YES, WE CAN

Four years ago, Professor Abel Lopez, was blessed to speak to the students of CCC ACE Third Year and suggested that they take up one saying... YO PUEDO! I CAN! AT THAT SAME TIME, BARAK OBAMA WAS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT OF THE USA AND HIS SPEECH WAS THEMED... YES I CAN! IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF A NEW HISTORY IN THE WORLD. NOW, AS THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS AT THE CAPITOL FOR HIS INAUGURATION INTO OFFICE FOR A SECOND TERM WE CAN´T STOP TO THINK THAT THIS IS JUST THE RIGHT DAY FOR THIS TO HAPPEN. ITS MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY AND THE DREAM HAS BECOME AN AMERICAN STORY! GOD BLESS AMERICA. GOD BLESS THE PRESIDENT, BARAK OBAMA AND GOD BLESS OUR FIRST LADY AND THE TWO FIRST DAUGHTERS. HISTORY CONTINUES!

TO ABEL. WITH LOVE

Two years later we still have not heard from Mexican authorities anything new in respect to the death of Abel Martin Lopez Rodriguez who was murdered in his home, the victim of one of the most brutal stabbing incident in Chetumal, Q. Roo. Their belief was that he died around 5am to 6am on the morning of October 18 but in my heart I want to believe he died around 11pm on the night of October 17 because he never showed up where I was and I waited until 2am for him to come. I did not think anything had gone wrong at the time and took it for granted he was on a night out with the boys as he was scheduled to sing that night at a night club in the area. Today, I live with my "what if's" and my "maybes". One thing is certain. Abel came into my life for a purpose and remains a major part of it even though we are no longer physically together. He remains in my heart where he will always be. Time will tell if we will ever know what happened that awful night. I have now for Divine Justice as I have lost faith in seeing justice done here on earth.

Rest in Peace, papi. Until we meet again. I love you more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.
YO PUEDO!

“La reflexión es sabiduría pero también es tiempo que pocos quieren dedicar” (Abel Desestress)

"WE LEARN FROM REFLEXIONS BUT VERY FEW LIKE TO DEDICATE TIME TO DOING SO" (ABEL DESESTRESS)

Of what worth is life if we do not learn from our mistakes? Of what use is living if we do not make mistakes?

If we look at our lives and where we have been and where we are, we can easily see that many of us have changed... some for better while others for worst. Life is a continuous walk. It carries us down paths of love, happiness, hunger, thirst, sadness and even hatred. It can develop into success or into failure. We can choose our path through life. We can make it better or worst. We can be all that we want to or all that we don´t want to depending on how we guide our actions and thoughts.

Today let us look back and see where we have gone wrong. let us see what we should do in a different way. Life is short. TODAY IS THE TIME TO TAKE A STAND. IT IS TIME TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR LIFE... LOOK BACK AND SEE WHAT NEEDS FIXING. LOOK BACK INTO YOUR PAST AND SEE WHAT CAN BE BETTER.

YOU CAN DO IT. JUST SAY TWO WORDS---- I CAN! YO PUEDO!

ALL THIS I WRITE IN MEMORY AND WITH GREAT LOVE FOR THE ONE PERSON WHO MADE A DIFFERENCE IN MY LIFE. ABEL, SOMOS LA LUNA Y EL SOL. YO BRILLO PORQUE TU BRILLASTES.TE AMO, CIELO, MAS QUE AYER Y MENOS QUE MAÑANA.

WELCOME, MAIJA AURORA

July 11th., 2011 was one of the greatest days in the past two years of my life. It became a day filled with happiness and a tinge of sadness at the same time. I was thosands of miles away and getting ready to cross the border to go back to a very tiring task when I turned on the computer and entered my facebook to discover a message from a friend of my daughter. She informed me that my second granddaughter was on the way. My baby was in the hospital having her second baby. I just knew it! I had always said Maija Aurora would arrive before I was back home with my daighter and so it was happening. I was very excited as I crossed the border that afternoon and as I smiled deep in thought I felt a little sad because I was not there to witness the joyful moment first hand.

