October 2012  Issue 118

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MESSAGE FROM THE STAFF

Thankfully, September 2012 is history.  Akumal and the Caribbean have dodged all the Tropical Storms and Hurricanes, and in the last few days of the month, we received the well needed rain; some may say “too much”. 

And, Ryan Fredette celebrated his 19^th birthday in MA, and his grandparents were there to be part of the celebration. 

The October issue of The Akumalian has been outsourced to the Cape Cod branch in Chatham.
 

MUNICIPAL PRESIDENT COMES TO AKUMAL, OCT 1^ST

IMPORTANT OCTOBER FACTS

In Latin, octo means "eight".  October was also the eighth month in the Roman calendar until a monthless winter period was divided between January and February.  October has always had 31 days.

Libra - September 23 - October 22
Scorpio - October 23 - November 21

 October Birthstone: Opal
    Australia produces about 95% of the world's opal supply.  The aborigines of that country say that the opal was created where a rainbow touched the earth.  This certainly explains the cascade of color in fine opal specimens.  (Black opal rivals the price of diamonds for very fine specimens.)  While the black opal isn't really black, it does have a dark base color.  Given their shimmer and fire fine Black Opal Jewelry is particularly exotic.

 October Birthday Flower: Marigold
    The golden colors of autumn are displayed by the marigold, which makes them the ideal flower for October birthdays.  Marigolds have come to be associated with affection.

OKTOBERFEST, SEPT. 22 – OCT. 7

O'zapft is - The Octoberfest has started and is well underway.  Is this real reason behind the tardiness of the October issue of The Akumalian?

Saturday, 12 o'clock - high noon in the "Schottenhamel" beer tent: By tapping the first barrel of beer, the mayor of Munich started the 179th Oktoberfest.

The nowadays both legendary and traditional ritual of tapping the first barrel of Oktoberfest-beer, broadcast on live TV and via the Internet, was, as usually, held in the “Schottenhamel” beer tent.  Celebrities, press and thousands of Oktoberfest fans were attending, as the mayor of Munich did his duty.

With Gabriele Weishäupl, head of the Oktoberfest management, and the Bavarian prime-minister Horst Seehofer at his side, it took the mayor only two swings with the five-pound hammer to drive the tap into the barrell. As usual, the first thing he spoke into the microphone was “O’zapft is!” (= “It is tapped!”) and wished everyone a peaceful Oktoberfest.

As protocol demands, the first mug of beer was passed on to prime-minister Seehofer and with that all the other beer tents could start selling beer as well.

Why is Oktoberfest called "Oktober"-fest when it actually begins in September?
The historical background: the first Oktoberfest was held in the year 1810 in honor of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig's marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.  The festivities began on October 12, 1810 and ended on October 17th with a horse race.  In the following years, the celebrations were repeated and, later, the festival was prolonged and moved forward into September.

By moving the festivities up, it allowed for better weather conditions. Because the September nights were warmer, the visitors were able to enjoy the gardens outside the tents and the stroll over "die Wiesen" or the fields much longer without feeling chilly.  Historically, the last Oktoberfest weekend was in October and this tradition continues into present times.

How much will a liter of beer (the "Maß" Oktoberfest Beer) cost this year?  The prices for one litre of beer will range from 9,10 € to 9,50 € on the Oktoberfest in 2012. 

OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS 

Birthdays and Anniversaries
4          Stefanie Fredette
8          Maureen Miller
9          Pat Reagan
14        Denny Mahan
17        Alison Keegan
19        Verana Titze
25        Jim Power
25        Stefanie & Robert Fredette Anniversary
26        Sharon Brier
30        Cassie Gonzalez
31        Mike & Lynda Jochim Anniversary

 There must be more than this.  Let’s hear about YOUR birthday before it happens.

 Missed September Birthdays
2          Leandro Kantun
22        Mauricio Bautista

THE 22^nd 1ST ANNUAL IG NOBEL PRIZE CEREMONY, SEPT  WINNERS

The 22^nd 1st Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony happened on Thursday, September 20, 2012.  The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think.  The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative -- and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology.

