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.

Researchers were claiming on the extra weight and limited value, and longevity, of such an instrument, versus the many other things they could put to measure wind speed, chemical composition, …

Carl Sagan´s point was that we need to connect with society, to the humane instinct of visual exploration. It is ok to give up a little bit of extra science if we can get a better overal picture, or link with people. A single image can convey to many more people the awe and wonder of the Universe, and the need to continue the journey, than thousand papers or plots. That´s just our human nature. One of the most important things since I´ve left research is exactly that.

Almost every single weather satellite in the recent years has had the same capabilities to make this movie of the Earth. But they either chose to put only an infrared camera (needed if you want to see clouds at night) or they never thought of making this Outreach product. The russians did, and they added a camera in the near visible range to have the closest possible to “a view from space”. They´ve reached millions more of “wow moments”. With this video we can connect to many concepts, like the importance of satellites, the concept of climate, the Earth has a unity, …

Here´s another example with the ISS and the Earth. You might not even remember the purpose of the ISS (or even that we had humans living there since years)  but you might remember (or you will) this video:

Another case, from my experience: My thesis took around 3 years, and 100 days of observations at a telescope. Probably less than 20 people understand it, and I hope it be a small contribution to advance solar physic. One day, at the telescope, I made a 20 seconds video, and then I took a few hours to prepare a simple video of it (here it is http://bsan.eu/LbfigS ). The Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD) featured it 3 times, and literally millions of people has seen it. With that video, we can engage in so many concepts of Astronomy, Optics and Solar Physics. And so have told me teachers from literally all around the world when they asked me to use it on their classroom.

The last example could well be my recent work: We did a Climate change Adaptation Index, and it took a lot of work. Once done, it would have never went very far, if we had not spent significant time and resources to make a visual tool to explore some of the messages. (index.gain.org)

The lesson to learn here, to me, is very clear. The scientific value is one stop away from the societal perception of the scientific value, which is tremendously important, and powerful. We must do that extra mile, even at the cost of some more research. There is a painful detachment of S&T and society.

PS: I can´t remember if that Carl Sagan text was connected to the russian lander on Venus (I doubt it) or to the Viking Mars from +NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This might be part of the Cosmos book. Can´t remember or find it. This is the closest I could find. http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4212/ch9.html

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.

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).

Antennas tend to be parabolic because they make the waves converge at the same time in one point, hence amplifying the physical signals of the whole area of the antena instead of just hearing those coming to one point. I remember this from high school and then some work I did with light (EM interferometry in radio, IR, visible, UV). The other day I was thinking about the equivalent with pressure waves (sound). I drafted a quick idea in the back of my mind and then let it mulle for a few days.

What if you put a flat 2D array of microphones?

If the sound comes from far away, in front of you
The pressure waves are flat and arrive to the mics at the same time. You just need to sum up the digital signals from each mic to interferometrically capture the sound from far points. The rest of signals will tend to cancel out. You can even misalign/cover a few of the mics and subtract them from the signal to remove some of the background noise and electronic/thermal pedestal. You won´t really know the distance, but you know the direction and that they are far. “Far” means compared to the distance between mics.

If the sound comes from far away, but on the side (at an angle)
Same thing as above, but when you are summing up the signals, you introduce the delay, for each mic, corresponding to the travelling time of the waves between the mics. Tuning the delay you can point your beam and listen to a particular direction. The cool thing is that you can do this delays via software, so you can virtually point at multiple directions at the same time. Or even just replaying the data afterwards. They do this in radioastronomy with radio signals.

If the sounds comes from a close source
Same thing just tune the offset to each node in the mic array needs to match the propagation of the arrival of the wave. E.g. If it comes from close but straight in front, tune it from the center outwards. Think you are matching the wave as it propagates outwards. Setting those delays, you can tune your ear for a given distance.

You could then virtually tune your ear simultaneously to any and all points in the 3D space, live or just re-playing the sounds.

More awesomeness, you can further tune the ear in frequency using digital Fourier transforms. For example the frequency of a car engine, of human voices, …

Resolution
The angular resolution of the ear would depend on the distance and angle to the source and the frequency of the sound, and roughly the projected distance between mics and, say, a quarter (peak to valley) of the wavelength in question.