I am here with her now, however, enjoying every moment with MY FAMILY.

WELCOME MAIJA AURORA. WELCOME TO THIS WORLD. YOU ARE BLESSED AND TRULY A PRINCESS.

I PLEDGE TO LOVE YOU AND CARE FOR YOU AS LONG AS I CAN.

TO MY DAUGHTER CAROLYN I EXTEND ALL MY LOVE. I CONTINUE TO BE PROUD OF YOU.

TO MY SON IN LAW, MIYA, I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST AS YOU WITNESS THE BIRTH, THE GROWTH AND THE LOVE ONLY A FATHER CAN FEEL. YOU ARE BLESSED AND I AM PROUD OF YOU. YOU CONTINUE TO SHOW ME THAT YOU TRULY ARE COMMITTED TO YOUR FAMILY.

ALL MY LOVE,
Grandma Brenda Aurora

GOD BLESS YOU ALL

HAPPY BARON BLISS DAY TO ALL BELIZEANS

Today across the length and breath of this beautiful jewel many call home, is celebrated Baron Bliss Day. This great man came into our Belizean waters and viewed our wonderful jewel. Even though he never set foot on Belizean soil he loved what he saw from his ship and left to the people of Belize a trust fund that can never be used in its entirety. Only the interest can be used to construct community facilities such as markets, libraries, community centers and parks.

On such build is the Corozal Town Hall in Corozal Town. It was builds years ago and is still standing.

(Thank God, Baron Bliss stipulated that only the interest could be used because if he had not there would be no money in that account today. I bet our political leaders have squirmed and wept everytime they think of that money they can't get their hands on. Hahahahaha)

USA LOOSES MTO GHANA

By RONALD BLUM, AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum, Ap Sports Writer – 2 hrs 40 mins ago
RUSTENBURG, South Africa – Grim-faced American players filed by one by one on their way out of Royal Bafokeng Stadium. Their World Cup was over.

They'll have four long years to dwell on what might have been, how the most-talented team in U.S. soccer history was knocked out in a game the Americans were convinced they should have won.

No nail-biting comeback this time. The U.S. relied on late rallies once too often.

Life on the World Cup edge came to an exhausting and crushing end against a familiar foe Saturday night, when Ghana — led by Asamoah Gyan's goal 3 minutes into overtime — posted a 2-1 victory that ended a thrilling yet futile tournament for the United States in the second round just when it seemed the Americans had a relatively easy path to the semifinals.

"We felt like we had a great opportunity," goalkeeper Tim Howard said. "We just gave ourselves too much of a mountain to climb. We just couldn't come back."

Kevin-Prince Boateng put Ghana ahead when he stripped the ball from Ricardo Clark in the fifth minute and beat Howard from 16 yards. It was the third time in four games the U.S. fell behind early, and once again the Americans rallied.

Landon Donovan tied the score with a penalty kick in the 62nd minute, his record fifth goal for the U.S. in World Cup play, after Jonathan Mensah pulled down Clint Dempsey streaking in. But that was it.

There was no offense left, no spark, no fire — unlike the first-round come-from-behind draws against England and Slovenia, and Donovan's memorable injury-time goal against Algeria that lifted the U.S. into the knockout phase.

"We tried to push and push," U.S. captain Carlos Bocanegra said. "I don't know if we just didn't have anything left because we had been pushing so much the entire tournament."

Ghana, the only African team to advance past the first round of Africa's first World Cup, eliminated the Americans for the second straight World Cup following a 2-1 win that knocked out the U.S. in the group phase in Germany. The Black Stars joined Cameroon (1990) and Senegal (2002) as the only African teams to reach the quarterfinals and will play Uruguay for a berth in the semifinals, a round the U.S. has not reached since the first World Cup in 1930.

"A stinging, tough defeat," said Bob Bradley, who faces an uncertain future as U.S. coach.

With former President Bill Clinton watching and Mick Jagger sitting next to him, the U.S. was done in by a porous defense and forwards who failed to score a single goal in four games.

