Facebook likes reveal your secrets? "Liked" Lord of the Rings: High IQ, "Liked" Rocky: Non smoker

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A study suggests that private traits and attributes are predictable from behavior deducted from your Facebook likes. Although the study has been carried in the US, it is fun to try it! Here is a short summary on some of the findings:

• Liked Hello Kitty? Then you are high on Openness and low on “Conscientiousness”, “Agreeableness,” and “Emotional Stability.” More likely to have Democratic political views and to be of African-American origin, predominantly Christian.
• Liked Bruce Lee? Then you are a heterosexual male.
• Liked Jennifer Lopez? Then you have many friends.
• Liked Science? Then you are dissatisfied with life.
• Liked Harley Davidson? Then your IQ is likely to be low.
• Liked Morgan Freeman´s voice? Then your IQ is likely to be high.

and much more that can be found in the entire table here.

References:
Private traits and attributes are predictable from digital records of human behavior, by Kosinsky et al., 2013.

Circadyan rythms: Girls prefer evening to morning schedules (true?)

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On a previous post, I wrote about the difficulties I have when trying to work at night, and I presented some links that suggested that there are health risks on shift work and night work. Now after reading this article, I realize that I might be wrong, because according to research at Stanford (cited by Dr. J. Gumbiner), pubescent matured girls prefer evening to morning schedules (Carskadon, 1999). Perhaps because of that their sleepover parties?

References.

- The Teenage Mind, by Jann Gumbiner, Ph.D. 

- Carskadon, M. A. "When Worlds Collide: Adolescent Need for Sleep Versus Societal Demands, " Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 80, No. 05, Jan. 1999, pp.348-353.

Amazonian tribes: The use of plants to cure small diseases and even birth control (Manu-Peru, and the Machiguenga)

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On the virgin jungle of the Amazon in South America several tribes still remain, struggling against the expansion of the civilization. A (virtual) visit to those places would always permit the explorer to discover new things, keeping several yet to be discovered if such will ever be possible some day. Among all the samples, the Machiguenga of the Manu National Park in the Peruvian Amazon provide only an example of the enormous bank of knowledge yet to be discovered. Among all the knowledge provided, we all know that the use of plants for the treatment of diseases is a known fact applied until our days in the cities that lay aroud the Amazon basin and far beyond, but something I did not know is that those plants would even provide the means for contraception for locals. On the documentary of Alejandro Guerrero on the Machuiguenga tribe, what grabbed my attention was the point where he mentioned the properties of an interesting species that is used as a contraceptive mean; the name is "unchashi" which I could not find in Google, perhaps because it remains as an unclassified species....only an example of the richness hidden in the jungle.

References.-

John W. Terborgh: He is one of the scientists who work at the Park.

"The people of Manu". A blog with some information on the site.

La Reserva de Biósfera del Manu. The documentary from which I take the brief info described,

Sounds of animals and language phonetics.

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When residing in Japan, my friends and I used to have fun around the styles of trivial customs all the international students had. The discussions began when in our Japanese Language textbook (Minna no Nihongo), we found a page that taught us some signs that are commonly used by the Japanese society. From simple hand waving to ask people to move apart because we are walking through, sounds for recognizing animals, to the way we use our fingers to count. A press article published in the BBC site, reminded me those fun times we used to have. In the following entries I will write a short summary on the customs we used to discuss about. The current entry is the first part; it is about the sounds of animals. The picture on the left is a snapshot of a very interesting site written in Spanish (http://www.esl-idiomas.com/es/voces-animales.htm) that is by far the best on this topic. I am sure you will have as muuuuuuuch fun as I had.

¿How much sugar is contained in your drinks?

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An image is worth a million words...¿have you ever wondered how much sugar is contained in your drinks? On the left I attach a powerful image that will show you how much. Just look at the redbull can!!!

Usually, I do not re-post entries I write in the blog in Spanish I write; however the power of this image make that worth. Few weeks ago I run into a HBO´s documentary named The Weight of a Nation (link). You will find there several interesting facts if you are interested on giving a look into it. Won´t regret it!

Global warming and global dimming: Same cause, opposite effects; joint strike

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http://facstaff.uww.edu/travisd/pdf/jetcontrailsrecentresearch.pdf

Calentamiento global y oscurecimiento global: Misma causa, efectos opuestos; un golpe conjunto al planeta 

Global dimming is a concept not often used in global warming research carried from an engineering perspective. Both are caused by the increase in air pollutants (greenhouse gases). How? Imagine the air pollutants are like small mirrors, which in one direction reflect the sun radiation before it reaches the earth surface, and on the other direction reflects back the heat released by the earth surface. The latter increases the earth surface temperature, and the former cools down the earth surface. Thus, to the profane eye, if the emission of pollutants were reduced, the global dimming would decrease its power as countermeasure against global warming (see the Fig. on the right). In conclusion, one would say, let´s pollute more! Unfortunately, the situation is not that simple because of several reasons.

The Brew Masters´ lessons on how to turn an engineer into a researcher

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http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/brew-masters-chicha-videos/

¿Cómo convertir a un ingeniero en un investigador?

How to turn an engineer into a researcher? It is one of the challenges that advisors face when receiving an engineer into their research lab. Such is not an easy task, because most engineers, at least from my region, are used to solve problems following standardized procedures, empowered by their empirical knowledge. On the other hand, researchers are to eventually develop the standardized procedures that are to be used by engineers; however, their main task is to seek behind and beyond. Few days ago I expressed those words to a friend, who immediately asked me: How would you turn an engineer into a researcher? Well, I think the first step is to answer the following question:

What do I like?