The temporal resolution, for off-axis sources, would be the accuracy by which you can shift the digital signals in time (and the Nyquist frequency of the sampling).

With light, the speed is so fast (c) that it makes temporal shifts hard and mostly non digital), also the frequency makes the arrays to be huge (radio) or tiny (UV).

Audible sounds waves are 20-20k Hz. Seems a range software could handle well. About the propagation speed (function of density but roughly 300m/s) not sure what implies in terms of the array dimensions… but now that I think of it, I remember geologist use arrays of mics to detect ultrasonic echoes to measure crust and mantle topology… there must a range where all this makes sense and has it s application.

When I posted this on Google Plus, David told me that part of the software can readily available at Lofar. For the hardware part, there seem to be cheap microphones to make a DIY lattice.

… and what If you introduce a speaker?

Let´s make it a synthetic sonar! Imagine you can play a sound for one 1/10 of a second. It would come back if there is something reflecting it 30 meters away. To make sure you can repeat the sound with slightly different frequencies to identify each member of the sequence and sum up the peaks in responses.

Now the same object is moving closer. That means there will be a Doppler effect. And that make it possible to estimate the LOS velocity.

Since the frequency that you emit will be shifted by Doppler, you need a way to identify each emission so that you don´t need to wait before sending the next probe. That´s a pretty interesting mathematical problem I remember going a to a talk about. I can´t more info, but the key was to modulate the emission in a certain way to that could invert the echo from the known input.

… and if you put an array of speakers? You could concentrate the pressure waves on a particular point. Sounds useful…

Anyway. Here I stop.

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.

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.

El punto de inflexión parece ser el “periodo especial” cuando la caída soviética. Cuba vivía en buena parte de sus ayudas y acuerdos. Al terminarse esta vital ayuda la sociedad cubana paso de ser comunista (medianamente funcional y sin incentivo oficial de superación fuera del patriotismo), a “no tener nada que comer”.

No tuvo más remedio que abrirse al turismo, lo que introdujo un sistema económico paralelo: el dólar. Años después, se decidió crear una moneda de valor artificial, el peso convertible, CUC (apodado en broma “cuenta unificada del comandante”).  Su valor se iguala ficticiamente al dólar, por lo que no tiene ningún respaldo fuera del país. El sistema del dólar, o CUC, es un despropósito que rompe el concepto monetario como herramienta de transacción de valor, y cuyas consecuencias se agravan cada año.

El sueldo oficial de un médico, ingeniero, profesor, o cualquier otra profesión de alto nivel y preparación, puede estar en torno a los 400-500 pesos nacionales cubanos. Un bollo de pan puede costar 5 pesos cubanos. Montar en bus 10. La electricidad, gas o teléfono de un hogar 300-400 en total. Puesto que tu casa no es de tu propiedad, no hay alquileres ni hipotecas (puedes “permutar” tu casa por otra), pero sí corre de tu cuenta mantener la casa, aunque casi nadie lo haga. La sociedad cubana era consistentemente necesitada, si no pobre. Ahora, por la interacción del CUC, los cubanos dolarizados (o bien por remesas o por contacto con el turista) rompen todos esos esquemas

1 CUC, o dólar, son unos 20 pesos nacionales. Entonces, 20 dólares es un sueldo mensual en moneda nacional. Aquellos que tengan acceso a remesas o a turistas pueden ganar en un día más que lo que gana un médico en un mes. Taxistas, camareros, guías, gente vendiendo flores en la calle son ejemplos claros, pero también el mendigo o la jinetera están expuestos a un sistema altamente volátil de acceso a mucho dinero. Como no hay incentivo en ahorrar “la gente vive al día: o no tiene, o se lo gasta todo”.