"When you give up this many goals, you're not going to go very far," Bocanegra said.

All five U.S. goals in the tournament came from the team's midfield backbone: three by Donovan, one by Dempsey and one by Michael Bradley, the coach's son.

In the first-ever extra time World Cup game for the U.S., Gyan got the winning goal when he took a long ball from Andre Ayew over the defense and beat Bocanegra, his teammate on the French club Rennes. Gyan let the ball bounce, took a touch with his chest, and with Jay DeMerit vainly trying to catch up, scored over goalkeeper Tim Howard with a left-footed shot from 16 yards.

"I had my angles right there. There no question about it," Howard said. "He absolutely crushed it."

The goal set off horn-honking celebrations in Ghana, a West African country nearly 3,000 miles away.

"We've made everybody proud," Gyan said. "Not Ghana alone, but all of Africa."

There was nothing to equal Donovan's injury-time goal that provided a 1-0 victory over Algeria and moved the Americans into the second round. The closest the U.S. came to tying it again was in the 98th minute, when Maurice Edu's header off Donovan's corner kick went wide.

With Howard pushed up, DeMerit's desperation long shot in the final minutes went over the crossbar. Then Dempsey sent a header wide.

At the final whistle, Howard consoled Bocanegra and Edu collapsed to the ground. Donovan exchanged jerseys with a Ghana player and walked off the field, put on a coat, sat on the bench and hung his head.

"If we're a little less naive tonight, we would have advanced," said Donovan, at 28 in his prime and the best American player ever. "I said all along this was a young team and a relatively inexperienced team at this level."

After Donovan tied the score with his American record 45th international goal, Jozy Altidore had the best opportunity. But he went wide in the 81st minute.

No American forward has scored in the World Cup since Brian McBride in 2002.

"Let's face it, you count on your forwards," Bradley said. "We need to get better at forward."

While the U.S. came from behind to draw England 1-1 and Slovenia 2-2 in the first round, the Americans looked ragged this time. They go home pondering a World Cup that could have been so much more. They thrilled the large number of Americans who were the largest group of overseas ticket buyers, but failed to do as well as the 2002 team, which reached the quarterfinals in the best U.S. finish since 1930.

An upset of European champion Spain in the semifinals of last year's Confederations Cup in South Africa had raised expectations.

"We always understand the responsibility we have as a national team to show how far the game has come in the United States, to fight for respect," Bradley said. "We certainly felt we moved things along with our performance in the Confederations Cup and as we went through the first round we felt that we were continuing to go in that direction."

Because a growing fan base watched on television in record numbers, the loss was even more painful for a team still struggling for recognition both in the soccer world and among sports fans in America.

"Soccer can be a cruel game," Donovan said. "Sometimes you're at the top and sometimes you are at the bottom of the mountain."

Ghana's only two goals in the first round had been penalty kicks by Gyan, but Boateng, whose half-brother plays for Germany, quickly put the Black Stars ahead from the run of play. After stealing the ball from Clark at midfield, he sprinted in on DeMerit, cut to the outside and turned the defender around as Clark chased in vain.

Clark, who hadn't played since the opener against England, was given a yellow card and was replaced by Edu in the 31st minute.

"He felt badly about the ball he lost. And I simply said, `That's part of soccer,'" Bob Bradley recalled.

Benny Feilhaber replaced speedy but ineffective forward Robbie Findley at the start of the second half, with Dempsey moving up. Feilhaber immediately had a chance when Altidore tipped the ball to him, but a sliding goalkeeper Richard Kingson, who also foiled the U.S. four years ago, got a hand on it.

On his penalty kick, Donovan kneeled behind the ball in concentration, then clanked it in off the far post. With his third goal of the tournament, he surpassed Bert Patenaude (1930) as the American career World Cup leader.

"I thought we had a good grip," Michael Bradley said "We were pushing the tempo. We were the ones getting chances."

Herculez Gomez came in for Altidore at the start of extra time. But nothing worked. The supporters in red, white and blue wigs and Uncle Sam hats were as deflated as the players.

