tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53770431207295746562012-02-16T05:32:30.813-04:30A praise to the globalization that has shrunk the world and made possible connections between people from almost everywhere.Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.comBlogger891100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-5271309048466018612010-06-02T02:30:00.002-04:302010-06-02T02:40:08.947-04:30

I have been silent for a really long time, but many things have been going on in my life. LavaAmp, my project of a pocket sized thermal cycler, has thrived and now we have a prototype. Currently I am in Boulder, Colorado, at the Unreasonable Institute, a training program for social entrepreneurs. This has been sponsored by more than 50 people from several countries, who believe in our project, in

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-51167078659205286592009-11-17T18:16:00.002-04:302009-11-17T18:17:25.174-04:30

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-46210642029530617392009-11-02T09:23:00.005-04:302009-11-14T00:41:44.506-04:30

I have been silent for a long time, busy with lots of stuff. Finally I finished my thesis, doing much more than anybody expected, my start up got some funding and developed a prototype device (more about that on another post). Life has been hectic, but despite that, I have found the time to write about the terrible situation that is going on here in Venezuela. Fortunately, Xeni Jardin, from

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-50328282101126878422009-06-25T19:58:00.002-04:302009-06-25T20:13:45.183-04:30

A study released recently compared the attitude of people to cultural differences before and after listening to patriotic music and found that:"(...) preliminary findings showed that the patriotic songs had a negative effect on the participants, as shown through their responses to the survey's questions about other cultures and diversity. The patriotic songs made the participants close-minded and

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-76668238449717637872009-06-21T16:46:00.002-04:302009-06-21T17:45:01.919-04:30

I think my brain melted a bit trying to understand and react in a coherent way to Princess Hijab.She is a guerrilla artist/protester/ad buster that 'hijabizes' advertisement. She, a self defined 'insomniac punk' claims not to be a Muslim and do what she does just for the sake of artistic expression. And I am torn here, as I think that the burqa is hideous, demeaning, a symbol of male oppression.

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-46409686139357162692009-06-06T20:42:00.002-04:302009-06-06T21:07:22.728-04:30

I just finished a consultancy that paid nicely. And about to finish the Neverending Thesis, I will start paid work in July. Finally I can say I am economically independent. It took a long time and several attempts, but I am glad I did it finally, thanks to my efforts. Things might change, but I can live for a few months without fear.Thanks, mamá. You have always believed in me, even more than I

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-84366810297364719012009-05-30T12:03:00.004-04:302009-05-30T12:18:03.892-04:30

I corrected Chávez' picture from the ISHR campaign to represent what happened yesterday.

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-5731338222698848882009-05-28T11:37:00.003-04:302009-05-28T11:57:56.766-04:30

Satire is a powerful force, indeed:This campaign was created for the International Society for Human Rights, a very deserved mock to such powerful rulers who are so afraid of letting other dissent. They have made another against Chávez, but I do not put it here, since I do not think that Chávez' abuses related to the Internet are in the same league (not yet? He is getting his paws on cable TV now

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-89593967342521387502009-05-13T08:07:00.002-04:302009-05-13T08:37:15.101-04:30

I started to read this comment about the so called 'Penis Phone' and I decided to write a post about it, since the translation is not really good.In Venezuela, when a person is vergatario/a it means he or she is astounding, impressive, qualified. In a different way than English, to be called un güevo or un pipe does not means you are a dick, it means you are a highly skilled person. When I was a

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-36540849421066256272009-05-12T15:12:00.002-04:302009-05-12T15:17:46.461-04:30

I messed my numbers in a flame war about Venezuela this morning at BoingBoing. I claimed my grad salary would be less than a dollar daily, at black market rate (which shall remain unnamed here). Is much more than that, closer to 4 dollars daily. I counted only what would have left after paying the rent and picked up a wrong number for the rate.I apologize for messing the numbers, and since the

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-37307425053284147592009-05-11T13:09:00.003-04:302009-05-11T23:59:29.931-04:30

Rico-chavezUploaded by noticias24 - Up-to-the minute news videos.Chávez dixit:"Wealthy people are not humans, they are animals, animals with human shape."I am not rich, not at all. But I have never seen in all human history, a situation where the government or authority claim that some people are not human ending without a blood bath.I feel sick, sad, broken in the inside.Update:Translation:

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-54031942277835183112009-04-26T10:44:00.003-04:302009-04-26T10:50:22.573-04:30

A month ago, I had to return to my father's house due to shaky personal finances. Even if I had enough money to pay the rent, I could not pay anything else in Mérida, so, I returned to Valera for a bit.My father got an offer to set Internet service, even if we live in a semi rural area, so I could do stuff online while way from Mérida. I taught him how to use the computer, set an e mail account

