas José Gilbert
• Cubillos Gabriel
• Cuervo Rojas Julio
• Cuesta Asprilla Felix
• Cujas Oscar

D
• Dalde Beni
• Dangond Noguera Julio Jose
• Daniels Mattos José David
• Daza Heder
• Daza María Clemencia
• Daza Bermudez Elias
• Daza Diaz Marcela
• De La Cruz Hermes
• De La Ossa De La Ossa Jhon Jairo
• De La Rosa Jorge Luis
• De La Torre Carlos
• De Las Aguas Manga Sebastian Segundo
• De Los Rios Vela José Ignacio
• Delbasto Francisco
• Delgado Argote Harvey
• Delgado Becerra Jesus Antonio
• Devia Molinares Diana Carolina (Venezuelan)
• Diad Basil Julieth
• Diaz Jhon Jairo
• Diaz William
• Diaz Luis
• Diaz Luis Antonio
• Díaz Eduardo
• Diaz Beltrán Wilson
• Díaz Camacho Luz Eneida
• Diaz Cardenas Rodrigo
• Diaz Cifuentes Oswaldo
• Diaz Diaz Ariel
• Diaz Gaitan Henry Noe
• Diaz Garcia Ramon
• Diaz Gomez José Nicolas
• Diaz López Nelson
• Diaz Montoya Felipe
• Diaz Prada Rafael
• Diez Carlos Mario
• Diez Orozco Carlos Mario
• Diviayo Rafael
• Domico Honorio
• Domico Delio
• Domico Uldarico
• Domico Angel
• Domico Teofan
• Domico Jarupia José Angel
• Domico Pernia Kimi
• Dominguez Jorge
• Dominguez Peña Yury Andrea
• Donato William
• Doria Romero Pablo
• Doria Romero Edgar
• Duarte Olida Sofia
• Duarte Carlos José
• Duarte Salomon
• Duarte Valero Edgar Yesid
• Dueñas Carlos Julio
• Duque Jaramillo John Jairo
• Duque Mazo Gabriel
• Duque Meza Jairo
• Duque Silva José Farith
• Durán John Jairo
• Duran Rodriguez Javier Alonso

E
• Echarri Antonio
• Echavarria Velez Jhonny Alexander
• Echeverri Ramiro
• Echeverri Arboleda Eliseo
• Echeverri Mejia Gilberto
• Echeverria Castro José Alejandro
• Echeverry Perez Cristina
• Echeverry Sánchez Ramiro
• Elias Gomez Ana Luisa
• Eltawin Erez
• Escobar Mejia Ana Joaquina Maria Estela
• Escobar Rotabista Fernando
• Escobar Velez Carlos Hernan
• Escorcia Antonio
• Espejo Luis Alejandro
• Espinoza Hernandez Jairo
• Espitia Luis Ernesto
• Estrada Mateo
• Estrada Cadavid Juan Diego
• Estrada Jimenez Octavio

F
• Fadul Bernal Hernando
• Fandiño Adonaldo
• Fandiño Chavez Edinsón
• Fandiño Guarnizo Cesar
• Fernandez Solarte Solarte James Fabian
• Fernandez Quessep Alvaro
• Fernandez Solarte Juan Sebastian
• Fernando George
• Fernando Sanmiento Jhon Carlos
• Ferro Fernández José
• Ferro Pinilla Adriano
• Fino Ricardo
• Flechas Estrada Jhon Jairo
• Flores Fernando
• Flores Adolfo
• Flórez Uldarico
• Florez Florez José Francisco
• Florez Rueda, Eduardo
• Folleco Ahumada Segundo Peregrino
• Fontalvoprietoprieto Jorge Eduardo
• Forero Wilfredy
• Forero Carrero José Libardo
• Forero Rivera Diego Mario
• Franco Carlos Julio
• Franco Bernal Octavio
• Fredy Olvani Gallo Jurado
• Freiver Vives Walter
• Fuentes Camacho Carlos Humberto