In a gala ceremony in Harvard's Sanders Theatre, 1,200 splendidly eccentric spectators watched the winners step forward to accept their Prizes.  These are physically handed out by genuinely bemused genuine Nobel Laureates.  The ceremony was webcast live.

The Ig Nobel Prizes are organized by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research.  The ceremony is co-sponsored by the Harvard-Radcliffe Society of Physics Student, the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association, and the Harvard Computer Society.

Ig Nobel prizes awarded, highlighting the fun side of science.  They are not the discoveries that have altered our understanding of nature, transformed medicine, or rewritten the laws of physics.  But they have made us laugh.  The 2012 prizes: 

·       PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE: Leaning to the Left Makes the Eiffel Tower Seem Smaller.

·       PEACE PRIZE: Converting old Russian ammunition into new diamonds.

·       ACOUSTICS PRIZE: Creating the SpeechJammer — a machine that disrupts a person's speech, by making them hear their own spoken words at a very slight delay.

·       NEUROSCIENCE PRIZE: Demonstrating that brain researchers, by using complicated instruments and simple statistics, can see meaningful brain activity anywhere — even in a dead salmon.

·       CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Solving the puzzle of why, in certain houses in the town of Anderslöv, Sweden, people's hair turned green.

·       LITERATURE PRIZE: The US Government General Accountability Office, for issuing a report about reports about reports that recommends the preparation of a report about the report about reports about reports.

·       PHYSICS PRIZE: Calculating the balance of forces that shape and move the hair in a human ponytail.

·       FLUID DYNAMICS PRIZE: Studying the dynamics of liquid-sloshing, to learn what happens when a person walks while carrying a cup of coffee.

·       ANATOMY PRIZE: Discovering that chimpanzees can identify other chimpanzees individually from seeing photographs of their rear ends.

·       MEDICINE PRIZE: Advising doctors who perform colonoscopies how to minimize the chance that their patients will explode.
  

DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN SELL ELECTRICITY BACK TO CFE?

In 2008 and 2010 reforms to the Ley del Servicio Público de Energía, made it possible for producers of renewable energy in Mexico to sell electricity back into the power grid after decades of electricity monopoly by the Comission de Electricidad Federal (CFE). This new law mandates that CFE allows for both residences and commercial enterprises, and possibly municipalities, to sell electric power from renewable energy generators, such as solar Photovoltaic systems or wind generators, back to the electricity grid, and is one of the most important steps in building a national solar energy industry and wind industry in Mexico.

As population and industry grows, Mexico will have to build new transmission and gas-fired generation plants to meet demand. But Mexico already depends on gas for 74% of electric generation capacity, and PEMEX production of fossil fuels has diminished to such a great extent that Mexico now imports 40% of the gas needed for domestic consumption. This has resulted in drastically higher electricity rates, as every homeowner and business owner in Mexico can attest. That’s why net metering is so important for Mexico, as it begins the process of creating a stable and green energy grid for Mexico that is not dependent on fossil fuels, and which can produce electricity at half the cost of gas. Wind and solar energy resources in Mexico are abundant and limitless. And the day will surely come when most of the electricity produced in Mexico comes from such renewable resources. It makes logical, ecological and economic sense.
 

HURRICANE SEASON  UPDATE

The ‘official’ hurricane season ends on November 30, and while we have passed the peak point of the season, the Atlantic continues to be quite inactive, with most of the activity that has come from Africa heading up into the Atlantic. 

Did you Know?  Hurricane Nadine has been swirling around in the Atlantic for more than two weeks since becoming a tropical storm Sept. 11.
 

WORLD SMILE DAY, OCTOBER 5^th 

 This year, on October 5, 2011 we celebrate the fourthteenth World Smile Day.  As ever the theme for the day is "Do an act of kindness.  Help one person smile."  And, as ever, the image that leads the way on this day is the smiley face.

World Smile Day is celebrated on the first Friday in the month of October every year.  The idea of World Smile Day was coined and initiated by Harvey Ball, a commercial artist from Worcester, Massachusetts.  Harvey Ball is known to have created the Smiley Face in 1963.  The World's first World Smile Day was held in the year 1999 and has been held annually since.
  