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-34629181566411944502009-03-23T12:57:00.003-04:302009-03-24T08:51:41.842-04:30

Today we celebrate the Ada Lovelace Day. Lovelace, Mother of Programming, she was an English aristocrat who wrote instructions for Charles Babbage's Analytical machine. Today we celebrate the women in science. so I will blog about the most recent and surprising case I came across: Hedy Lamarr.Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, in Vienna, besides being a movie star, she had a very interesting life,

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-63177318998369756202009-03-19T11:18:00.004-04:302009-03-19T12:18:22.013-04:30

The Australian Government seems to have a list of websites that will be banned as they depict child pornography, however, it seems that many of these websites are not related in any way to it:...about half of the sites on the list are not related to child porn and include a slew of online poker sites, YouTube links, regular gay and straight porn sites, Wikipedia entries, euthanasia sites,

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-89816935954208315872009-03-18T14:29:00.006-04:302009-03-18T20:56:14.594-04:30

Tired of hearing the mantra about how good are tax cuts for the economy and people, I decided to try to find for myself with the available data if this was true or not. So, I decided to create a Gapminder graph to check possible correlations between Growth, Unemployment and the top marginal tax rate.I cannot find definite trends, but it seems pretty obvious that high taxes do not kill the economy

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-4106831178446449402009-03-16T13:47:00.002-04:302009-03-16T14:01:41.822-04:30

A friend sent me an ominous message, a link to a blog claiming that two of the biggest seed providers for amateur gardeners and farmers were going to be bought by Monsanto, the bête noire of the Organic movement, producer of most of the GM crops cultivated around the world.Even if these rumors turned to be false, the acquisition of companies like this by the likes of Monsanto is not a far-fetched

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-22536663626771808692009-02-23T14:31:00.004-04:302009-02-23T16:17:13.834-04:30

A short piece on the achievements of the kibbutzim, the Israeli social community that proves that Socialism can really do well, thrive and create wealth. Kibbutzim are integral part of Israel and the key for a lot of it success. Sadly, many of the so called Progressive and leftists blindly criticize Israel, without looking this real victory of communitarism, self organizing and cooperation.

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-47487067037138867162009-02-21T22:16:00.005-04:302009-02-21T23:22:22.509-04:30

My good friend Muhammad Ahmad, from Pakistan, living in Minneapolis now, created a very interesting website about Islam and Science Fiction, where he reviews several Science Fiction books and stories that deal one way or another with Muslims and Islam.Muhammad is one of the smartest people I have ever met and even if our encounter was brief, it was really enlightening, one that taught me a lot

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-90795896357092263122009-02-19T14:58:00.003-04:302009-02-19T15:39:44.264-04:30

If you see the picture and you have no clue, this Wikipedia entry should do:In 2008 American journalist Peter Maass called Obiang Africa's worst dictator, worse than Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.All but one member of the 100-seat national parliament belong to the PDGE or are aligned with it. The opposition is severely hampered by the lack of a free press as a vehicle for their views. Around 90% of

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-39821368414861878152009-02-05T13:21:00.003-04:302009-02-05T17:02:32.847-04:30

Usually, I avoid discussing Venezuelan politics in this blog, not only because it is not related to the subject of this blog, but also because some of the things that happen here are hard to believe and the sources in English about it are scarce.Most of the best resources to understand the Venezuelan situation are created and kept by grassroots activists, as opposed to media machines and think

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-12980977354299895792008-06-06T21:58:00.002-04:302008-06-06T22:09:36.117-04:30

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080605211522.htmRepRap, the prototype for a autoreplicating (but not self assembling) machine finally is able to build all of its parts.This is thrilling and possibly a milestone in a future Agalmics history. It is quite reassuring to see these bottom-up efforts to bloom and spread, to be the heralds of a better, decentralized tomorrow, where, as the

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-81570647285242620892008-05-05T20:25:00.002-04:302008-05-09T19:13:13.433-04:30

http://news. yahoo.com/ s/livescience/ radicalscienceai mstosolvefoodcri sisSome of us have been asking for public policies for supporting Biotech and educating the people better about the promises and risks of Genetically Modified Organism (GM) crops.Maybe this crisis will prove to be the factor that triggers better acceptance of GM food. Hopefully this support will promote the growth of GM

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-14494009172328620442008-04-22T06:05:00.003-04:302008-05-09T19:13:02.620-04:30

The Zambian president, Levy Mwanawasa, asked other African countries to boycott the arms ship heading to Zimbabwe.According to the BBC, Mwanawasa said: "We don't want a situation which will escalate the [tension] in Zimbabwe more than what it is,".Finally some common sense coming from a top politician in Africa about Zimbabwe. But, to be fair, his mild words are complemented by others