G
• Gaitan William
• Galindo Dionisio
• Gallego Miller Lady
• Gallego Giraldo Luis Carlos
• Galvan Juan Guillermo
• Galvis Jaimes José Maria
• Galvis Mendez Dayra De Jesus
• Gaona Nubia
• Garavito Martinez Maria Amparo
• Garaviz De Sanchez Luz Estella
• Garay Manuel
• Garbache Ramos Gabriel
• Garcia Luis Carlos
• Garcia Jesús Antonio
• Garcia Juan Carlos
• Garcia Vicente
• García Miriam
• Garciaaguilaraguilar Alvaro
• Garcia Andrade Jorge
• Garcia Arias Diego Alonso
• Garcia Arrieta Rafael Eduardo
• Garcia De Cortes Margarita Del Socorro
• García Giraldo Carlos Alberto
• García Gómez Carlos Eugenio
• García Gómez Héctor Fabio
• Garcia Guillen Cesar Augusto
• Garcia Lopez Jorge Luis
• Garcia Lopez Reinaldo
• Garcia Martín Jhon Carlos
• García Mosquera John Freddy
• Garcia Oñate Jorge Luis
• Garcia Oviedo Antonio José
• Garcia Puentes Julio Alexander
• Garcia Restrepo Hernan
• Garcia Toro Ramiro
• Garcia Vargas Alberto Elias
• Garzon Marina
• Garzon Cortes Fredy Helbert
• Gaviria Jaime
• Gechen Turbay Jorge Eduardo
• Gercia Simons Julio Cesar
• Gerena Mateus Helmer Eliecer
• Ghazal Houman Khaled
• Gil Vallejo Mario De Jesus
• Giral Panesso Dorian Alberto
• Giraldo José
• Giraldo Aristizabal José Absalon
• Giraldo Cadavid Francisco Javier
• Giraldo Giraldo Luis Ernando
• Giraldo Hernández Benjamín
• Giraldo Herrera Manuel
• Giraldo Hincapie Jose Rodrigo
• Gloria Alexandra Múnera
• Gnecco José
• Gomez Joel
• Gomez Clara
• Gomez Juan
• Gomez Andres
• Gomez Rolando
• Gomez Aider
• Gomez Ruben Dario
• Gómez Elvia
• Gomez Agudelo Jesus M
• Gomez Alvarado Victor Manuel
• Gómez Avila Ledis Yohelis
• Gomez Cona Carlos Palacio
• Gomez Galeano Moises
• Gomez Galindo Benjamin
• Gomez Mejia Jonh Jairo
• Gomez Mendoza Damian
• Gomez Porras Armando
• Gomez Ramirez Julio Cesar
• Gómez Rodríguez Sandro Hernando
• Gomez Salcedo Carlos Alberto
• Gomez Santos Juan Carlos
• Gonsálves Marc (American)
• Gonzalez Karen
• Gonzalez Jhon Alexander
• Gonzalez Jairo
• Gonzalez Cristobal
• Gonzalez Rosendo
• González Gustavo
• González Luis Teodoro
• González Adán
• Gonzalez Campuzano Mariano De Jesús
• González De Perdomo Consuelo
• Gonzalez Diaz Rafael
• Gonzalez Espitia Luis Felipe
• Gonzalez Garcia Alberto
• González García Alberto
• Gonzalez Giraldo Aristobulo
• Gonzalez Ibarra Jorge Eliecer
• Gonzalez Murillo Jose Dorance
• Gonzalez Pimienta Luz Rocio
• González Posada Carlos Alberto
• Gonzalez Rojas Sandra Marisol
• Gonzalez Sandoval Heliodoro
• Gonzalez Velilla Termutis Del Carmen
• Grajales Romo Holger Zagalo
• Granada Pinzon Eliecer
• Granados Monroy Maria Ines
• Greco Irma
• Grisales Jiménez José Elí
• Guaran Roberto
• Guerra Jairo Miguel
• Guerra González Marco Aurelio
• Guerra Jimenez Ibeth
• Guerrero Eliseo
• Guerrero Edwin Ferney
• Guerrero Gutierrez Francisca
• Guevara Julián Hernesto
• Guevara Quintero Osiris Yovanna
• Guillen Tabares Henry
• Guisto Gabriels
• Gutierrez Abelardo
• Gutiérrez Tulia
• Gutierrez Patiño Leonardo Fabio
• Gutierrez Reza Jorge
• Gutierrez Suarez Pedro Manuel
• Gutiérrez Urdaneta Randolfo
• Guy Ido Joseph

H
• Hansen Heiner
• Henao Gustavo
• Henao Barco Luis Bernardo
• Henao Vallejo Sergio Alonso
• Henderson John (American)
• Hernandez Eugenio
• Hernandez Jorge Augusto
• Hernández Alberto
• Hernández Gloria María
• Hernández Diego Fernando
• Hernández Diego Fernando
• Hernandez Alvarez Henry Samuel
• Hernández Benitez Henry
• Hernández Calle Juan Carlos
• Hernandez Cardona Ivan
• Hernandez Estrada Daniel
• Hernandez Fernandez Antonio José
• Hernández Guanga. Luis Orlando
• Hernandez Hernandez Gabriel Horacio
• Hernández Hernández Carlos Alberto
• Hernandez Pineda Jorge
• Hernández Rivas Elkin
• Hernandez Torres Luis Esteban
• Hernando Rojas Vinasco
• Herrera Guillermo
• Herrera Amaya Alcides De Jesús
• Herrera Pinto José Elias
• Hincapie Duque Carlos Alberto
• Hincapie Vasquez Jorge Leon
• Hinojosa Vence Ismael
• Holguín Acosta Néstor
• Holguín Acosta Néstor
• Holguin Cuervo Arley Alberto
• Howes Tom (American)
• Hoyos Salcedo Jairo Javier
• Huertas Quintero Isidoro
• Huertas Silva Salvador
• Hurtado Pedro Jesús
• Hurtado Gonzalez Jairo Alfredo

I
• Ibarra Pimentel Gabriel
• Indaburu Ana Teodora
• Infante Luis Antonio
• Infante Juan Maria
• Infante Ortega Otoniel
• Iregui Carrillo Camilo

J
• Jaimes Humberto
• Jara Alan
• Jaramillo Norberto
• Jaramillo Jorge Sigifredo
• Jaramillo Gabriel Humberto
• Jaramillo Alvarez Juan Diego
• Jaramillo Barrios Eduard
• Jaramillo Monsalve William
• Jaramillo Montoya Juilo César
• Jaramillo Sierra Carlos Humberto
• Jerez Capacho Alfonso
• Jimenez Pablo Emilio
• Jimenez Durango Alberto
• Jurado Rios Leonardo Fabio

L
• Lancheros Bueno Maria Emilia
• Landazabal Hurtado Luz Helena
• Lasso Orlando
• Lasso Monsalve Cesar Augusto
• Lastra Laureano
• Leguizamon Parra Blas Ignacio
• Lemon Vallestas Roque
• Leon Maria Eloisa
• León Castillo José Alberto
• Leon Torres Belkis Zoraida
• León Villaciés Eduardo Ignacio
• Leyton Padilla José
• Lizarazo Victor Manuel
• Lizcano Oscar Tulio
• Llerena García Carlos
• Loaiza Luis Eduardo
• Londoño Samuel
• Londoño Hernan
• Londoño Evelio
• Londoño Camargo Ivan Dario
• Londoño Cañas Leonardo
• Londoño Gomez Claudia Constanza
• Londoño Lopez Diana Patricia
• Londoño Rico Carlos Mario
• Londoño Soto Luis Felipe
• Lopez José Demetrio
• Lopez Mario
• Lopez Andres
• Lopez Nesto
• López Narcizo
• López Holbert
• López Henry
• López Henry
• López Angel Belitza Pilar
• Lopez Arcos Willam Miguel
• Lopez Cely Rafael Enrique
• Lopez Coronado Karen
• Lopez Cruz Alba
• Lopez Duque Carlos Mario
• Lopez Echeverry Robinson
• Lopez Gonzalez Dora Elizabet
• Lopez Ramos Arturo
• Lopez Rojas Oscar Alberto
• Lopez Salazar Abelardo
• López Tobón Sigifredo
• Losada Montenegro José Arbelay
• Lotero Barrientos Joel
• Lothar Burkhard Hintze (German)
• Lozada Anibal
• Lozada Suarez José Luis
• Lozano Eduardo
• Lucuara Segura Hector
• Lugo Primelles René

