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Neil deGrasse Tyson is, to my taste, one of the greatest outreach scientist of our time. Not long ago, the Templeton Fundation asked leading scientist and scholars “Does the Universe have a purpose?”. His answer is the one I like the most. Anyone who expresses a more definitive response to the question is claiming access to knowledge not based on empirical foundations. This remarkably persistent way of thinking, common to most religions and some branches of philosophy, has failed badly in past efforts to understand, and thereby predict the operations of the universe and our place within it. ...

Last week I ran the 2012 Marine Corps Marathon. It was my first marathon, I did it as vegan, and it was a great experience. Finish time was 3h54m17s, much better than I expected. To get to that point I trained hard, I focused on my diet and my stride, I read papers on strategies, and I geeked with the data. I want to talk about all that. ...

Climate change is what we deserve were the exact words I heard from an otherwise well educated and reasonable scientist. The logic was something like: Climate has changed in the past. Yes there might be a significant change lately but so has happened millennia ago, for natural reasons, like volcanoes and other stuff. If you look at the long term climate, it's full of variations. *Climate changes* Therefore this change, that is doubtfully due to humans, is not really worrisome. Climate changes and we have to deal with it. And if we are the cause of it, more so. Why fight against the consequences we deserve? We are too many, we harm the environment too much. If we indeed are the cause and we disappear due to climate change, it's the natural thing. Like if we were a virus and Earth needs to heal. The earth will come back into its equilibrium afterwards. This logic comes from a highly educated person, doing basic research science. And the fact is this is not the first time I hear a similar catastrophic argument of cosmic justice. On this particular case, few others around the table agreed on it. ...

That was the title of my first Data Science DC Meetup. Mike Dewar, from bitly, presented his work on tracking attention. The background hypothesis is that attention leads to revenue, and he wants to measure attention at any given time by means of click rates. With bitly he has access to all clicks on shortened links. The problem is then to transform that stream of single events into an attention function estimate in real time. ...

This is a map of 2 years running around Washington DC with RunKeeper. I always wanted to make a [heat]map with all my tracks. I finally got some time to play with TileMill and Mapbox to make it. The map above is the result, and these are the steps to make your own: Run a few routes :) Get your data from RunKeeper. Import in TileMill Style at will. Use Mapbox for hosting and base layer. Get your data Click on “export data” link under Settings page in RunKeeper. Select the dates, you might want all your data so just select a wide range. You´ll get the link on your email in a few minutes. ...

###Scientists### It’s not about the Science Warning is the easy part. Action must follow. Facts don´t change opinions. Impressions do. In the mind of the average citizen, climate change is quite down the list of worries. If you want to encourage them to take action, link to their worries, relate to those. Use histories to link consequences. ###Policy makers### Policy makers, including those who negociate our future on international venues such as Rio+20 or COPs. ...

Last week DC hosted the Open Government Data Conference, the Tech@State, the Wikimania, and more. It seems clear the momentum here for open data and Technology innovation is growing strong. While you can read plenty of good reviews from these events I feel some important points regarding Open Data of where the ball is going are left amidst the background of where the ball is: Don´t be ashamed of the knowns unknowns. Open Data from the inside out, and at home. Standards, standards, standards. The challenge of non publicly funded open data. Hackathons and competitions can backslash on you. ###Don´t be ashamed of the knowns unknowns### ...

Hoy Salgo en la contraportada del Periódico asturiano El Comercio. Hace unos días una periodista, Marifé Antuña, me contactó al ver una reposición de “Asturianos en el Mundo” donde salgo y me preguntó si podía entrevistarme. Hubiera aceptado sea cual fuere el periódico, pero además éste es uno de los grandes medios de mi región. Encantado estoy. No tengo imagen de la versión papel, pero aquí está el enlace a la versión digital. La entrevista completa está a continuación. ...

[Cross-posted at GAIN News] [caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“500”] Entrance to the Rio+20 Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil[/caption] 45,381 participants from 188 countries, which included 100 heads of state and their staff were present at Rio+20. The goal of this United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development was to strengthen political commitment towards sustainable development. Among the many messages gaining strength around Rio+20, a few are resonating with our participation at the conference: 1) The side events are much more interesting than the actual negotiations, albeit the lack focus on the private sector; 2) Moving beyond measuring GDP gets more traction; 3) Adaptation is a cross cutting but also overarching challenge in sustainable development; 4) Data gains relevance, yet the opportunity for a data declaration is lost. ...

Hoy se presenta el nuevo número del Cuaderno Cultural Prímula, en el cual colaboro con un artículo sobre el Sol: "El Sol y sus Tormentas". Prímula es una revista gratuita del Hospital de Cabueñes de Gijón (Asturias). Se publica dos veces al año y está formada por artículos donados por sus autores. Se puede descargar en su web y se imprime para ser distribuida gratuitamente en el Hospital para aquellos que están internos o de visita. Prímula es un cuaderno cultural en sentido amplio, gestado, confeccionado y distribuido por un conjunto de personas que desarrollan su actividad profesional en el Hospital de Cabueñes (Gijón) y en el que colaboran los usuarios o pacientes ingresados y ambulatorios) y sus familiares. Ha sido un placer escribirlo y un honor pensar en que quizás pueda hacer más ameno parte del tiempo que algunos lectores han de pasar en el Hospital. Gracias Prímula! Aquí enlazo una copia de la revista, y adjunto el texto del artículo, sin maquetar. He de dar las gracias a todos aquellos que me dísteis vuestra opinión cuando publiqué el borrador en un Google Doc y, por supuesto, a Aurora, gestora de Prímula. ...