"It's a feeling of disappointment for the team," Bob Bradley said, "and also all our fans."

THE FABLE OF THE PORCUPINE/ LA FABULA DEL PUERCO-ESPIN IN ENGLISH y EN ESPAÑOL

ENGLISH

During the ice age, many animals died because of cold.
The porcupines, sensing the situation, decided to get together in groups, so they cherished and protected each other, however, the spines of each wounded their comrades, offering more than just the heat.
So they decided to move away from each other and started again to freeze to death.
Then they realized they need to make a choice: they would either accept disappearing from the Earth or tolerate the spines of their comrades.

With wisdom, they decided to be together.
And learned to live with the small wounds that being close would cause, because the most important thing was the heat received from each other. And thus they survived.

Moral
The best relationship is not perfect. Everyone needs to learn to live with the shortcomings of others, and to admire other people´s qualities.


SPANISH

La fábula del Puerco-espín.

Durante la era glacial, muchos animales morían por causa del frío.
Los puerco-espines, percibiendo la situación, resolvieron juntarse en grupos, así se abrigaban y se protegían mutuamente, más las espinas de cada uno herían a los compañeros más próximos, justamente los que ofrecían más calor.
Por eso decidieron alejarse unos de otros y comenzaron de nuevo a morir congelados.
Entonces precisaron hacer una elección: o desaparecían de la Tierra o aceptaban las espinas de los compañeros.

Con sabiduría, decidieron volver a estar juntos.
Aprendieron así a convivir con las pequeñas heridas que la relación con un semejante muy próximo puede causar, ya que lo más importante era el calor del otro.
Y así sobrevivieron.

Moraleja
La mejor relación no es aquella que une personas perfectas, más aquella donde cada uno aprende a convivir con los defectos del otro, y admirar sus cualidades.

CONGRATULATIONS

IT WAS GRADUATION TIME IN COROZAL LAST SUNDAY AND A NUMBER OF THE YO PUEDE GROUP GRADUATED FROM CJC WITH THEIR ASSOCIATES DEGREE.

IT WAS INDEED A TIME OF HAPPINESS FOR THOSE WHO WERE ABLE TO GO THE EXTRA MILE AND CLAIM THE REWARD OF THEIR LONG DAYS AND NIGHTS OF STUDYING.

BEST OF LUCK TO YOU AS YOU MOVE INTO A NEW LEVEL IN THIS ON GOING LEVEL CLIMBER CALLED LIFE.

GOOD LUCK AND REMEMBER JUST SAY YO PUEDO!!

MUERTE DE ABEL MARTIN

Los últimos vencejos revolean
en torno al campanario;
los niños gritan, saltan, se pelean.
En su rincón, Martín el solitario.
¡La tarde, casi noche, polvorienta,
la algazara infantil, y el vocerío,
a la par, de sus doce en sus cincuenta!

¡Oh alma plena y espíritu vacío,
ante la turbia hoguera
con llama restallante de raíces,
fogata de frontera
que ilumina las hondas cicatrices!

Quien se vive se pierde, Abel decía.
¡Oh distancia, distancia!, que la estrella
que nadie toca, guía.
¿Quien navegó sin ella?
Distancia para el ojo -¡oh lueñe nave-,
ausencia al corazón empedernido,
y bálsamo suave
con la miel del amor sagrado olvido.
¡Oh gran saber del cero, del maduro
fruto sabor que sólo el hombre gusta,
agua de sueño, manantial oscuro,
sombra divina de la mano augusta!
Antes me llegue, si me llega, el día,
la luz que ve increada,
ahógame esta mala gritería,
Señor, con las esencias de tu nada.

II
El ángel que sabía
su secreto salió a Martín al paso.
Martín le dio el dinero que tenía
¿Piedad?, tal vez. ¿Miedo al chantaje?, acaso.
Aquella noche fría
supo Martín de soledad; pensaba
que Dios no lo veía,
y en su mundo desierto caminaba.