M
• Macias Villalba Hernando
• Madrid Álvarez Rafael
• Malagon Castellanos Raymundo
• Maldonado Alvaro
• Malo Guido
• Malo Ramirez Mario Alfonso
• Manga Alexander
• Mantilla Nelson Omar
• Mantilla Pedro Ivan
• Mantilla Miller Xiomara
• Mantilla Pedro Ivan
• Marín Luis Gonzaga
• Marín Amparo
• Marín De Salazar María Consuelo
• Marin Franco Mario Alberto
• Marin Muñoz José Leonel
• Marin Villalva Gildardo
• Mariño Granados Luis
• Márquez Díaz Enrique
• Marroquín Cruz Edwin
• Martinez Nelson
• Martinez Edwin Raul
• Martinez Andres
• Martinez Esneider
• Martínez José Libio
• Martínez Edwin Raul
• Martinez Caceres Ilia Dorada
• Martínez Gómez José William
• Martinez Herrera Javier
• Martínez Parra Pavel José
• Martinez Pinedo Domingo
• Martínez Quiñones Mabel
• Martinez Romero Wilson De Jesús
• Martinez Tarache Carlos Alirio
• Martinez Valaidez Tony Alberto
• Martinez Zabaleta Manuel Antonio
• Marulanda Valencia José Ricardo
• Matarife Deivis
• Mayer Arce Diana Carolina
• Mazo Muñoz Carlos Alberto
• Medina Cabezas Wilmer Orlando
• Medina Camelo Hernando
• Medina Hernandez Jairo
• Medina Hidrobo Hildes
• Medina Hinestrosa Patricia
• Medina Lopez Lorenzo
• Medina Rojas Helka Gisela
• Mejia Aurelio
• Mejia Jesús Alfonso
• Mejía José Rodolfo
• Mejía Araújo Mireya
• Mejia Garcia Hugo
• Mejia Isaza Diego
• Mejia Moreno Jorge Ivan
• Mejia Ramirez Carlos
• Mejia Salazar Consuelo
• Mejia Velandia Felipe
• Mejía Vélez José Gustavo
• Mejore Mariano
• Mena Antonio
• Mena Yesid
• Mendez Wilmer
• Mendez Cardenas Jorge Alberto
• Mendez Dagua Fabian Alexis
• Mendez Mendoza Ingrid Isabel
• Mendez Meza Henry
• Mendez Passu Libardo
• Méndez Vela Juan Carlos
• Mendieta Luis
• Mendieta Avendaño Jose Eduardo
• Mendoza Nancy
• Mendoza Daza Joaquin Guillermo
• Meneses Garcia Claudio
• Meneses Neira Ángel María
• Menez Angel
• Mercado Lara Franklin
• Mercado Saavedra Jorge Andres
• Meriño Algarin Waldir
• Mesa Lopera Adolfo Leon
• Milano Marin Oscar Ivan
• Mina Perez Oscar
• Minana Stephanie
• Miranda Luis Alfonso
• Miranda Julio
• Mojica Benitez Gilberto
• Molano Sabogal Helmer Audrey
• Molano Sanchez Rafael Antonio
• Molina Garcia Julian Andres
• Molina Manrique Arturo
• Mona Rafael
• Moncayo Cabrera Pablo Emilio
• Monrron Echeverria Tomas Vicente
• Montenegro Lievano
• Montenegro Cuesta William Antonio
• Montenegro Llanos Justo
• Montenegro Martínez Willinton
• Montenegro Mendoza Alfredo De Jesús
• Monterroza Nadjar Antonio
• Montes Edilberto
• Montoya Gloria Maria
• Montoya Ancízar
• Montoya Baena Alvaro De Jesus
• Montoya Leyton Ricardo
• Montufar Andrade Harold
• Mora Yenny Suleydi
• Mora Carlos Hoover
• Mora Pedronel
• Mora Milton
• Mora Salvador
• Mora Torres Juan Camilo
• Mora Ubaque Jhon Harold
• Morales Acosta José Isidro
• Morales Jiménez Jedys
• Morales Ramirez Jose Narciso
• Moreno Luz Amparo
• Moreno Reynaldo
• Moreno Álvaro
• Moreno Julia
• Moreno Wilfredo
• Moreno Juan Pablo
• Moreno Acevedo Luis Arturo
• Moreno Carrasco Leonardo Enrique
• Moreno Castrillon Juan
• Moreno Chaguezá Luis Alfredo
• Moreno Osorio Carlos Julio
• Moreno Parra Roberto
• Moreno Rios Matias
• Mosquera Alvarado
• Mosquera Ramón
• Mosquera Luis
• Mosqueraramosramos Belisario
• Mosquera Mena Geisson Arley
• Motañes Roa Dario Urbey
• Mublled Muvdi José
• Müller Rosner Francisco
• Muñeton Hernan Dario
• Muñeton Montilla Blanca Emilse
• Muñoz Gilberto Muñoz
• Muñoz Dídier Arley
• Muñoz Morales Jose Ferney
• Muñoz Rodríguez Jorge Enrique
• Muñoz Rojas Lino De Jesús
• Murcia Espitia Arnoldo
• Murillo David
• Murillo Ramirez Andres Ramiro
• Murillo Sánchez Enrrique
• Muvdi Yabra