La oferta y la demanda, base de una economía capitalista, se ve introducida por medio del turista que viene a gastar sus dólares en lo que más le apetezca por el mínimo coste. Es  un doble juego con el comunismo completamente incompatible y termina con una sociedad forzada a engañar y robar al estado para poder subsistir y donde el esfuerzo no se recompensa. ¿Para qué trabajar si vendiendo flores o con mi pequeña remesa gano más dinero? El cubano tiene ahora dólares (CUCs), y por tanto el estándar de dólares irrumpe en la oferta. El sistema comunista no debería ajustar el precio para hacer frente a la demanda. Algunos servicios no lo hacen; otros sí. En cualquier caso el dólar afecta a todos: ahora el cubano ha de pagar dólares para ir en taxi, para cenar en cada vez más restaurantes, para tomar café… pero también para el papel higiénico, desodorante, ropa, cerveza o gasolina.  En CUCs, no se acepta el peso nacional. La lista va aumentando cada mes.

El cubano vive al día. Lo llaman “inventar”. Muchos “no trabajan, inventan”: Pequeños encargos, vender cosillas, buscan turistas para venderles puros… Los que trabajan tienen además que inventar un poco para completar el sueldo con el que comer… o “buscan”. “Buscar” es defraudar, robar al estado desde su puesto de trabajo (por ejemplo el autobusero que mete la mano en la caja, el camarero que se lleva comida a casa, o el enrollador de puros que saca unos cuantos para venderlos)

El cubano revolucionario puro cobra en moneda nacional, no defrauda y paga aproximadamente un 50% de impuestos (aunque con otro nombre). Se jubila con unos 30$ al mes, lo que le obliga a inventar como taxista, vendedor de flores o de libros en la zona turística.

El cubano remesero es el que recibe dinero, remesas, del extranjero. Debido a la absoluta disparidad de la moneda nacional y la divisa, tiene comparativamente mucho dinero y comodidades del extranjero sin hacer nada (ropa cara, cenas en restaurantes de dólares, viaja en taxi,…). Me sorprendió sobremanera ver bastantes iPhones en Habana.

Hospital

Por mi experiencia, el cubano suele ser de conversación fácil, dispuesto a debatir y argumentar su postura con pasión. “El 70%” se confesará antirevolucionario, que se iría a EEUU si pudiera… lo dice en privado o incluso por la calle (el caso de una señora sexagenaria, aunque ese comentario hizo desaparecer parte de la gente que se había congregado a charlar). Uno de ellos me argumentó de manera bastante convincente que lo que pasa en cuba se parece mucho a un sistema feudal.

Estuve paseando por una Universidad técnica. Me sorprendió ver diagramas de electrónica digital (filtros pasa baja y pasa alta). Cuando charlé con una estudiante me contaba que ella estudiaba economía… “¿Capitalista?” No, marxista. Me encantaría ver sus libros de texto.

Su televisión no tiene anuncios, pero si muchos programas documentales sobre ciencia. Muy buenos, por cierto. Una de las tarde pusieron un documental sobre la tabla periódica de una cadena británica y luego un debate sobre planetas extrasolares y vida en otros planetas. Me pregunto cuantas horas de televisión ve un cubano medio, o cuantas televisiones hay. Prefieren mencionar científicos no americanos, pero es imposible no hacerlo. Curiosamente ponen películas y series americanas (incluido Lost, CSI o House). Se pueden ver banderas americanas ondear en las series, pero a veces censuran parte de la pantalla (quizás sean los logotipos de las cadenas de donde toman la señal). Retransmiten los Oscars y los Grammies. La narrativa revolucionaria parece dominar las tardes con tertulias y debates claramente anti-imperialistas. Los telediarios son abiertamente subjetivos y su selección internacional es casi exclusiva de Venezuela si son noticias buenas o EEUU/capitalistas si son malas. Hay programas enteros parafraseando las “Reflexiones de Fidel” o debatiendo sobre lo buenas o interesantes que son.

La electricidad (generada quemando petróleo) es muy barata. Los bares y restaurantes en moneda nacional tienen muy poca selección y no parece haber incentivo de vender. “Es lo que hay” te dirá el camarero con resignación. Hay excepciones de restaurantes nacionales muy buenos, pero casi todos están llenos de turistas, por el relativo alto precio. Los restaurantes privados suelen ser pequeños y tener más oferta. Se les suele llamar “Paladar” a raíz de una telenovela popular, donde la protagonista monta un exitoso restaurante con ese nombre. Se parecen un poco a los guachinches rurales canarios.