III
Y vio a la musa esquiva,
de pie junto a su lecho la enlutada,
la dama de sus calles fugitiva,
la imposible al amor y siempre amada.
Dijo le Abel: "Señora,
por ansia de tu cara descubierta,
he pensado vivir hasta la aurora
hasta sentir mi sangre casi yerta.
Hoy sé que no eres tú quien yo creía;
mas te quiero mirar y agradecerte
lo mucho que me hiciste compañía
con tu frío desdén".
Quiso la muerte
sonreir a Martín, y no sabía.

IV
Viví, dormí, soñé y hasta he creado
-pensó Martín, ya turbia la pupila-
un hombre que vigila
el sueño, algo mejor que lo soñado.
Más si un igual destino
aguarda al soñador y al vigilante,
a quién trazó caminos,
y a quién siguió caminos, jadeante,
a fin, sólo es creación tu pura nada,
tu sombra de gigante,
el divino cegar de tu mirada.
V
Y sucedió a la angustia la fatiga,
que siente su esperar desesperado,
la sed que el agua clara no mitiga,
la amargura del tiempo envenenado.
¡Esta lira de muerte!
Abel palpaba
su cuerpo enflaquecido.
¿El que todo lo ve no le miraba?
¡Y esta pereza, sangre del olvido!
¡Oh, sálvame, Señor!
Su vida entera,
su historia irremediable aparecía
escrita en blanda cera.
¿Y ha de borrarte el sol del nuevo día?
Abel tendió su mano
hacia la luz bermeja
de una caliente aurora de verano,
ya en el balcón de su morada vieja.
Ciego, pidió la luz que no veía.
Luego llevó, sereno,
el limpio vaso, hasta su boca fría,
de pura sombra -¡oh, de pura sombra!- lleno.

ALEJANDRA MARCIEL LOPEZ
http://caminoasermujer.blogspot.com

I WAITED FOR YOU

I waited for you that night
And you did not come.
I waited for your call,
And you did not phone.
I waited for your car to drive up
And it never appeared.
I wanted to call you around eleven pm,
I want to take you your usual just around then.
But you had an appointment so I thought you were there,
And so I sat waiting for you to appear.
At two o´clock I decided to wait no more.
So, Oscar and I decided to close the door.

I did not fall asleep for another hour or two.
I just laid in bed thinking about me and you.
The next day I awoke with a start at seven,
I was going to call you around then.
But I figured you´d be asleep so it would make no sense,
So I closed my eyes as I laid there surrounded by the smell of incense.
At 9am I sent you a text to remind you to call,
I did not know you were not there at all.
We went out and it was not until after three,
That I expressed what your absence was doing to me.
Because we had such a rule in our home,
I waited for your call feeling somewhat alone.

A call came at 5 but it was not from you,
Suddenly my world changed and I didn´t know what to do.
I went looking for you and no one could say,
I went everywhere searching for you on that day.
Finally at our home someone said those words I still hear,
Then I realized what had happened and I felt the tear.
Days turned into weeks and weeks now into months,
As we seek justice and as the evidence mounts.

I waited for you to arrive that day,
I waited for your call for you to say,
“Hola, negrita, mi amor, como estas?
Ya tengo hambre, en que piensas?”
And I would say, “Adonde sea, cielo, no importa, mi amor,”
Porque ya sabía que sea como sea estaría contigo,
Y juntos estaríamos en nuestro mundo de YO PUEDO.

So I waited for you and you never came,
Now I am sitting here in so much pain.
You are still with me, I know that to be,
Because you were always so much a part of me.
But I waited for you that silent night,
When someone took you away and turned off my light.

I waited for you and I wait for you now,
To tell me what happened, to tell me just how.
Can I go on living without you by my side?
Will my tears forever come with the tide?
Y la pregunta sigue siento lo mismo, mi amor…
La pregunta que te hice muchas veces sin este dolor,
-¿Sabes que, mi cielo?-
Y tu, riéndote me decías, -¿Que, negrita?-
-Te amo un chingo,- yo te decía.
Y nos abrazábamos, riendo, y besando.
And so I wait…

Brenda A. Ysaguirre
January 4, 2010
Copyright 2010 Brenda A. Ysaguirre

MERRY CHRISTMAS

At this time of the year, with pain in my heart and tears in my eyes at the loss of my best friend and soul companion, I reach out across the miles to greet all my blog readers. I promise to return in the new year with a vigor and the passion I once had. Now I wish to thank you for your support.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU ALL WELL.