N
• N. Javier
• Nadjar Benavides Elkin
• Narvaez Jaramillo Jorge Ivan
• Narváez Reyes Juan Carlos
• Neira Escobar German
• Neira Pimienta José De Dios
• Neisa Castiblanco José
• Nevardo Posada Uber
• Nieves Charris Gustavo Isaac
• Nieves Quesada Rolando
• Niño Sonia
• Niño Rafael
• Noguera Edgar Camilo
• Noreña Fabio Nelson
• Nuñez Sanabria Rodolfo
• Nuñez Sarmiento Reinaldo

O
• Obregon Uriel
• Obregon Garrido Johana
• Ocampo Luis Angel
• Ocampo Avila Pedro Pablo
• Ocampo Diaz Jose Obed
• Ochoa Carlos
• Ochoa Forero Jesus Adonai
• Ochoa Nuñez Manuel Maria
• Ochoa Sepulveda Magnolia
• Ohayan Orcaz
• Ojalvo Jorge
• Ojeda Óscar
• Olarte De Gutierrez Mercedes
• Olaverde Neira Winston Javier
• Olaya Ismael
• Olaya Alirio
• Olmedo Castrillón Jorge
• Ordoñez Herbey
• Orjuela Caballero Jaime
• Orozco Nacianceno
• Orozco Grisales Nacianceno
• Orrego Álvarez David
• Ortega Fernando
• Ortega Noriega Rene Enrique
• Ortiz Luis Albeiro
• Ortiz Arcadio
• Ortiz Luis
• Ortiz Ligia María Ortiz
• Ortiz Efren
• Ortíz Germán
• Ortiz Camacho Hugo Ignacio
• Ortiz Guzman Jose
• Osorio Fabián
• Osorio Hector Iván
• Osorio Mantilla Alberto
• Osorio Mendoza Hector Hely
• Osorio Villamizar Ismael
• Ospina Oswaldo
• Ospino Sandra
• Otálvaro Otálvaro Cayetano
• Ovidio De Gomez Yolis Del Carmen
• Ovidio Sierra Hernando
• Oviedo Bertel Deivis Manuel

P
• Pacheco Miguel Antonio
• Pacheco Santander
• Pacheco Yeimi
• Pacheco Florez Roque
• Pacheco Iglesias Miguel Angel
• Paez Oscar
• Paez Muñoz Jairo Anibal
• Paez Tipazoca Luis Ernesto
• Paez Torre Nelson Humberto
• Palacios Joaquin
• Palacios Emilio
• Palacios Alejandro
• Palacios Moreno Willinton
• Palacios Paez Nelson
• Palencia Palencia Benito
• Palma Sarazo Mauricio
• Palomino Sanchez Alejandro
• Pamplona María Elizabeth
• Panesso Cardona Jose Ricaute
• Panqueva Merchan Alison Andrea
• Pantoja Marcos
• Pantoja Urbano Fabio Antonio
• Parides Jaminor
• Parra Shirley
• Parra Arias Isauro Evelio
• Parra Avila Wilson
• Parra Montoya Eugenio
• Patermina Hunter
• Patiño Aydé
• Patiño Eduardo
• Patiño Rodriguez Oscar Martín
• Patiño Salazar Jose Edilson
• Pava Juan
• Payares De Armas Guillermo
• Pazos Gomajoa Jhon Richard
• Pedraza Calderon Hugo
• Peláez Torres Martha Lucía
• Peña Victor
• Peña César Dario
• Peña Luz Dary (Venezuelan)
• Peña Bonilla Luis Hernando
• Peña Cardenas Gloria Esther
• Peña Gonzalez Wilson
• Peña Guarnizo José Gregorio
• Peña Marco Fidel
• Peña Medina Juan Carlos
• Peña Sanchez Carlos Alirio
• Peña Walteros Tomas Vicente
• Pequeña Cosita
• Peralta Zubieta Joaquin
• Perea Orejuela Leider Dario
• Perez Alcira
• Pérez Elkin
• Pérez Luis Javier
• Pérez Edinson
• Perez Bonilla Luis Eladio
• Perez De Arco Jose
• Perez Monsalve Mauricio Antonio
• Perez Osorio Fabiola
• Pérez Pérez Jaime Darío
• Perez Reyes Oscar Mauricio
• Perez Rodriguez Floriberto
• Perez Rodriguez Guillermo
• Pérez Ruiz José Norberto
• Perez Salazar Nicanor
• Perez Sanchez Fabio
• Pérez Tapias Luís
• Pérez Vargas Alberto
• Perez Yepes Luis
• Pernía Domicó Kimy
• Pertuz Fabian
• Picon Israel
• Piedra Juan Fernando
• Pietro Pietro Elvis De Jesús
• Pineda Ramon Alfonso
• Pino Córdoba Gildardo
• Pino Cuetia Cipriano
• Pino Ruiz Natalia Andrea
• Pinto Velez Viviana
• Pinzón Fredy
• Pinzón Azuero Carlos Onofre
• Plata Sonia
• Polanco Germán Darío
• Polanco Arroyo William
• Polanco De Losada Gloria
• Polanco Perdomo Aminta
• Polania Martha Cecilia
• Polania Montenegro Humberto
• Polo Ronald
• Posada Arias Juan Carlos
• Potosí Chamorro José Guillermo
• Prado Alexander
• Prado Conde Ramiro
• Prieto Piñeros Edwin
• Priter Fragoso William Alfonso
• Prueba Carlos
• Puentes José Octavio
• Puentes Edwin Yesid

Q
• Quevedo Rivas Julio
• Quintero Camelo Jairo Adolfo
• Quintero Herrera Alberto
• Quintero Vargas Edgar
• Quiroz Gaviria Cristian Camilo
• Quiroz Goez Carlos Alberto