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-49316545038076070812008-04-17T23:40:00.006-04:302008-04-20T18:53:48.297-04:30

No, it seems we never, ever, learn.No matter how hard the lesson has been. No matter how much we have suffered, no matter how others need our support and empathy, we never fucking learn.I wish I could express my outrage concerning the South African policy to Zimbabwe. The SA government does not only support Mugabe's atrocities, but also they allow to go through their territory new arms for

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-39106441029324136642008-04-16T13:07:00.002-04:302008-04-16T13:11:13.667-04:30

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/16/net-bullies-target-c.htmlAccording to BoingBoing:A Chinese student at Duke who participated in pro-Tibet protests on campus -- after befriending her Tibetan dorm-mate -- has become the target of brutal online and offline attacks. Thousands of nationalist Chinese thugs (some claiming to be Duke students) see her actions as "traitorous," and have threatened her

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-14451539214519029552008-04-15T15:58:00.002-04:302008-06-02T16:36:48.661-04:30

It seems that 2007 was a good year to be a lab mouse.Some outstanding developments in cell biology, genetics, evo-devo, and several other branches of Biology, have improved the murine condition and given more lifespan, strength or stamina to mice. Exactly what we, transhumanists hope to achieve for our own kind. These mice, as the Betterhumans motto says, are “better than well”.We were used to

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-5952731064072156632008-03-02T16:59:00.003-04:302008-06-06T22:51:00.320-04:30

According to a report released by the World Health Organization in 2006, it would be feasible to eradicate Chagas’ disease by 2010, using only programs for vector control and existing drugs. These would be good news if their expectations were grounded on sound facts, which they aren’t, as we will see. Eradicating Chagas’ disease will be an extremely difficult effort which will take a lot of

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-32862452046160555122008-02-24T20:01:00.005-04:302008-02-27T02:25:55.158-04:30

I just read the Scientists and Engineers for America's Bill of Rights for Scientists.I really did not like the whole issue.The proposed rights themselves are flawless. But I do not think that these should be special rights for scientists. Most of them should be standard citizen's rights, not tailored rights for an elite.Here it is: 1. Public policy shall be made using the best available

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-33345603346232334482008-02-19T02:16:00.006-04:302008-02-20T13:56:12.922-04:30

The Bank Julius Baer has sued Wikileaks in California. Wikileaks is a website that publishes documents leaked by whistblowers of governments and corporations. BJB was successful in shutting down one domain of Wikileaks that was registered in the US, while leaving intact many more. They were also successful in alerting the world that they have many ugly secrets, including harassing people and

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-88504134753628402142008-02-17T05:38:00.005-04:302008-04-15T15:32:17.162-04:30

That is the claim of a lot of Muslims.Others just try to silence dissent, claim "Blasphemy" and threaten people who depicts images of the prophet. Others do the latter while claiming that Islam is peaceful. And many of them want to keep us quiet. No. What is going to happen is that we are going to post even more of this type of image and we are going to use our creativity to make fun of you and

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-85707020164729668182008-01-11T04:23:00.000-04:302008-01-11T12:10:03.973-04:30

Edge Foundation`s World Question Center has a very interesting question this year: What have you changed your mind about?. Some of the answers are very interesting and a lot of interesting people are answering. Surprisingly, I have met quite a few of them at Scifoo 2007.Martin Reese's answer surprised me a lot, even if it should not:We Should Take the 'Posthuman' Era Seriously(...) Human-induced

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-43902831941692166972008-01-09T16:53:00.000-04:302008-01-10T01:09:12.008-04:30

It seems that people all around the world are yearning for earlier times of grandeur. Not only Iranians, but also French.President Sarkozy wants the people to listen to France, all around the world. And how is he going to do it? Shutting down the English and Arabic broadcasting channels from France.According to me, this is almost the stupidest PR move I have seen from a government, second only to

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-58544505537702880432008-01-09T11:25:00.000-04:302008-01-09T17:01:20.152-04:30

A friend from the US, involved in one of my current projects, wanted to go to Angel Falls, inside the Canaima National Park, this December. He invited me to come along and discuss our plans while we were there. I got a tour at a reasonable price, departing from Caracas, staying one night at Ciudad Bolivar and departing the next day for Canaima, where we stayed 3 days and 2 nights. The place was

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-28628405381167450992008-01-04T04:12:00.002-04:302008-04-15T15:54:27.532-04:30

It seems that 2007 was a good year to be a lab mouse.Some outstanding developments in cell biology, genetics, evo-devo, and several other branches of Biology, have improved the murine condition and given more lifespan, strength or stamina to mice. Exactly what we, transhumanists hope to achieve for our own kind. These mice, as the Betterhumans motto says, are “better than well”.We were used to

