Case Study for an Invitation System using Google Apps Script.

Posted on May 18, 2012 by

Earlier this month my NGO (GAIN) had its annual meeting. Around 200 participants, which includes several presidents, CEOs, ambassadors and representatives of the World Bank, OAS, and more than 100 companies. The invitation list to the reception had more than 1.000 names.

I built the Invitation system almost from scratch using Google Apps Script (GAS), and I want to share the experience. The decision to engage on this was partly becasue I had the chance to participate on a free and open event about GAS for developers at the Google Washington DC offices (thank you!).

My goal was to follow these premises:

  1. Make it as simple as possible, for both sides.
  2. Do not ask any information you know. I hate filling up my name, over and over again, when they should already know it! And learn from the corrections people do on their info.
  3. Send short, simple and personalized, messages.
  4. Automate, as much as possible.

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Scientific value ≠ Perception of the scientific value

Posted on May 18, 2012 by

A russian satellite makes a time lapse of the Earth from space. A truly beautiful video.

This reminds me of a text I read many years ago: Carl Sagan was defending the inclusion of visual cameras in scientific payloads, even when the scientific value would be arguable.

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Posted in Outreach, Science, technology | 2 Comments

Bertrand Russell’s 10 Commandments

Posted on May 6, 2012 by
  1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
  2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
  3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.
  4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
  5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
  6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
  7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
  8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent that in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
  9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
  10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool’s paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.


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[Idea] Synthetic Multi-beam Microphone

Posted on May 3, 2012 by


 This idea is for a synthetic multi-beam microphone, basically allowing to select and amplify sound coming from any, and all, selectable angles and distances, at once, live or replaying the sound, and to detect their LOS velocity. Combined with a speaker, it can be a multi-beam sonar.Physically it would be an array of microphones, at the size of the lattice would define part of the resolution. The rest would come from the software. I thought of this merging concepts of sounds, nets, radioastronomy and optical interferometry.

Not really sure this make sense, but I post it here in case someone is looking for projects of ideas (#sciencehackday?). That´s why I make these [Idea] posts (and to protect them from patents).

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Discovery’s final flight.

Posted on April 17, 2012 by
  1. Discovery was NASA’s Orbiter Fleet leader, having flown 39 successful missions in over 27 years of service, totalling of one full year (365 days) in space. Discovery has performed both research and International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions. Discovery also flew the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. Here’s a quick compilation of impressions from today.
  2. Share

    The day of farewells to Discovery begins http://pic.twitter.com/RtvYihJ4
    Nicole StottAstro_Nicole
    Mon, Apr 16 2012 07:40:22
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NASA Chief Scientist responds to ex-employees climate change deniers

Posted on April 15, 2012 by

Reblogged from Slashdot. Emphasis added:

Last week a fellow at the Heartland Institute, a group now notorious for their plan to subvert public science education, gathered a coalition of 49 ex-NASA employees to sign a petition urging NASA to reconsider its position on climate change. For perspective, NASA currently employes over 18,000 people, and there are likely tens of thousands of ex-employees. In their letter the group requested that NASA refrain from publishing unproven remarks. Since no theory can ever be considered proven, this appears to be an attempt to silence discussion. NASA Chief Scientist Waleed Abdalati has since responded:

Our Earth science programs provide many unique space-based observations and research capabilities to the scientific community to inform investigations into climate change… After these studies have met the appropriate standards of scientific peer-review, we strongly encourage scientists to communicate these results to the public. If the authors of this letter disagree with specific scientific conclusions made public by NASA scientists, we encourage them to join the debate in the scientific literature or public forums rather than restrict any discourse.

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El feudo Cubano, 2012

Posted on April 14, 2012 by

IMG_6309

Hace unos días estuve en la Habana, Cuba, con mi padre de vacaciones. Tenía muchas ganas de ir, y aprender. Me preguntaba ¿Qué es lo que opina el cubano de la calle? ¿Qué es el régimen revolucionario, en términos reales? ¿Cómo es el sector privado allí? ¿Qué no se puede hacer? ¿Que beneficios tiene un sistema comunista? … Esto es lo que he podido medio entender después de una semana de vacaciones allí, charlando con cubanos, viviendo en un apartamento alquilado, yendo a varias ciudades en las afueras (Mariel y Viñales), visitando un hospital, una universidad, un conservatorio, varias casas particulares…

La Habana es una sociedad rota. Su sistema de valores económicos no tiene sentido, lo que la lleva a un absoluto desastre que se extiende a todas las facetas de la ciudad, o incluso el país. Su sistema educativo aporta una base teórica sin utilidad en el mundo real al que el cubano se enfrenta al terminar. Ni yo le encuentro sentido, ni la mayoría de los cubanos con los que he podido charlar sobre esto.

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Posted in Science | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

EWB Conference Heightens Awareness to Adaptation Issues

Posted on April 9, 2012 by

[Cross posted at GAIN] Engineers will be among those on the front lines of adaptation. From improving the resilience of water pipes and energy transport systems to redesigning how entire urban areas are built, engineering firms will need to solve new challenges created by population growth, urbanization and climate change.

Incorporation of new scientific, economic and social science data is becoming more critical as unprecedented changes are upon us. Engineering innovation and technology will be part of the solution. These were the main takeaways according to participants at the Engineers Without Borders (EWB)–USA 10-year anniversary International Conference in Henderson, Nev., March 22-24.

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26$ per year to end hunger in the world

Posted on March 26, 2012 by

The cost of ending hunger globally is less than the value of wasted food only in the US, and orders of magnitude smaller than the Wall Street bailout.

“The world only needs 30 billion dollars a year to eradicate the scourge of hunger.”

FAO Newsroom. 2008

“14-15 per cent of United States edible food is untouched or unopened, amounting to $43 billion worth of discarded, but edible, food”.

Wikipedia quoting a study by the University of Arizona in 2004

 During the last quarter of 2008, central banks purchased US$2.5 trillion of government debt and troubled private assets from banks. This was the largest liquidity injection into the credit market, and the largest monetary policy action, in world history.

Wikipedia, “Late 2000s financial crisis”

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Imagine a world without religion

Posted on March 11, 2012 by

Adapted form Richard Dawkins

Imagine, a world with no religion. Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no 15M, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Jihad, no Gunpowder Plot, no Kashmir dispute, no Indo/Pakistan partition, no Israel/Palestine wars. Imagine no Taliban blowing up ancient statues, lashing women for showing an inch of skin, or publicly beheading blasphemers and apostates. Imagine no persecutions of the Jews .

How much hatred would instantly disappear… if we would do good, because it´s the right think to do, not because “God” said it.

Steven Weinberg, an American theoretical astrophysicist and Nobel laureate in Physics, on a talk given in April 1999 at the Conference on Cosmic Design of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C said:

With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil: that takes religion.

I am all in favor of a dialogue between science and religion, but not a constructive dialogue. One of the great achievements of science has been, if not to make it impossible for intelligent people to be religious, then at least to make it possible for them not to be religious. We should not retreat from this accomplishment.

Posted in quotes, Science | 2 Comments