ABEL MARTIN LOPEZ RODRIGUEZ

NOV 14, 1955 - OCT 18, 2009



YOU HAVE REACHED FOR THE STARS AND CAPTURED ETERNITY (Brenda A. Ysaguirre)

I love you, baby. Gone but not forgotten!!!

Imagine what some people will do!!!

Steamed woman fries hubby's goldfish

PASADENA, Texas (UPI) -- Police in Texas say a woman took her common-law husband's goldfish and ate them to get back at him for taking back jewelry he had given her.

Pasadena Police Department spokesman Vance Mitchell said the couple argued about the jewelry and the woman went to the man's home after he refused to return the items to her -- and took seven goldfish, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Mitchell said the man called police and officers went to the woman's home to attempt to return the fish.

"She said, 'They're in there,' and pointed to the kitchen," Mitchell said.

He said police found four of the fish fried on a plate and the woman told them she had already eaten the other three. Officers determined the fish were community property because they had been purchased while the couple lived together.

"There was nothing we could do," Mitchell said. "If he wants to pursue it, it's a civil case."



Copyright 2009 by United Press International

A JOKE FOR WHEN YOU GET OLDER...

Instead of a Nursing Home

There will be no nursing home in my future........

When I get old and feeble, I am going to get on a Princess Cruise Ship. The average cost for a nursing home is $200 per day. I have checked on reservations at Princess and I can get a long term discount and senior discount price of $135 per day. That leaves $65 a day for:

1. Gratuities which will only be $10 per day.

2. I will have as many as 10 meals a day if I can waddle to the restaurant, or I can have room service ( which means I can have breakfast in bed every day of the week).

3. Princess has as many as three swimming pools, a workout room, free washers and dryers, and shows every night.

4. They have free toothpaste and razors, and free soap and shampoo.

5. They will even treat you like a customer, not a patient. An extra $5 worth of tips will have the entire staff scrambling to help you.

6. I will get to meet new people every 7or 14 days.

7. T.V. broken? Light bulb need changing? Need to have the mattress replaced? No Problem! They will fix everything and apologize for your inconvenience.

8. Clean sheets and towels every day, and you don't even have to ask for them.

9. If you fall in the nursing home and break a hip you are on Medicare. If you fall and break a hip on the Princess ship they will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life.

Now hold on for the best! Do you want to see South America, the Panama Canal, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, or name where you want to go? Princess will have a ship ready to go. So don't look for me in a nursing home, just call shore to ship.

Where was the first melee?
Soccer gave us the term "melee." It means a "confused mass," which was what the playing field looked like in Europe in the Middle Ages. Towns competed using teams of up to a hundred players, with the goals a half-mile or so apart.


Who designed Jackie's pillbox?
Jacqueline Kennedy's pillbox hat, made famous at her husband's inauguration in 1961, was designed by Halston.


Do Russians learn English?
English is taught in Russian schools beginning in third or fourth grade, so most citizens speak at least some English. Interestingly, Russia has more teachers of the English language than the U.S.A. has students of Russian.


Where is the Rainbow Bridge?
Rainbow Bridge, Nature's abstract sculpture carved of solid sandstone, is the world's largest natural-rock span — 278 feet wide and 309 feet high. Technically, it is located in Utah just north of the Arizona state line, but "Arizona Highway's Travel Arizona" book cites it as a local attraction.

Mysterious ruins may help explain Mayan collapse

Ringing two abandoned pyramids are nine palaces "frozen in time" that may help unravel the mystery of the ancient Maya, reports an archaeological team.
Hidden in the hilly jungle, the ancient site of Kiuic (KIE-yuk) was one of dozens of ancient Maya centers abandoned in the Puuc region of Mexico's Yucatan about 10 centuries ago. The latest discoveries from the site may capture the moment of departure.