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-14067540718573725742007-12-16T04:34:00.000-04:302008-01-04T04:03:06.849-04:30

Michael Geist wrote an excellent piece about the consequences of adding an extra billion of users to the net, doubling its current size.Some quotes:With more than a billion internet users worldwide doubling that number, which should happen within the next decade, will obviously have a profound effect on the network, technology, the computer software industry, access to knowledge, and our

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-11545776518319070452007-12-15T23:51:00.000-04:302007-12-16T04:34:10.317-04:30

Papers about genome sequencing of several organisms, published in Nature, are now under a CC license instead of being accessible only to subscribers. According to Nature:Although Nature and the Nature journals are built on a business model funded by subscribers and other sources of revenue, various initiatives have been implemented to enhance the accessibility of the research papers published in

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-85499642728480125652007-12-13T22:54:00.001-04:302007-12-14T09:42:23.997-04:30

This week's Nature issue features an editorial piece about the situation of Science and Democracy in Venezuela. The editorial is balanced and hopeful, an accurate analysis of the strengths and flaws of Venezuelan science, not all of them fault of the government, sadly.Nature 450, 922 (13 December 2007) | doi:10.1038/450922a; Published online 12 December 2007Venezuela's way aheadAbstractThe

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-11719095273539534802007-12-11T23:57:00.001-04:302007-12-12T01:11:01.695-04:30

This totally revolting and shows why we must stand up and fight religion. Fight every superstition, spread skeptic ideas. Not all religious people are like this, fortunately, but the fact of believing that blind faith is good and that inquiry is bad, can easily lead to this monstrosity.These children are victims of "pastors" who abuse them and live from the naivety and cruelty of their fathers.

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-11325643671503863402007-12-08T18:00:00.000-04:002007-12-08T20:06:42.126-04:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7131205.stmWhether we like it or not, China is rising, and some countries are beginning to acknowledge it. Now Panama, whose Canal China is the biggest user, will make Chinese mandatory on its schools. I have ambivalent feeling, as I like the more diverse world that we are heading to, but I am very concerned about China's lack of respect for human rights, its

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-65036948000306599982007-11-30T13:42:00.000-04:002007-11-30T14:13:40.164-04:00

I really have no words for this. Knowing myself from first hand what is to grow without a key tool, knowing the enormous joy of sheer creativity and horizons open due to computation, I cannot do anything but wonder and cheer for these children and many others who will have their chance to lear, create and express themselves. Software design is going to be different in ten years, since a lot of

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-19973035518590678562007-11-29T07:31:00.001-04:002007-11-29T07:43:03.684-04:00

An analysis from the BBC shows the experience of a Nigerian school who have had the XO laptop since March.This test shows both the problems and promises of widespread use of computers for education in developing countries.Yes, the kids get distracted, yes some laptops get "lost", but, in the other hand, some of the kids have learned to fix broken laptops, everybody seems to learn faster and now

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-64932224268614987272007-11-26T10:10:00.000-04:002007-11-26T10:54:10.646-04:00

Indonesia says that its sharing of the Avian Flu virus samples is conditioned to developing nations being guaranteed access to affordable vaccines. I think that this is an excellent attitude and a sign of what others should do, stand in front of the developed countries and ask what is fair. It is not being selfish, as its Health Minister asks clearly for vaccines not only for Indonesia but for

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-457542563950397292007-11-08T07:37:00.000-04:002007-11-08T08:03:36.870-04:00

Judge, jury, and executioner, all in one. That was Judge Dredd. Despite living in what is left of America, Dredd was created in England. And it seems that again the life is imiting fiction, with the reaction of the Police to the death of Jean Charles Menezes, a Brazilian immigrant who was mistaken for a terrorist and shot seven times despite the fact he had been followed since he left his

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-13799872109532415942007-10-30T00:20:00.000-04:002007-10-30T09:55:03.549-04:00

Finally the OLPC foundation makes a solid deal with a country. Uruguay just bought 100,000 machines and is expected to buy 300,000 more in the next two year. Eventually every kid from Uruguay will have his or her laptop. I hope this is only the first purchase of XO laptops, since it was taking too long for the orders to begin. I hope that also the price keeps falling and eventually will be

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-70713158373671571242007-10-27T01:13:00.001-04:002007-10-27T01:17:06.884-04:00

A great loss for Biology:http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2642204320071027?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNewsIt would be a great time to re read his wonderful book. For the love of enzymes.May his legacy be honored by us.