Para comer, el cubano tiene una cartilla de racionamiento. Cada persona tiene derecho a comprar, por un precio reducido (un tercio del precio nacional normal, más o menos) ciertos productos como un bollo de pan al día, 4 huevos a la semana, … en ocasiones especiales la lista incluye dietas especiales que te dan derecho a carne (pollo), yoghurt de soja u otras excepciones. En las fotos se ven varias  páginas del libreto. Las casillas  de “fiestas” son para artículos de cumpleaños de niños y otras celebraciones, que ya nunca se usan.

Uno pensaría que todo el mundo quiere entonces ser taxista, camarero o cualquier otra profesión que tenga acceso al turista y los dólares. La respuesta es que las plazas para hacerlo de forma legal son muy caras, incluso en dólares. “Hay mucha corrupción en la entrega de estos cargos.”

¿Quién es la “clase alta”?, ¿Quién tiene más poder económico? ¿Quién está por encima del cubano típico en la escala social? Me dicen que los más cercanos al Fidel, los músicos, deportistas, y los “HK”. Los HK son las matrículas especiales para los coches de empresas extranjeras. Los cubanos que estas empresas transnacionales contratan tienen acceso a mucho capital, para usarlo como sea menester y asegurar que la empresa va bien. Si uno se fija los coches cubanos buenos, son de turistas (matrícula T) o “HK”s. El resto del parque móvil son trastabillados coches americanos que llenan la ciudad de olor a petróleo y aceite quemado (La ITV “la puedes pasar <<pagando>> unos 40$”) o viejos coches soviéticos mantenidos a base de quitar piezas. Los cinturones de seguridad ni están ni se les espera. En las listas mundiales de capacidad extraordinaria, donde los médicos cubanos son famosos, deberían estar justo debajo los mecánicos cubanos. Harán maravillas, o chapuzas, para que el coche siga funcionando. Por ejemplo, cuando los depósitos de gasolina se rompen acaban poniendo botellas de plástico las cuales sacan y rellenan directamente.

Luego están los “cuentapropistas”. Son los que llamaríamos emprendedores legales. Los que deciden montar un pequeño local y ofrecer sus servicios, usualmente a los turistas. Por ejemplo un pequeño “paladar”, como menciono un poco más arriba. Pagan unos impuestos muy altos y existe mucha volatilidad de que las leyes cambien en su detrimento, pero cada vez son más. Son parte de esa reciente transformación cubana para abrir el comunismo. El cubano que me lo explicó estuvo 5 minutos explicando el concepto de beneficio, “parte de lo que ganas es para ti, te quedas dinero legalmente”

Me fascina pensar que hubiera sido de Cuba si no hubiese habido Revolución. Paseando por la Habana uno siente la belleza de una increíblemente avanzada urbe, secuestrada en el tiempo y desgastada por 50 años de descuido. Lo que parece claro es que ahora será muy complicado levantar este feudo. ¿Cómo evitar la efectiva apropiación de los recursos locales cuando empresas internacionales aprovechen las muchas y necesitadas inversiones? ¿ Cómo incentivar y dar confianza a una población acostumbrada a vivir como supervivientes del día a día, del turista,  de “inventar” o “buscar”? ¿Cómo evitar que muchos de ellos emigren a la primera de cambio?

Conservatorio de música

Por alguna razón hay una imagen que me quedó muy grabada en la mente. Estaba paseando por el centro de La Habana y vi de reojo un tullido sin piernas pidiendo dinero. Me dio pena pero tampoco pensé mucho en él. Había demasiado ruido, gente ofreciendo “comida, mi amigo”, “puros, my friend”, libros, música tradicional para turistas por todas partes, … A la vuelta del paseo, 20 minutos después, lo volví y ver en una bocacalle, llorando con los ojos inflamados de dolor, de impotencia. No estaba mirando a la gente, estaba de lado, restregándose los ojos con unas manos tan sucias como necesitadas. Mi cabeza me dice que quizás sea su truco para pedir dinero, que como él hay muchos más, en Cuba y también en Washington o en Gijón. Lo sé, pero me dio muchísima pena. Sentí mucha empatía, y mucha rabia.