R
• Ramirez Francisco
• Ramirez Nelson
• Ramirez Ruben Dario
• Ramirez Cesar Augusto
• Ramirez Gilberto
• Ramírez Catalina
• Ramírez Julio
• Ramirez Castaño Ruben Dario
• Ramirez De Valle Cesar Augusto
• Ramirez Jimenez Ariel Alonso
• Ramirez Trujillo Fernando
• Ramos Hermogenes
• Ramos Pablo Emilio
• Ramos De Espinosa Cecilia
• Ramos Quiroz Alberto
• Rangel Silva Alberto
• Rapckovich John Alejandro
• Raves Nancy Del Socorro
• Ravotty Gianluigi Yhanny (Italian)
• Reales Mercado Jaime
• Rebolledo Bladimir
• Redondo Mindiola Cielo
• Rendon Luis Fernando
• Renteria Hemerito
• Restrepo Mauricio
• Restrepo Rigoberto
• Restrepo José Jhovany
• Restrepo Salvador
• Restrepo Escobar Fabio
• Restrepo Gómez Argiro
• Restrepo Lopez Omar
• Restrepo Mejia Luis Guillermo
• Restrepo Mejia Oscar Emilio
• Restrepo Mejia Camilo Alberto
• Restrepo Montoya Luis Gonzalo
• Restrepo Ponton Pedro
• Restrepo Valencia Javier
• Reyes Aguilar Victor Alfonso
• Reyes Cadena William Alfonso
• Reyes Garcia Oswaldo
• Reyes Plazas Diana
• Reyes Restrepo José Fanor
• Riaño Diaz José Nicodemus
• Riascos Jorge Alejandro
• Ricardo Enrique Diaz Reyes
• Rincon Castaño José Alberto
• Rincon Lara Luis Ernesto
• Rincon Mosquera Hernan
• Rincon Pulido José Constantino
• Rincon Quesada Leonardo
• Rincon Trigo Ricardo
• Ríos Julio Cesar
• Rios Clavijo Arnubio
• Rios De Calderon Maria Edilma
• Rios Zorrilla Mario Arturo
• Rivera Guillermo Ramón
• Rivera Mestizo Bernardo
• Riveros José
• Roa Tovar Yesid
• Robles Rivera John
• Rodeiro Juan Francisco
• Rodriguez Ninfa
• Rodriguez Juan Sebastian
• Rodriguez Luis Alberto
• Rodriguez Elena
• Rodríguez Fabio
• Rodriguez Anzola Cristian Mauricio
• Rodríguez Caro Ismael
• Rodriguez Castro Alejandro José
• Rodriguez Corrales Jainyenezenez
• Rodriguez De La Cruz Viviana Cristina
• Rodriguez Diaz Timoteo
• Rodriguez Garcia Clara Ines
• Rodriguez Jaimes Margarita
• Rodríguez López Pedro
• Rodriguez Martinez Wilfredo
• Rodríguez Martínez Isabel
• Rodriguez Pardo Ricardo
• Rodriguez Perdomo Wilson
• Rodriguez Perez Guillermo
• Rodríguez Porras Javier Vianey
• Rodríguez Sebeniche Rogelio
• Rodriguez Urbano Robiro
• Rodríguez Vitola Dubis
• Rois Daza Enrique José
• Rojas Clara
• Rojas Cortes Osnel Gilberto
• Rojas Gonzalez Gonzalo
• Rojas Leon Julio Cesar
• Rojas Medina Wilson
• Rojas Rincon Pablo Enrique
• Rojas Tierradentro Juan
• Rojas Torres Wilfredo
• Rojas Varón Jaime
• Rojas Zamudio Benjamin
• Roldan Sanchez Juan Fernando
• Román Iván Darío
• Román Francisco Antonio
• Romero Erasmo
• Romero José Useiel
• Romero Luis Elvis
• Romero Luis Angel
• Romero Gomez Eliceth
• Romero Gutierrez Julieth Alexandra
• Romero Lievano Roberto
• Romero Silva Martha Ballole
• Romero Silva Luz Amanda
• Romero Vega Eliecer
• Roncancio Afanador Luisy
• Rosas Sánchez Oscar Donald
• Rubiano Garzón Edgar
• Rubio Alfonso Arquimedes
• Rubio Cardenas Jorge
• Rueda Ronaldo
• Rueda Bedoya Benjamin
• Rueda Campo Alfonso
• Ruiz Ramón
• Ruiz Alvear Alexis Antonio
• Ruiz Barbosa Franklin
• Ruiz Ibañez Eli
• Ruíz Vélez Karina
• Ruiz Zapata María Cristina
• Rumbo Barros Antonio
• Russi Puentes Alfonso

S
• Sabogal Rubiel
• Sacadaguí Cermeño Bejamín
• Saens Paola Andrea
• Saenz Lozano Cristian Camilo
• Saenz Saenz Nestor Hernando
• Salas Cardona Jhon Jaime
• Salazar Juan Carlos
• Salazar Rubén
• Salazar Garcés Samuel Antonio
• Salazar Perez José De Jesús
• Salazar Riaño Jaime
• Salazar Salas Ricardo
• Salazar Trujillo Amadeo
• Saldaña Galvis Said Antonio
• Saldarriaga García Francisco
• Salem Villamil Mahmud
• Salgado Vuelvas Alberto Vicente
• Salinas Rodríguez Álvaro
• Samaca Fuquene Marco Aurelio
• Sanabria Castillo Hermes
• Sanabria Cuellar Julio Alberto
• Sanabria Gomez Ever
• Sanchez Jhon Fredy
• Sánchez Donaldo
• Sanchez Galvis Fredy Yesid
• Sanchez Gardel Rolando
• Sanchez Gomez Hugo Alberto
• Sánchez López Arnulfo
• Sanchez Monsalve Dagoberto
• Sanchez Novoa Luz Yolanda
• Sanchez Ochoa Robert
• Sánchez Perdomo Juan Carlos
• Sánchez Reyes Jaime
• Sandoval Garzon Alfredo
• Sandoval Garzón Hernándo
• Sandoval Siabato Edgar
• Santacruz Aidé Rosalba
• Santamaria Arango Luis Carlos
• Santana Eduardo
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• Santana Perez Fernando
• Sarmiento Mantilla José Daniel
• Sayas Flores Ariel
• Scarpetta Maldonado Eusebio
• Segura Lasso Ana Rosa
• Serna Trejos Doris Patricia
• Serrano Gustavo
• Serrano Alexis
• Serrano José Luis Rodolfo
• Severino Gonzalez Alfonso Jose
• Sgrena Giuliana
• Sierra Gaitan Luis Carlos
• Sierra García Joaquín Emilio
• Sierra Monroy Ana Irene
• Sierra Sierra José Trinidad
• Sierra Uribe Eduardo Alberto
• Silgado Castro Diego
• Silgado Contreras José Del Carmen
• Silva Duque James
• Silva Sanchez Harbey
• Solarte José Belisario
• Soler Nubia
• Soler Martinez José David
• Solozarno Guillermo Javier
• Soto V Eduard Fabian
• Stansell Keith (American)
• Sterling Calderón Luis Roberto
• Sterling Rojas Angel Maria
• Stocker Joseph
• Suarez Adolfo
• Suarez Antonio
• Suárez Ezequiel
• Suarez Arena Fernando
• Suárez De Cruz Carmenza
• Suarez Molina Miguel
• Suárez Ospina Mauricio