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-29324097388185279642007-10-22T19:26:00.000-04:002007-10-22T21:36:51.302-04:00

MIT Technology review has a very interesting piece about a new kind of drugs that could help with muscle degenerating conditions and also could trigger the growth of additional muscle mass in normal individuals. The drugs act upon certain proteins that regulate the growth of muscle mass, concretely myostatin that blocks such growth and follistatin, which enhances it, both of them belong to the

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-3037289977885976522007-10-16T21:49:00.000-04:002007-10-16T22:08:55.398-04:00

A new breakthrough in technology will allow cheap and ubiquitous PCR diagnosis:A pocket-sized device that runs on two AA batteries and copies DNA as accurately as expensive lab equipment has been developed by researchers in the US. The device has no moving parts and costs just $10 to make. It runs

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-86928538296029458342007-10-13T15:38:00.001-04:002008-04-22T06:28:09.717-04:30

It is a fact that the catholic hierarchy is rotten almost completely, from head to toe. So, it is not surprising to see while the Archbishop of Mozambique, Francisco Chimoio is still on his post, despite his filthy lies about AIDS tainted condom and retroviral drugs, an unnamed high rank priest has been suspended after the Vatican found he was gay. Yet a lot of priests were simply moved after

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-49577566881531234522007-10-12T00:11:00.000-04:002007-10-12T00:24:26.394-04:00

From my friend George Dvorky's blog, Sentient Developments:Some basic info about H+ delivered by some of the most known faces in H+: Nick Bostrom, Anders Sandberg and Aubrey de Grey.

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-8116611695929858732007-10-08T18:07:00.000-04:002007-10-08T18:27:12.574-04:00

Long frustrating weekend, trying to run the model of Guerra. I did exactly what the thesis said, the kinetic equations are right, the differential equations are right too, the names of each constant and variable are right, hell, I even corrected mistakes in nomenclature. And still the model does not run according to his results. I guess the initial conditions are not the correct ones, since I

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-69755430566997633192007-10-08T16:22:00.001-04:002007-10-08T16:30:49.554-04:00

From Computational Biology news, a superb blog by Animesh Sharma:Commandments in Systems Biology:Joseph X. Zhou notes Prof. Denis Nobel's on systems-biology in the blog.Commandment 1 (C1): Gene itself has no functions.C2: Transmission of information is NOT one-wayC3: DNA is not sole transmitter of inheritanceC4: Theory of biology RelativityC5: Gen ontology will fail without high-level insightC6:

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-65203634921363528772007-10-08T15:47:00.000-04:002007-10-08T16:03:04.092-04:00

This _____ depicted here (Sorry, my English is not good enough to express with words what I think about crap like this) thought that cheap photoshopping was going to save him from being recognized. He abused 12 young boys in Asian countries in front of a camera.If you have seen him report to the police and help to save children from this monster.I am happy that the Internet is also helping to get

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-2027020492188240862007-10-05T16:00:00.000-04:002007-10-08T16:30:32.688-04:00

Chagas’ Disease, or American Trypanosomiasis, is one of the world’s most extended lethal parasitic infections. It is also the main cause of heart failure in Latin America. Around twenty million people are already infected, and each year this figure increases by fifty thousand. The population living in areas of infectious risk is around one hundred and twenty million people, roughly a quarter of

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-71556408596265099092007-10-03T23:08:00.000-04:002007-10-03T23:12:36.397-04:00

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/extrasolar_planets.htmlGreat list of extrasolar planets. The youngest, the oldest, the smallest, the biggest, the closest, the farthest. All of them are there. If you are an astronomy geek, you should not miss it. If you aren't you neither should miss it.

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-19983337224980666432007-10-02T14:45:00.000-04:002007-10-02T17:25:06.891-04:00

I have decided to make public the preliminary models and kinetic results from my thesis. I will post some code here, but most likely I will upload the files (Fortran files and Mathematica notebooks, unfortunately I am not going to be able to do it 100% on FLOSS) somewhere. The title of the thesis is: "Control y regulación de la Glicólisis en Trypanosoma cruzi: Un enfoque teórico-práctico", which

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-31699298432284069132007-09-26T21:42:00.000-04:002007-09-27T12:14:02.540-04:00

Sometimes it is amazing for me what people around the world deem as news:By Andrew Heavens KHARTOUM (Reuters) - If you are in Sudan it is a 'missed call'. In Ethiopia it is a 'miskin' or a 'pitiful' call. In other parts of Africa it is a case of 'flashing', 'beeping' or in French-speaking areas 'bipage'. Wherever you are, it is one of the fastest-growing phenomena in the continent's

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-71694918841434125772007-09-24T15:32:00.000-04:002007-09-26T15:21:11.806-04:00