“La grandeza de una nación y su progreso puede medirse en cómo trata a sus miembros más débiles”

 Mahatma Ghandi

Cuba es un país precioso, con muchos recursos y bellezas naturales; con gente que va a la escuela, se forma y luego sale a la calle a sobrevivir como puede mientras el país se desmorona a su alrededor y si te encuentras a un turista te puede arreglar la semana. Obviamente hay excepciones muy honrosas.

Soy consciente que uno no puede absorber la compleja realidad de un país como Cuba en una semana, pero al menos me voy con la experiencia de haber intentado salir de la esfera irreal del “turista de mojito y puro” en la Habana Vieja.

Hice muchas fotos. Hay una selección en Facebook, y en Flickr hay más, en calidad alta, por si alguien las quiere usar para algo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasonurb/sets/72157629410743248/show/

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.

The Global Adaptation Institute (GAIN) was an integral part of the three-day conference. GAIN Director of Science & Technology Dr. Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño and Vice President of Development Tim Wierzbicki hosted an EWB Global Dialogue Session titled, “What adaptation responses are needed to meet the challenges of climate change?”

EWB Founder Dr. Bernard Amadei opened the conference by outlining his passion for founding the organization – the urgency to save lives and improve livelihoods and the expansion of global responsibility.

Following, Boeing Chief Technology Officer Dr. John J. Tracy agreed engineering can be a powerful agent of change. Boeing, one of the major EWB conference sponsors, must build complex machines with adaptive engineering to ensure sound operation today and 50 years from now, Tracy said.

Several business leaders from AECOM, ASCE, CDM Smith and CH2M Hill and EWB’s Austin Chapter of university students formed the panel for GAIN’s Global Dialogue, which was introduced by EWB Board Member Paul Shea. The panel concluded that there is an increasing awareness and need for pragmatic approaches to building resilience.

Elliott Gall, second year Ph.D. candidate and EPA STAR Fellow in the department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, said there is an increasing need for projects in the developing world that address climate change issues with proactive resiliency.

Organizations such as EWB can help address this important need by, one: partnering with communities affected by climate change to develop long term technical and social solutions to their changing needs, and two: giving a voice to susceptible populations to help direct aid efforts, Gall said.

Claire Bonham-Carter, AECOM Principal and Director of Sustainable Development, stressed the importance of integration in carrying out adaptation projects abroad and in the U.S., noting the vulnerability of airports in northern California.

Adaptation work should not be an isolated activity or strategy. We all must work together, she said.

Kathy Freas, CH2M HILL Global Director for Water Resources and Ecosystem Management Services, who the week earlier had testified before Congress, emphasized the need to unite cross-sectional efforts to help rethink the approach to adaptation. Association should include a united framework of action, a stronger cooperation and collaboration, an emphasis in communications and the ability to ask the right questions.

Adaptation needs an integrated strategy, Freas said. Engineers should ask themselves, What are the implications of projects in relation to future climate scenarios? How will the surrounding environment respond?

Dan Rodrigo, CDM Smith Vice President and Water Resources Market Leader, reinforced the importance of integrated planning, particularly in the area of water issues. Understanding water quantity, quality and usage is primarily important, but other factors should also be considered.

Sustainability is an outcome that looks beyond the short-term, Rodrigo said.

Gall currently works on one of EWB-USA’s 600 worldwide projects – the Climate Adaptation in Mountain Basins in the Andean Region (CAMBIAR) in Peru.

EWB goes to the community to understand the situation, partner with experts and, with the engagement of the local community, discuss and implement solutions to adaptation challenges, he said.

GAIN also hosted two Learning Sessions on the GAIN Index that discussed the motivation to create the Index, communication platforms for its use and how it relates to EWB projects. The GAIN Index was viewed as an excellent starting point from where more can be built. At the end, if progress cannot be measured, it doesn’t exist.

The GAIN Index is designed to be open source for anyone to review, reuse and contribute, and modular to create an unbiased look at countries.

The GAIN Index, during its consultation process, was reviewed by more than 200 experts in the water, food & agriculture, coastal protection and energy sectors (See acknowledgements on White Paper). View the GAIN Index at index.gain.org.