"The people just walked away and left everything in place," says archaeologist George Bey of Millsaps College in Jackson Miss., co-director of the Labna-Kiuic Regional Archaeological Project. "Until now, we had little evidence from the actual moment of abandonment, it's a frozen moment in time."

The ancient, or "classic" Maya were part of a Central American civilization best known for stepped pyramids, beautiful carvings and murals and the widespread abandonment of cities around 900 A.D. in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and El Salvador. They headed for the northern Yucatan, where Spanish conquistadors met their descendants in the 1500s (6 million modern Maya still live in Central America today).

Past work by the team, led by Bey and Tomas Gallareta of Mexico's National Institute of Archaeology and History, shows the Maya had inhabited the Puuc region since 500 B.C. So why they headed for the coast with their brethren is just part of the mystery of the Maya collapse.

New clues may come from Kiuic, where the archaeologists explored two pyramids and, most intriguingly, plantation palaces on the ridges ringing the center. Of particular interest: a hilltop complex nicknamed "Stairway to Heaven" by Gallareta (that's "Escalera al Cieloa" for Spanish-speaking Led Zeppelin fans) because of a long staircase leading from Kiuic to a central plaza nearly a mile away.

Both the pyramids and the palaces look like latter-day additions to Kiuic, built in the 9th century, just as Maya centers farther south were being abandoned. "The influx of wealth (at Kiuic) may spring from immigration," Bey says, as Maya headed north. One pyramid was built atop what was originally a palace, allowing the rulers of Kiuic to simultaneously celebrate their forebears and move to fancier digs in the hills.

When the team started exploring the hilltop palaces, five vaulted homes to the south of the hilltop plaza and four to the north, the archaeologists found tools, stone knives and axes, corn-grinder stones called metates (muh-TAH-taze) and pots still sitting in place. "It was completely unexpected," Bey says. "It looks like they just turned the metates on their sides and left things waiting for them to come back."

"Their finds look very interesting and promising," says archaeologist Takeshi Inomata of the University of Arizona, who is not part of the project. "If it indeed represents rapid abandonment, it provides important implications about the social circumstance at that time and promises detailed data on the way people lived."

Inomata is part of a team exploring Aguateca, an abandoned Maya center in Guatemala renowned for its preservation. "I should add that the identification of rapid abandonment is not easy. There are other types of deposits — particularly ritual deposits — that result in very similar kinds of artifact assemblages," Inomata cautions, by email.

Bey and colleagues presented some of their findings earlier this year at the Society for American Archaeology meeting in Atlanta. The team hopes to publish its results and dig further at Kiuic to prove their finding of rapid abandonment there. "I think you could compare it to Pompeii, where people locked their doors and fled, taking some things but leaving others," Bey says.

So far, what drove people to leave the site remains a mystery, as it is for the rest of the ancient Maya. The only sign of warfare is a collection of spear points found in the central plaza of Kiuic. There are signs that construction halted there — a stucco-floored plaza sits half-complete, for example. "Drought seems more likely, that would halt construction," Bey says.

Having climbed the "Stairway to Heaven" a few times, Bey can answer one minor mystery, however. Why weren't the palace sites looted as so many other Maya sites have been? "The hills are a good climb," he says. "People just didn't bother to climb the hills to search the rooms."

MYSTERIOUS ORIGINS PART IV

MATTER OVER ANTIMATTER
We find beauty in symmetry, but without a key piece of asymmetry, we wouldn't be around to appreciate the finer things. In the realm of particle collisions and quantum processes, antimatter is produced as often as ordinary matter. In fact, the big bang should have produced equal amounts of both—not a good thing, because each piece of antimatter would destroy an equal amount of matter. The big bang should thus have created universe of only light and energy, free of any solids, liquids or gases.

It's possible that the big bang did indeed create enough antimatter to create anti-suns, anti-planets, anti-galaxies and the like, and that they exist somewhere in separate pockets of the universe. But decades of observations of deep space make that possibility seem unlikely.