Finally I downloaded the pics from my camera and posted them to Flickr. Here there are some.A really funny picture, with a standing Tim O'Reilly at Google and an "Server not found" error on the web browser.This is the way that a self organized schedule board looks. Personally, I love it, and the overall result was a wild display of creativity. It worked very well, not surprisingly.Some of the

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-1924986289593340462007-09-20T10:36:00.000-04:002007-09-24T16:56:23.795-04:00

Great news from the Land of Promises:Genetically modified crops are order of the day: Govt17 Sep, 2007, 1710 hrs IST, PTINEW DELHI: India should accept that genetically modified seeds is the solution to feed the growing population and reduce the pressure on land, a top government official said."If we like it or not, transgenics are the order of the day," Indian Council of Agricultural Research

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-13691791046665276152007-09-16T02:45:00.000-04:002007-09-16T03:53:53.634-04:00

Wanna be worldwide famous in less than a week?Draw a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, may the peace be with Him.It seems that when you do it a fanatical mob of ignorant fundamentalist Muslims will ask for your head in several countries. Of course, such nuts are only a noisy minority that embarrass millions of moderate and peaceful Muslims.Almost every religion has this kind of assholes among

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-85114815122022769112007-09-12T22:31:00.000-04:002007-09-12T22:44:50.458-04:00

From the BBC:Child mortality 'at record low'Children being immunisedMillions of lives have been saved by immunisation, Unicef saysFewer children under five worldwide are dying than ever before, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, due to increased immunisation.Greater steps have also been taken to prevent the spread of malaria, a Unicef report says.But nearly 10 million children under

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-57963756526251787022007-09-12T20:05:00.000-04:002007-09-24T16:56:51.731-04:00

While I was at the US I traveled a little bit more than I expected. I visited San Diego and Philadelphia, among other places.Being in San Diego I went to eat a famous "Philadelphia Cheesesteak" at a a fast food in a mall. It turned that the "All American" cheesesteak was prepared by Mexican guys who did not speak in English even to Caucasian customers. It was tasty, and I thought that the

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-43365302655589996472007-09-04T00:58:00.000-04:002007-09-04T01:02:44.657-04:00

I never thought I was going to miss Venezuela so fast. Well, at least its healthcare system.I got sick three weeks ago, food poisoning, terrible diarrhea and retching. I felt I was going to die, losing liquids by both ends of my gastrointestinal tube, even at the same time, I could not even retain water. Nothing pleasant. Nothing too serious, neither. In Venezuela, maybe I would not even bothered

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-68253541162766935582007-08-28T21:10:00.000-04:002007-09-21T20:28:26.558-04:00

My post about the Venezuelan quackery called "Systemic Medicine" has elicited a more or less expected reply.Someone called Magaly wrote this:Dear undergraduate Nuñez (seems to me that for your age you should have achieved a little bit more in academic terms...than just "exposing" your favorite quack of the moment....)Your role as a quack exposer seems to include being a sitting duck...for some

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-17096985283049945532007-08-21T01:46:00.000-04:002007-08-21T01:59:55.662-04:00

According to the BBC:An outbreak of a deadly disease in a virtual world can offer insights into real life epidemics, scientists suggest. The "corrupted blood" disease spread rapidly within the popular online World of Warcraft game, killing off thousands of players in an uncontrolled plague. The infection raged, wreaking social chaos, despite quarantine measures. The experience provides

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-60906664063268285272007-08-20T22:48:00.000-04:002007-08-21T01:26:41.019-04:00

This time is Wordpress.The Turkish authorities closed the access to www.wordpress.com because some Turkish creationists complained that they did not liked what some bloggers had to say about them.According to Pharyngula:Adnan Oktar, aka Harun Yahya, the Turkish crackpot creationist, didn't like the fact that his critics wrote mean things about him … so he applied to a Turkish court to have all

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-16356707717852466452007-08-16T21:58:00.000-04:002007-08-19T15:18:48.171-04:00

Yeeha!Technoliberation at its best again!The first GM crop entirely produced in Africa by Africans and for Africans:http://www.huliq.com/30728/first-all-african-gm-crop-is-resistant-to-maize-streak-virusFrom there:The first all-African genetically modified crop plant with resistance to the severe maize streak virus (MSV), which seriously reduces the continent’s maize yield, has been developed by

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-44045075369048022792007-08-16T15:43:00.000-04:002007-08-16T21:50:14.995-04:00

The earthquake in Peru has been a real tragedy. Scores of dead people and the number is increasing as rescue teams find more of them in the daylight. Hospitals are damaged and a lot of them have collapsed.But, as usual, people finds divine signs on the tragedy. This time it was the president of Peru, Alan García. According to the BBC: "President Garcia thanked God that the earthquake had not

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-13663089584165051512007-08-14T12:42:00.001-04:002007-08-14T12:42:22.445-04:00