T
• Taborda Echavarría Santiago Andrés
• Taborda Jaramillo Luis Angel
• Tamayo Andres Francisco
• Tamayo Mesa Orlando Alonso
• Tapasco Rangel Alirio
• Télles Fabio
• Tenorio Sanclemente Rogerio
• Tolosa Luis Gabriel
• Tonguino Paul Enrrique
• Torres Rodrigo
• Torres Eliecer
• Torres Maria Inocencia
• Torres Ascencio Jorge Enrique
• Torres Bonilla Cecilia
• Torres Rodriguez Carlos
• Torres Rojas Oscar Orlando
• Torres Silva Guillermo
• Torres Velasco Parmenio
• Torres Zea Roger
• Tovar Yesid
• Tovar Nohora Sthela
• Tovar Julio
• Tovar Lozano Jorge
• Tovar Soler Luis Orlando
• Triana Ayala Omar
• Triana Mahecha Alirio
• Trillos Criado Armando Orlando
• Troncoso Troncoso Jorge Julio
• Trujillo Molano Eduardo
• Trujillo Solarte Jorge

U
• Ugarte De Quijada Elsa
• Ulfe Oscar Alfredo
• Ulloa Padilla Ramiro
• Ulpacue Adilson
• Urán Carlos Darío
• Urbano Barroso Holman
• Urbano Florez Richard Orlando
• Ureña José Manuel
• Uribe Omar
• Uribe Luis Alberto
• Uricochea Corena Jose Pablo
• Uscategui Jose Rafael

V
• Valbuena Méndez Jaime
• Valbuena Méndez Juan Pablo
• Valbuena Sanchez Saúl
• Valbuena Sotelo Lina Patricia
• Valderrama Bermudez Alcira
• Valencia Falla José Albertano
• Valencia Jaramillo Guillermo Leon
• Valencia Matiz De Torres Cecilia
• Valencia Peralta Pablo Andrés
• Valencia Rincon Oscar Dario
• Valencia Rojas Luis Danilo
• Valencia Uribe Jose Antonio
• Valencia Uribe Hernando
• Vallejo Braund Mauricio
• Vallejo Garzon Walter Nelson
• Valoj Soffer Dany
• Vanegas Claudia
• Vanegas Olaya Jose Serafin
• Vanegas Ortega Maria Fernanda
• Varela Cobo Rufino
• Varela Maldonado Gabriel Enrique
• Vargas Henry
• Vargas Luisa
• Vargas Luz Dary
• Vargas Arango Sigifredo
• Vargas Claudia Patricia
• Vargas Contreras José Canon
• Vargas De Coronado Graciela
• Vargas Diaz Yefrei
• Vargas Estefan Hollman
• Vargas Jimenez Ancisar
• Vargas Peña Nelson
• Vargas Polanco Adolfo León
• Vargas Rojas Yesid
• Vargas Torres Neydy Enerie
• Vargas Vargas Elbano
• Vasconcelos Junior Joao José
• Vasquez Javier
• Vasquez Luis Pablo
• Vasquez Elkin
• Vasquez Jhon
• Vásquez Salvador
• Vásquez José Ignacio
• Vásquez Andrade María Edilma
• Vasquez Atehortua Naom Alberto
• Vasquez Mira Martin Jesús
• Vasquez Ospina José Ignacio
• Vásquez Torres Jennifer
• Vega Lina
• Vega Justo Pastor
• Vega Aragón Guillermo León
• Velasco Fandiño José Abelardo
• Velasquez Luis Carlos
• Velásquez Marco Tulio
• Velasquez Henao Climaco
• Velasquez Londoño Carlos Fernando
• Velásquez Vega Beatriz
• Velazquez Mallama Carlos Vicente
• Vera Alvarado Sebastián
• Verbel Medina Julio Hernan
• Vertel De Castillo Hernan Francisco
• Viana Gustavo
• Viancha Suárez Luis Angel
• Vidales José David
• Vides Daza Maria Ines
• Vides Salgadoides Salgado Alejandro Enrique
• Villalba Gutierrez Antonio
• Villalobos Hernandez Nielsen Alfredo
• Villamil Santander
• Villamizar Carrillo Said Alexis
• Villamizar Alvares Gabriel Roberto
• Villanueva Chacon Cesar Augusto
• Villareal Tovar Claudia Marcela
• Villarreal Maura
• Villasana Cesar Efrén
• Villegas Juan Carlos
• Villegas Alvarez Natalia
• Villegas Londoño Adriana Patricia
• Villegas Villegas Gustavo
• Vitonas Noscue Arquímedes
• Vizcaino Silva Nelson De Jesús

W
• Welgel Reinhardt
• Wiza Deisy Esperanza

Y
• Yaya Gomez Leidy Carolina
• Yépes Iván
• Yepez Martinez Gonzalo Alberto

Z
• Zabaleta Arellano José De Los Reyes
• Zambrano Renán
• Zambrano Carlos Ovidio
• Zambrano Oscar
• Zambrano German
• Zambrano Carbonel Jose Fernando
• Zapata Arrieta Gustavo
• Zapata Garcia Fabian
• Zapata López José Nicolás
• Zapata Ruiz Maria Cristina
• Zarate Polo Pedro José
• Zea De Palacios Rosa
• Zorrilla Jiménez Carlos Andres
• Zorro Meza Oscar
• Zuleta Cortes Rodrigo De Jesus
• Zuleta Rivera María Camila
• Zuluaga Quintero Darlyn Jader
• Zuñiga Frias Luis Carlos
• Zúñiga Villarreal Luis

Depth of Field:

In my daily scan of BBC News, I spotted a story about a holographic display device. It is noteworthy because it is reusable, and apparently can be driven by input from a control device to show multiple images in fast succession. There is some buzz about this as potential for another try at 3-D TV, but given that it is currently only monochromatic, and has a slow refresh rate for TV images, it has some way to go.