So, some sort of asymmetry occurred that skewed the universe's evolution toward matter. It would not have taken much—just one extra matter particle for every billion particle-antiparticle pairs. Researchers have discovered an asymmetry between the behavior of matter and of antimatter, called charge–parity violation, which could have skewed things to our side of the material world. But for this subtle bias to translate into an excess of matter, the primordial universe would have had to go through a wrenching period of imbalanced conditions, and so far no one knows how that might have happened.

MYSTERIOUS ORIGINS PART III

LANGUAGE
At some point after chimpanzees and humans diverged from a common ancestor six million years ago, we developed the capacity to talk—and to gossip, argue, complain and pontificate. But because soft tissue like the vocal cords, larynx, tongue, uvula and brain are not preserved in the fossil record, we don't know when our ancestors evolved the physical capacity to make speech or how long it took to develop.

Other animals can communicate—the alarm calls of prairie dogs to warn of a nearby predator, say, or the meowing of a hungry cat to tell its owner to put food down. But they lack the complexity and grammar of language. And how babies develop the capacity has been thoroughly debated without clear resolution. Maybe humans have an inborn "universal grammar," as Noam Chomsky asserts, or maybe it emerges as part of the general processing of our big brains and the surrounding culture.

In her book, The First Word: The Search for the Origins of Languages (Viking 2007), Christine Kenneally asked several key researchers if a boatload of babies landed on a desert island, would they develop language? Almost all agreed that they would develop some form of communication, but they disagreed if a fully formed, "normal" language would emerge.

MYSTERIOUS ORIGINS PART II

HIGH-TEMPERATURE SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
In the late 1980s physicists were astounded by the electrical behavior of ceramic compounds based on copper oxides. These materials could conduct electricity without resistance well above the temperature of liquid nitrogen (77 kelvins, or –196 degrees Celsius). Previously, superconductivity occurred only in metals cooled to near absolute zero (–273 degrees C). (The image shows a magnet levitated by the powerful magnetic field of opposite polarity generated by a copper-oxide superconductor cooled by liquid nitrogen.)

The relatively high transition temperature seen in the copper oxides revolutionized the field and forced physicists to reconsider the accepted cause of superconductivity, called the BCS theory. It posited that the supercurrent occurred when electrons paired up. One electron moving through the substance would slightly pull together the material's positively charged crystal lattice, leaving a wake of slightly denser positive charge behind it; a second electron would be attracted to this wake. In this way, these so-called Cooper pairs of electrons became weakly bound together, and a sea of them could flow through the lattice without losing energy. But the theory also predicted that, above about 30 K, ambient heat would cause the lattice to vibrate too much, destabilizing the Cooper pairs.

The copper oxides, which can superconduct at temperatures reaching 164 K under the right circumstances, clearly indicated that a new theory was needed. Cooper pairs were still being formed, but just what brought and kept them together has eluded definitive explanation. The discovery of iron-based superconductors, which also function well above absolute zero but below the copper oxides, could provide some essential clues.

MYSTERIOUS ORIGINS PART I

THE SEASONALITY OF FLU

Influenza and cold weather go hand in hand in temperate zones: In the Northern Hemisphere the flu season typically begins in November and runs to April. But flu viruses themselves circulate year-round. They show little seasonality in the tropics, and new strains can emerge during the warmer months, as the H1N1 swine flu did this year.

Researchers have come up with many possible reasons to explain why nonpandemic flu viruses take hold only at certain times of the year. Cool, dry air seems to help the virus survive on surfaces. Lack of vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, may leave the immune systems of people weaker during winter, perhaps paving the way for infections. In chilly weather, too, people tend to stay indoors and crowd together in schools and offices, boosting the odds of person-to-person transmission. Indoor heating systems could also play a role, transporting coughed aerosols to distant areas of buildings.

The reasons sound plausible, but little research has actually gone into supporting or rejecting the theories. In a 2007 review on influenza seasonality, Eric Lofgren of the Tufts University School of Medicine and his colleagues wrote that seasonality is likely to be the result of "less-than-straightforward interaction of many different factors."