It's been a while since the last time I posted a fresh post. Sorry about that. After the Googleplex (which I'll keep on posting about)I went to San Francisco for a night (what a night!), then headed to Palo Alto to the house of a person from the Millennium Project, who in a very kind move, offered me to stay with him and his wife for a couple of days before we all were heading to Orange, where my

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-91272915422008666432007-08-14T01:55:00.000-04:002007-08-15T10:53:33.756-04:00

The second session was called “The Future History of Biology” and was by Rob Carlson.He made a nice comparison between the history of aviation, the history of computing and the future history of Biology. According to Carlson there is a very good parallelism between these technologies. A difficult beginning with a small community of people working in key issues, with impressive achievements by

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-31056968819459959402007-08-14T01:54:00.000-04:002007-08-15T10:53:33.757-04:00

More on Scifoo: On Saturday I attended to several sessions:A session on Open Science 2.0, by Bora Zivkovic that was not as productive as I expected. In fact, it gave origin to another session next day, by Alex Palazzo and Andrew Walkingshaw. The session wasn't specially interesting because most of us did not agreed about the direction we should be heading to and about the real effect of blogging,

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-19035778919372380972007-08-04T03:36:00.001-04:002007-08-15T10:53:33.759-04:00

Finally.This was the Day 1 of the Scifoo.I will deliver a presentation about Open Source Biomedical Research and another one about skepticism and rational thinking.Today's presentation were great, about presenting scientific data in new and innovative ways, the total amount of energy available on Earth, about systems biology and Eau D'E. coli, coli bacteria that smells like banana and about life

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-36611048383931880712007-08-04T03:36:00.000-04:002007-08-04T03:40:30.406-04:00

I am not dead. I was in Minneapolis at the time the bridge collapsed, but I wasn't near it, I was at the Mall of America, the biggest mall in the USA, the temple of the religion of consumerism. And I found it pretty disappointing. Even in Venezuela there are much nicer malls. And, as most the things the stores had to offer were not interesting for me, so it was like a giant and very neat junkyard

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-14818581227651366762007-08-01T11:43:00.001-04:002007-08-01T11:58:14.730-04:00

And rocking.Wow, last week has been incredibly exciting. I am all wasted. Fortunately, I have two days to rest before the SCifoo.I will try to write a longer post tomorrow, but these are the highlights:Transvision 2007: It was a great conference. Speakers were hyper-interesting, and I met a lot of people. Maybe some projects will come out. Sorry I cannot give any detailed reviews now, but George

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-72424557623108959792007-07-20T14:56:00.000-04:002007-07-20T15:05:47.671-04:00

Greetings from... Colombia! Finally I begun this trip. I am anxious. I could not leave Mérida last Tuesday, because the University still had not bought my ticket because the person who was supposed to it wasn't at his office. Finally I got the money for the ticket on Wednesday, but then, it was too late, because of the holidays. There wasn't a single ticket available for the twentieth, the

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-11772631941265228832007-07-17T12:07:00.001-04:002007-07-17T12:42:57.356-04:00

Some people in Kenya are mad at the government because the damn government (Would they be Libertarians if they moved to the US?) wants cleaner streets and want their donkeys to use diapers (I had problems with the word "nappy" until I learned what it meant few months ago).Mr John Kinyanjui, a donkey owner, said: "The council itself has workers. They can do the sweeping. We are paying taxes."

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-23706132294490400982007-07-17T12:07:00.000-04:002007-07-20T12:59:31.238-04:00

Jeremiah recently posted some really useful tips about Open Notebook Science, you can see them here:J's blog: Tips (rules?) for Open Notebook ScienceA brief excerpt:include high quality images in your documents; things like agarose gels will need to be zoomed in a lot to be inspected in detail; if you convert your full resolution tiff to low-quality jpeg, it'll just look like pixelated blah. Then

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-38124771734673719822007-07-16T01:16:00.000-04:002007-07-16T01:35:37.483-04:00

Today my mother came to see me with my stepfather and my brother.We had a meal together and they left to Valera, 4 hours from Mérida.As I am leaving to Caracas on tuesday, they came to say good bye. I should be in Chicago the friday, and I will deliver my presentation on sunday.I have already packed my clothes, my books and like 10 tuna cans, as I am going to be without much money this coming

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-24889665556499112642007-07-13T08:00:00.001-04:002007-07-13T11:56:51.965-04:00

Updating: James the Amazing Randi has replied to my letter and said the Olalde is ellegible for the one million dollar prize, besides he kindly corrected my letter and translated it to proper English.It's been a long time since I wrote something about my first intellectual passion, Skepticism. I became a skeptic 7 years ago and became an activist on the field six moths later. I founded the only

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-537675252718213552007-07-12T20:19:00.000-04:002007-07-12T20:31:19.825-04:00

Something that I just made up. I would like to use this image during my US trip. I will try to get it on a shirt next week. Hopefully it won't be too expensive. Hopefully there won't be any trouble, after all, I will be on the country of Freedom, right?One about Hellen Keller and Che Guevara is coming soon. You have to be balanced critizicing morons from both left and right wing.