The positives are that we are much better now at getting laser light in multiple colours - the Blu-Ray explosion being our shortest wavelength mass-produced example, so there is technical know-how out there for an RGB attempt.

I bet this will produce some killer headaches for spectators...

The story caught my eye because as a high school project in the late 1970's, I produced holographic images at the Ontario Science Centre. Don Cooper and I spent hours trying to make sure no stray light from the two laser beams made it onto the emulsion plate, so I can attest to the difficulty of doing these properly. I forget the scientists' name who supervised, but he was an elderly Hungarian, and I can still hear him saying "light goes from heersh, to thersh." It was a lot of effort for a single image on a piece of rather thick film, which could never be reused.

The story also caught my attention because every once in a while, I find an image that is strangely three-dimensional. Have a look at the following image from the BBC site:

Now I'm not sure what it is supposed to be, but I found that if I gazed at the center-lower glint for a bit, suddenly I got a 3-D sensation. I'm not quite sure what causes this. I have some slides that do this too, even when projected.

HUD? That's so old-fashioned...

There's a group at the University of Washington that is working out how to make contact lenses with video displays inside them. No, really. They have the circuits, the display, the antennae (power and signal) all integrated into the lens itself. Here's a picture of one:

You know how the robots in Terminator scan objects and get data on what is in their field of vision? You could have that too:

Subject: Johnny Fairplay
Note: He owes you $1,500
Last Encounter: Jan 5, 2008 - ran like a cockroach

or

Target: 325 yards
Wind: 15 knots, steady from L
Elevation: -24 feet
Club: Big Bertha

or

Sex: Female
Height: 5'6"
Waist: hard to tell, negligee is in the way
Chances: 1000 to 1 with lens in, 2 to 1 without

The group, led by Babak Parviz, a UW EE prof, has succeeded in integrating the materials and the manufacturing processes for two very different products - a very soft gel for ophthalmic uses and highly flexible substrates for circuits. No human has yet tried them out (that they will admit to), but several rabbits have been subjected to 20 minute sessions of wearing them.

My question is about focus: whenever anything is floating about on my cornea, it is definitely not in focus, so how is the eye going to see anything but a blurry dot? Maybe the LEDs are focused on the retina somehow?

We take another baby step towards our machine future. Skynet will exist, resistance is futile, you will obey.

In any case, the concept is very intriguing, and I can't wait for BlueTooth contacts to appear. Me first! Me first!

It's not the symptoms, doc, it's the side effects..

You might not think that something called "Restless Leg Syndrome" (RLS) is all that serious, but for those of us that suffer from it, it is a major pain in the... well, the leg.

If I don't get to sleep early enough, I risk lying awake with RLS, wanting to rip my leg off and beat it against the wall. This basically means a night with really, really crappy sleep, which everyone can agree is miserable.

So when adverts come on the TV for things that I have (or think I have, as my wife points out), I pay attention. I'm not happy that I'm paying more and more attention to these adverts as I age, but that's another post about sampling frequency...

There is a product called Requip by GlaxoSmithKlein for treatment of RLS, and one of the side effects quickly stated at the end of the TV advert really caught my attention: "Also tell your doctor if you or your family notices that you develop any unusual impulses or behaviors, such as pathological gambling or hypersexuality," and later: "Most patients were not bothered enough to stop taking Requip."

Duh. Of course I'm not going to be bothered enough if I have pathological needs for gambling and sex.

Hmm. I think I'll stick with beating my leg against the wall, thanks.

Summoning Angels

While I was at college, I lived in a dorm where most of the beds were elevated on A-frames to within a couple of feet of the ceiling. This was done to allow more space within rooms, since they were quite small to start with. One night, during my freshman year, I fell asleep in my bed while my room-mate worked at his desk, tucked below his bed at his desk on the opposite side of the room.

I remember dreaming that I had found a very old piece of vellum with what appeared to be an Enochian Chant written on it. These chants were used in the Middle Ages to summon angels, and are beautiful pieces of vocal composition. I began to sing the chant (confirming that this was a dream, because I cannot read music, much less hold a tune). When I got to the end, I was disturbed to find that I had just sung the chant to summon Lucifer.

Sometime later, I was lying on my stomach awake in the dark, and I felt something approaching. When I picked up my head and looked, a great big bat landed on my face! With a start, I woke from that dream, to find myself back at in my room, with my room-mate's desk light still on, but with him nowhere to be found. Instead, sitting on the end of my bunk bed was a very old, wrinkled man, who held out a bony, freckled hand. He said, quite pleasantly, "Shake the hand of Satan."

I watched with amazement as my hand moved out to grasp his -- without my being able to stop it. And then it was all gone, and I woke up the next morning. I asked my room-mate whether he had noticed anything strange the night before, and when he replied that nothing had happened, I explained my dreams. He told me he had not left the room at all, and had gone to bed quite soon after I had last spoken to him, turning out his light.

I tried to convince myself that this had all meant nothing, but I did spend the next days wondering about that handshake. I had a very creepy feeling that I had just done something that would not do me very well in the near future. Luckily, nothing did happen, and I was able to file this event away under "strange (nested) dreams," but I often wonder what would have happened to me mentally had some other strange chance occurrence come to pass while I was affected.