ROBIN’S BEST SHIRT AWARD, OCT. 5^th

Come one, come all, to the Beach Bar, where we’ll have a ball.

It’s time for another “Best Shirt Award”, which is held on the first Friday of each month during Happy Hour at the Lol Ha Beach Bar. 

This award is based on Robin’s penchant for good, classy Beach Bar shirts, and his sister, Mary, has the honor of judging the merits of the shirts.  And, as we go to print the criteria are still somewhat nebulous, and they seem to be changing as we move into Fall.

The September competition drew another large crowd of brightly shirted contestants, and the judges had a difficult time with their decision, and they ultimately selected Sherwood Anders.  The photos are located at September Best Shirt Award.
 

DIA DE LA RAZA (COLUMBUS DAY), OCT 12 

In Mexico, October 12th is a national holiday known as Día de la Raza or Day of the Race.  This date is honored in other countries as Columbus Day and under other names; but the event it commemorates and the way in which it is observed have become quite controversial.

In the fifteenth century, an obscure Italian seafarer named Christopher Columbus became convinced that it was possible to reach the East from Europe by sailing westward across the Atlantic and that this route would be shorter than traveling around Africa; he underestimated the size of the Earth and overestimated the size and eastward extension of Asia.  After eight years of negotiations, he convinced Queen Isabella of Spain to support his enterprise.  He finally set out in three small ships and, on October 12th, 1492, he landed on an island in the Bahamas inhabited by the Taino or Arawak tribe, thinking that it was India.

            Although Christopher Columbus was perhaps not the first to discover America, as has so often been claimed, he was the one to bring about the first real contact and interaction between Renaissance Europe and the American continent with its various civilizations; and that has shaped and changed world history in countless ways.  Over 500 years later, this date is still celebrated, lamented, and debated.

One of the main consequences of this contact, was the imminent conquest of the new world by the old.  In writing of his discovery, Columbus noted how he and his men were greeted with gifts and said: "As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts".  And, generally speaking, this was to characterize relations between the old world and the new: Europeans sought wealth and to impart (or impose) their culture.  The indigenous people befriended them and were dominated by armies from abroad.

Less than 30 years later, in 1521, Hernán Cortés landed on the shores of Mexico. He too was received with gifts, and he proceeded to conquer the vast Mexica empire, which is Mexico today.  Relations between the indigenous population and the conquerors of Mexico during the 300 year colonial period were complex.  Spain sought riches in the new land, but also converts for Catholicism. Missionaries traveled with the soldiers.  Some of them were greatly impressed by native cultures and are responsible for the preservation of many codices and documents regarding the period.

When Mexico celebrated the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus' landing, in 1892, the country was ruled by Porfirio Díaz, who remained in power for over thirty years and was a great admirer of European culture, especially the French.  At that time, the government prepared a celebration of "The communion of all peoples in sentiments of justice and admiration for the past, noble aspirations and glowing hopes for the future" for October 12, 1892.  As in most of the world, this event praised Columbus for his skill as navigator, for his Discovery of America and for bringing European culture to this land, although all of these things have since been questioned and re-examined.

In 1918, philosopher Antonio Caso took October 12th as an opportunity to praise the "Mexican mestizo race", La Raza, the rich mixture of Spanish and indigenous cultures which characterizes Mexicans.  He was perhaps the first to coin the term La Raza, which has now been adopted by Latinos from all across the continent.  Ten years later, the Día de la Raza was declared an official national holiday by Congress, after only minor debate.

As early as 1836, Oaxacan historian Don Carlos María de Bustamante began the "first vitriolic Mexican commentary on the Columbian event".  For him, October 12, 1492 was "the most villainous day there could ever be in America; the day its slavery was established".

            Columbus Day is on Monday, October 8 in the US.
 

COMINGS AND GOINGS

            September was one busy month but for the most part, it was quite slow.  The photos from the Best Shirt Award give some example of the “crowd”. 

 Comings:

            There were a few people down in South Akumal in September, including:

·       Debby Entwistle is here in Casa Cielo