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Daniel D. Ferrante
Department of Physics (Computational High Energy Physics,
High Energy Physics);
Brown University - POBOX 1843; For a map of the local area follow this link.
My publications may be found at
SPIRES. |
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Personal |
I was born in Santo André, a city in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Together with São Caetano do Sul (also, take a look here) and São Bernardo do Campo, the three of them form what is know as the "ABC Paulista" (you can also take a look here), the most industrialized region of São Paulo (which, in turn, is the most industrialized state of the country >;-). Altogether, the Great São Paulo (the metropolis of São Paulo - note that, now, I am talking about the city, not the state: São Paulo, the city (for more information on São Paulo - the city -, follow either this or this link) is the capital of the state of São Paulo, i.e., both of them have the same name. >;-) has about ~20 million people, which places it as one of the biggest cities of the world! As such, the Great São Paulo has one of the biggest racial mixes of the planet, having the biggest italian and japanese (among others; actually, Brazil, as a whole, also has the largest communities of portuguese, germans, russians, eastern-europeans and middle-easterns) communities outside their respective countries. In addition to those, there is also a large portion of the population with either a jewish or an african descent heritage. And, as opposed to what happens in different places of the globe, in Brazil the racial mix really does happen! That is, there are not many ghettos around the country and it is hard to track the heritage of most brazilians. Thus, as you can see, the cultural soup is quite spicy! >;-)
I am the oldest (of two: I have a little sister) son of a [somewhat] typical immigrant [italian] family. Roughly, my great-grandparents went [from Italy] to Brazil running away from the First World War; so, some of my grandparents were born in the trip and some in Brazil. (Actually, as far as I know, my last name is the same as that of a "certain" King of Naples, that ruled around 1423-94. >:-) Well, I was tossed into school at the age of 2 and, up to now, I haven't been able to let it go!
Well, as you can - probably - figure out, I had to do lots and lots of physical therapy: before (during those ~10 years) and after the surgery (~1 year). Well, among all the exercises, some of them really marked my life: bicycling and swimming. Also, I started playing basketball early in life: I was about 9 when I started. However, all of this was before the surgery... After it, I really focused on basketball (playing for the varsity team of my undergraduate institution) and kung-fu (coaching the '97 and '98 brazillian [sparring] champions). But, my bicycle always followed me around... Anyway, the three of them are an essential part of my life (as you'll - hopefully - be able to see below)!
For more info on how to validate your degree, take a look here (ASCII) and here (ASCII). Or, you can follow Brazilian Consulate in Boston [School Documents] or USP's [federal] policy.
 I am Kung Fu
Master.I like to be in control of myself. I dislike crowds, especially crowds containing people trying to kill me. Even though I always win, I prefer to avoid fights if possible. What Video Game Character Are You? |
For the babies out there, IRC is the grandfather of ICQ (and its siblings) (more info can be found on IRChelp.org). [Un]Fortunately, it is still - to this date - the fastest in his category [aka Internet Messaging]! So, as you would expect, in the best geek way, not only do I refuse to use ICQ (or any of its siblings) but I run my own IRC server! >:-) So, if you want to use IRC yourself, you will need to use a client: An IRC client. Basically, this is a program/software that allows you to connect to and communicate to an IRC server - via the IRC protocol. If you are running any form of *nix, you probably already have one installed. But, if you are running either MS Windows(R) or Mac/Apple(R), you will probably need to download a client: Follow this link that I shall help you out with this. >;-) [Note that, the new Mac OS-X (Jaguar) most likely has one client installed already, given that it is some form of *nix.] (In case you haven't - yet! - figured out how to reach me via IRC, try connecting to the server olympus.het.brown.edu and taking a look on channel #familia! >;-)
On the 11th of April 2002, I started an emailing list called brownzilians, (a name that stems from Brown and brazilians) in order to try to keep the folks around here a bit closer! Believe it or not, up to that date there was no official method of doing so! Thus, in the best geek way, the emailing list came to be! >;-) Nowadays, a very good friend of mine, Yeung Luk Chong, is putting together a web page for the brownzilian crew. And, starting on 15Aug03, I started one by myself: http://brownzilians.het.brown.edu! Also, I should add that Brown has a Departament of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies and that Brazil's former president, Fernando Henrique Cardoso (aka FHC), is serving as Professor-at-Large at Brown.
I have discovered this just awhile back (remember, this is the '03s >;-). But, I really liked the idea and started a couple of my own; here they are: Família and Science. Also, if you are one of the allowed people to post on the above blogs, you can follow this link that you will be directed to the login screen. I am thinking and planning to have more blogs (e.g., for the brownzilians) but, as of now (Aug03), finishing up the DoE proposal comes first! >;-)
Ever since the very begining of my knee problem (when I was 7), there wasn't much I could do, because any "impact" on the knee would cause pain and swelling (thus, disabling motion). Sure enough, one of the few things that I could do was to ride my bike (and swim). So, this is a love affair that started early in my life and has haunted me all along it! >;-)
Even though I started fooling around when I was ~8/9 years old, I started to get more "serious" about it when I got into 6th grade (~12 years old). At that time, I was attending a school called Stocco, whose director was (and still is, for that matter!) Elza Arnelas Pacheco (see 1971 in the previous link), a former member of the brazillian national women's basketball team. Elzinha (as she was lovingly called by us, the students) is something to be seen! Not only she is a great educator (which made her the best school director that I've ever seen!) but she's got so much energy that she can fill the whole school!!! Anyway, the 3 years that I spent there are among the best of my life! And, as a side kick, I got addicted to bball: I cannot live without it anymore! I played for Stocco's team and later, in high school, I played for Singular's [the high-school I attended] team. At that same time, I also played for Pirelli's team; back then, Pirelli was a major sports supporter but, they were changing their gears to women's basketball when I 'joined the club', so I didn't get to enjoy the "Golden Years" that they provided for their athletes. Well, after that I went to the Univeristy of São Paulo, where I played for their varsity team until I graduated. Nowadays, grad school takes most of my time (i.e., if I really want to graduate at any point! >;-) so I just fool around (pick-up games and such) with some fellas from around here; we try to keep ourselves organized and even have an emailing-list (take a look at the last link below) so, if you're around and would like to play with us, let us know! >:-)
Oh, kung-fu... I started practicing kung-fu a bit late in life: I was about ~15 years old. But, it just took over me: There were times in which I'd practice ~6-8 hours a day! Until I began graduate school, I had mainly practiced Fei Hok Phai kung-fu (there's a link below to one of my teachers webpage) and a couple of its foundational styles (tiger and crane). However, now, I have mixed my kung-fu styles a bit more: going from Jeet Kune Do to a variety of Shaolin styles. I don't want to make this a "flame war", but I've been around several different types of martial arts: capoeira (brazillian martial art), brazillian jiu-jitsu, karate, judo, aikido and tae kwon do, and, personally, there's nothing "better" than kung-fu! >;-) You guys are probably thinking: "Sure you're gonna say that!", but, before you get ahead of yourselves, let me start by saying that the whole "problem" is in the definition of "better" (above)! For me, the historical (over ~5000 years!) and philosophical (taoism, zen buddhism) aspects of it are the very definition of "better" and this is what has kept kung-fu in its own category, separated from the other martial arts.
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