Should I ever find out that such an Enochian Chant exists, I will be sure never to read it.

30 years ago today

Bill Gates could still smile, despite a rough day:



The reason for this third run-in with the law in New Mexico are not clear, as all records of this particular arrest have been lost.

The world could have been very different, very different.

Metrology

Earlier this year I went to a meeting at the OAS about metrology.

Metrology? Yaaaawn. Isn't the definition of units settled? Isn't that something you do in grade school?

Well, yes, and no. The study of units (metrology) mostly has to do with commerce - just as it did over two millennia ago when rulers wanted to ensure that merchants were measuring properly (and probably the motivation was not to protect the customer, but to ensure proper payment of taxes).

When you buy a thermometer, you'd like to know that it was accurate, right? Not taking your child to the hospital for an actual fever of 105 when it shows up as 103 on your thermometer could have serious repercussions. And these serious errors are out there: most thermometers in the world are made in (surprise, surprise) China. In a recent test carried out by the Uruguayan metrology lab, over 20% of the 120,000 annually imported thermometers for home use were found to be seriously defective. Similar failure rates were found for sphigmomanometers and other medical measuring equipment. (Source: Alexis Valquis, German Federal Technical and Physical Institute, PTB)

There are also cases where mismatches between standards can have large economic repercussions. The market for Canadian white paper is about $5 billion/year, with a great deal of this being in the European market. However, the North American and European 'standards' for paper 'brightness' differed by 0.5% to 1% on the same papers, and this implied an extra annual cost in bleach to Canadian mills of about $65 million to meet the European 'standard.' An intercomparison and recalibration removed the problem, which was completely artificial.

Even when you decide to use a standard from which to measure, you have to make sure you are using a common standard, since there are many different 'standards' out there. On building a bridge over the Rhine between Germany and Switzerland at Laufenberg, construction was almost finished when both sides realized there was a 54 cm height mismatch between the sides. They had known there was a 27 cm difference between the national standards, because the Swiss used the Trieste sealevel standard, while the Germans used the Amsterdam standard. However, since 54 = 27 x 2, someone forgot to check which one was actually higher than the other, and the corrections were applied in the wrong direction. You would think that two countries with such careful engineers would have caught this before it became a really expensive fix. (Source: Swiss Government website (in German))

Here's a good example of where you might be concerned (besides driving over a bridge where the sides didn't match): the amount of lead in wine. Samples from the same batch of wine were sent to labs all over the world, and the labs were asked to measure how much lead (Pb) was in the sample. Here's the spread in the reported results:

The stunning part of this is that the 10% spread is the narrow grey line, and the actual spread is well over 50%. The good news is that the national labs responsible for most of our safety got it right to within the 10% band. (Source: J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2001, 16, 1091–1100, DOI: 10.1039/b103248h)

But what do you do if the 'standard' is actually changing? Incredibly, this is actually happening to the kilogram. As you might expect, for a long time the standard has been an actual physical object: a platinum and iridium cylinder cast in 1889 that is kept under high security at BIPM in Paris, along with six official copies (image below). Along with the original, many duplicates were made, which were shipped off to many countries existing at the time for them to use as their national references. The availability of many duplicates allows some sophisticated statistical studies, and they have allowed the rather odd conclusion to be drawn that, despite the security, it can be reliably demonstrated that this cylinder has lost about 50 micrograms over its lifetime. This change may seem small, but it has huge implications for the metric system, since there are many other derived units which depend on the base unit of the kilogram. There are all sorts of efforts underway to define the kilogram using physics rather than a physical object, as has been done with the meter (the meter is now how far light travels in 1/299,792,458 of a second, rather than the distance between two marks on a 'reference stick' kept in Paris). There is currently a struggle between two camps: one which wants to generate a new object - an ultraprecise sphere of ultrapure silicon, and the other which wants to simply agree on a specific number of Carbon-12 atoms (Source: Eurekalert article).

Another point about the metric system - there are three countries that have failed to convert: Liberia, Myanmar and the good old US of A. Good company to keep. And how do these countries define their own standards in these older units? They refer to the metric system standards, of course.

The Cactus Ball:

My wife and I walked into the grand ballroom: parquet floors gleamed under candle-laden chandeliers, white panelled walls reached high up to the ceiling. There were a few guests, but the floor was mostly occupied by... cacti.

Some of these succulents were quite tall, reaching up to our shoulders. Most were shorter, about waist high, and there were some about knee high. Most were of the columnar type. We did not spot any chollas or prickly pears. As we looked more carefully, we noticed that there were no pots. All of the cacti were in fact sitting directly on the floor, and they had no roots at all. Small buds were present at their bases, keeping them upright.

Stranger still, as we stared at this strange promenade, we noticed that the cacti were moving very, very, slowly: a stiff, prickly procession around the centre of the elegant room. It was a cactus ball.

The opposite doors opened, and we made our way through the creeping green and grey crowd towards the next room, eager to see what was next. But just as we approached the threshold, a wind started to blow, and all the candles went out at once. A dim green glow came from the ceiling, which was covered with glow-in-the-dark stars. The wind blew harder and harder, and we could see the chandeliers swinging as the air rushed around and around, like a tornado in a box. Soon, it was hard to stand, and I began to worry that we would not be able to hang on. The cacti were still stolidly moving, implacably orbiting, immune to the tempest.

Suddenly, we lost our grip, and the wind picked us up and began to push us backwards around the room. As we began to go faster, I worried that we would eventually encounter one of the cacti, and I did not look forward to a back full of spines. Of course, that encounter immediately occurred, and I shuddered as I felt the impact. Then another, and another, as we were whirled mercilessly through the needled forest.

---

And just as suddenly, the wind was gone, the candles came back up, and the doors flew open, and more guests came in at a frenetic speed. People swarmed about, moving at breakneck pace, darting here and there, as if on fast forward. I tried to speak, to look about for my wife, but I couldn't. I was now one of the cacti.