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-46046287344724841302007-07-09T22:22:00.000-04:002007-07-10T08:20:39.162-04:00

One of my complaints about futurism is that it is mostly done by wealthy older people (often males, but not necessarily) coming from developed societies with very different problems than most of the rest of humankind. I mean, yes, they come from where the wealth and the high technology come from, but they also belong to a tiny but noisy minority. I am among that minority too, even if to a lesser

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-32937909180315066622007-07-08T11:34:00.000-04:002007-07-08T12:13:45.766-04:00

Two year ago, shortly before I began to travel (yes, that was a milestone in my life and I refer to that frequently) I discovered Kraftwerk. I was in love with those pure sounds, sometimes a fast beat, but mostly paused notes, flowing, building a fresh, unadorned, but beatiful music. Besides, their lyrics, simple, but appealing, were something I liked, with mostly an optimistic and cheerful

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-61111622780039759772007-07-07T03:15:00.000-04:002007-07-20T12:59:31.240-04:00

I have always liked Freeman Dyson. Well, at least his books.His visions are poetic in a way I really like, mixing science and beauty in such a way that is mind blowing but intuitive at the same time.Now, he has done it again:Our Biotech FutureBy Freeman Dysonin The New York Review of Books, July 19, 20071.It has become part of the accepted wisdom to say that the twentieth century was the century

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-73675079587655544252007-07-03T01:31:00.001-04:002007-07-03T01:37:19.039-04:00

From BBC:A vibrating condom has sparked a fierce debate in India, over whether it is a sex toy - which are banned - or a means of birth control. The controversial condom has caused outrage in the state of Madhya Pradesh, because a government-owned company is involved in marketing it. The pack of three condoms, branded as Crezendo, contains a battery-operated ring-like device. Critics say it is

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-52697310136396280272007-07-03T01:19:00.000-04:002007-07-03T01:28:02.245-04:00

Well, here I am.I should be sleeping or working, not posting.But I am indeed connected.I have only two weeks to prepare a lecture about the maths I am already using for my thesis, the presentation for the student meeting associated to TV07 and the one(s) for Scifoo, besides taking care of my brother and finishing a preliminar model that I shall show to my thesis advisor before I leave for the

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-31326816887966614702007-06-29T22:06:00.000-04:002007-06-30T01:00:46.864-04:00

Greetings!This summer I will travel to the US and attend to three conferences: Transvision 2007 in Chicago, the World Future Society annual meeting in Minneapolis and the Science Foo Camp in Mountain View, California. I will speak about OS Biomedical Research in a student meeting associated to TV07, as it seems I am too young and unexperienced to be allowed on the main conference. Anyway, I will

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-8741169584039893542007-06-17T10:19:00.000-04:002007-06-17T10:26:52.543-04:00

An interesting video that depicst many things I think will happen. I do not agree however with everything. For instance, the fussion of everything in a giant company. The future will be built increasingly from bottom to top.

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-78274368343890381582007-05-21T23:43:00.001-04:002007-05-22T00:01:31.151-04:00

I have been somewhat busy and lazy at the same time. Now I have a lot of things to write, but I am trying to express them in a proper way.Meanwhile, here is some short fiction I wrote two years ago. I was thinking about writing a short story based on it, but it seems I never will, as I never have time, and now, in middle of my thesis, less than ever. So, I decided to post it after I understood

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-41140722970262977122007-04-20T11:06:00.000-04:002007-04-20T12:37:15.248-04:00

Last December I was in Ecuador in the famous Otavalo Market, near Quito, in the high Andes.I was a wonderful place, you could see the kind of things that turists appreciate but you could see also that it was that way not because it was deliberately cultivated to amuse foreign people, but because local culture is still alive. This is to say that I support cultural diversity as long as people is

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5377043120729574656.post-52019961497995366592007-04-20T10:50:00.000-04:002007-04-21T21:56:17.370-04:00

Hello.This blog is about my very particular point of view about living in this incipient global age.I am 24 years old guy living in Venezuela. Never going abroad until I was 22. Now I have been in several places, seeing how different can get things, but also how similar in some aspects.My English is not good, my grammar is awkward, but blogging helps to improve my abilities.I do not pretend to be

Guidohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14389092699525848673noreply@blogger.com0