Thanks to Cathy Leslie, EWB Executive Director; Art Enns, EWB Development Director; Dianne Shanks, EWB Director of Outreach; and Mary Perkins, EWB Development Manager Corporate Relations; and the EWB team that hosted a stimulating conversation with engineers from around the world about adaptation and other development issues.

*

Photos from top:

Photo 1: From left, Dan Rodrigo, CDM Smith Vice President and Water Resources Market Leader; Elliott Gall, second year Ph.D. candidate and EPA STAR Fellow in the department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin; Kathy Freas, CH2M HILL Global Director for Water Resources and Ecosystem Management Services; Claire Bonham-Carter, AECOM Principal and Director of Sustainable Development; Dr. Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño, GAIN Director of Science & Technology; Paul Shea, EWB Board Member; and Tim Wierzbicki, GAIN Vice President of Development

Photo 2: Dr. Bruno Sánchez-Andrade Nuño, GAIN Director of Science & Technology

Photo 3: Tim Wierzbicki, GAIN Vice President of Development

“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”

Bernard Amadei mentioned this numbers at the Opening keynote of EWB-USA conference (I hope they upload the video soon). I got curious and I check the numbers. Then it occurred to me to divide that cost among us, the ones who have the most, and I found out that:

The cost of ending hunger is 26$ per year per person for those living in a high income country.

To get this number I took the population data and GDPpc. Then I ordered the countries by Income and divided the 30 billion $ by the aggregated population of countries ordered by GDPpc. If you want multiply that number by 10 to reflect the case where only the top 10% of the population would give. Wouldn’t you give 260$ a year to end hunger in the world?

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.

It is roughly one year since I joined GAIN, the Global Adaptation Institute. GAIN is dedicated to facilitate data-driven pragmatic solutions to face the challenge of adaptation to climate change. You can learn more about us here, or about my role here.

One year seems a nice excuse to stop and think about what one has done and evaluate where to improve. I am very thankful to the Institute for giving the opportunity to work on such an important topic and amazing people. I think we have lots to celebrate and be proud of. Motivation has been and is the main engine for this journey.

In the last year:

• We were able to scram the first versions of the Index in roughly two weeks. We used many tools and concepts I already knew, but also some I had to learn quickly. I´m particularly proud of our use of several tools like Google Docs, or Refine.
• Despite the distance and teleworking from Europe, we were able to produce all the background analysis, documentation and infographics to present a complete draft early March.
• During April we were able to continue the iteration of the building process and consultation over several weeks with the highest standards, still with some heavy teleworking from Europe, shifting tools as we saw fit ( e.g. adopting the de-facto standard Excel VBA) and keeping on schedule for our event in May.
• Summer came up quite busy implementing those changes and preparing the Index and all the side work: Number crunching, tests, documentation, response to feedback, … my visa got ready and I could finally relocate to DC.
• August saw a significant ramping up as we interacted with Development Seed to build, in record time, the website for the Index. The awesome technology we used, Node.js involved considerable interfacing to bring everybody to the same page and avoid any delays. We built in record time, and we still are years ahead of most data portals.
• September was the culmination as we had to freeze development to be able to produce the Gain 2011 numbers.
• From October till the end of the year we had a bit of needed slack to round some corners, and properly build a great main site. We use Jekyll+Tumblr as our web engines, and Github for website hosting and track issues with the Index. Among other things allows non-synchronous collaboration. We also did the roll out the Index with presentations to many institutions and places. Just to name a few we gave talks at: OEA, World Bank, Brookings, Carnegie, US German Marshal Fund, UNFCC COP17 South Africa, NY Science Academy, Rockefeller Fundation, Tecnológico de Monterrey, …
• This year we continue polishing our technology strategy, and developing better science, continuing the due diligence and preparing the pipeline to make Gain 2012. This is in what I´m currently focusing on, and I´m loving it. Keep tuned, there is some great stuff coming up.

I am very thankful to the Institute for giving the opportunity to work on such an important topic and amazing people. I think we have lots to celebrate and be proud of. Motivation has been and is the main engine for this journey.