Sustainable development. Dung beetles in Australia: The contribution from Dr George Bornemissza

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http://www.dungbeetle.com.au/

Escarabajos peloteros en Australia: La contribución del entomólogo Dr. George Bornemissza

If there is someone to blame on my interest in multicolored scientific and travel magazines, such person is my mother. Somehow, she managed to teach me how to read at an age of four, inducing me to investigate into the wonders of nature, at a time when the only sources of information were some magazines and chrome albums that used to arrive to my country a year (and maybe more) after its release. (*To youngsters: I am not that old; technology has simply advanced faster than you can imagine). I remember, back in 198something, when we were at the exchange store were we used to get secondhand magazines and chromes for my album (which I still own!), my mom showed me a chrome on the "dung beetle"; I did not know the meaning of dung back then, and had not understood its importance on sustainable agriculture, until today, when the Nat Geo show "Insectmania" reported some of the outcomes of the 1966-1986 CSIRO Dung Beetle Project.

Evolution: From mouse to elephant size, and backwards

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Evolución: Del tamaño de un ratón al tamaño de un elefante, y viceversa.

The theory of evolution is a topic that captures the attention of many, including me. And the source of such fascination can be traced back to the interest that as a kid we had on the mystery that surrounds the dinosaurs. I guess the roots of the interest of the team of Alister Evans could also be traced to that point. Evans is an evolutionary biologist at the Monash University in Australia, and his work on mammals evolution (published Dec.29th 2011, PNAS) is the topic of an article published few days ago on the National Geographic News (online). The question that Evans aims to answer is: ¿How fast can a mammal evolve from the size of a mouse to the size of an elephant?

"Natural" control of pests: Three stories; one real, two fictional

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Control "natural" de pestes

Some days ago when me and the work team was returning from field work, it came up the topic of the demographic growth issue. Interesting cases were drawn, among which the most impressive were three: 

i) one real: the case I watched on Nat Geo I guess, where they reported a plague of mice or rats in Australia; a probable, terrible consequence of climate change

ii) another believed to be real: the (in)famous (unknown to me until then) case of the lemnings,

iii) and another from the science fiction literature: a vision from Issac Asimov on the demographic problem.

Anecdotal evidence "To report your observations does not qualify for research outcome"

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Evidencia anecdotal "Reportar observaciones no califica como trabajo de investigación"

On a former post, I pointed out the benefits of forests by citing the opinion of a biologist. Then, I tried to reinforce his position on the topic through by presenting a graph I used in my former work (Figure above-link to my post). About it, I said that I found out that forests have played a fundamental role as a countermeasure against global warming, because they have kept stable the temperature of the surface of a region covered by tropical forests in the Andes (upper Amazon basin). Before thinking that such snapshot provides a relevant scientific finding, I invite you to check back the blog post I mention to read that I also point out that such finding has not yet been published because the findings have not yet been "certified" through field measurements. Without such certification, my "findings" simply constitute "anecdotal evidence", which in the words of my former imply that: "To report your observations does not qualify for research outcome".

"In our modern houses, we take so much for granted"

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 "Damos por sentado mucho del equipamiento, infraestructura y servicios de nuestras casas modernas"

Education. "In our modern houses, we take so much for granted" is how Lucie Worsley, chief curator of the historic royal palace, guides us into a 800-years journey that explores the history of our homes. Her enthusiasm for history reminded me that besides being entertaining, looking back in history can be used as a didactic resource to show students and young engineers how valuable the inventive of the human being is for the advance of our civilization. To explore such inventive, I invite you to trace back the history of a simple element: the toilette paper; a very simple yet indispensable element of our modern life.

On the benefits of forests: Regulation of surface temperature

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Forest, Amazon Basin. Copyright Bolivian Ministry of Culture

Acerca de los beneficios de los bosques: Regulación de la temperatura de la superficie

...forests are fundamental to regulate surface temperatures; they should be considered to have the potential to become powerful countermeasures against the adverse potential impacts of climate change.

Management strategies: The Art of War II (stratagem and tactics; energy)

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Estrategias de gerencia: El Arte de la Guerra II - Sun Tzu - (estrategia y táctica; energía).

Confident on your capacity; never afraid of the competitors: All men can see the tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved - Sun Tzu.

Sun Tzu is a Chinese general to whom a collection of essays known as The Art of War is attributed to. For professionals in my field, to learn about management strategies is certainly useful, because the success of our enterprises largely depend on how good our team is. At universities, training on that field (management) is scarce; that is why I decided to share some words on such topic through the essays of General Tzu. At this time, I write some comments on the second part of the book: attack, defense and alternative methods. My expectation is that after reading the brief interpretation I provide, you will feel encouraged to give your own interpretation to Tzu´s work.. 

The Art of War Part I: Workforce management (planning and implementation stages)

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El arte de la guerra Parte I: Manejo del personal (etapas de planificación e implementación)

Besides the technical knowledge, the success of a project depends on how good the workforce is, or more properly, on how smart the manager of the workforce is. Usually, to manage a group of engineers is not too difficult, because both the manager and the personnel may have similar backgrounds. A small problem may arise when such workforce has different interests and backgrounds. When I returned to my home country, it was noticeable how different was the working atmosphere. Then, browsing on the Internet I found a book that for long I wanted to read. The title is "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. Let me share some words of this book with you, and let´s turn them into my concern.

Predicting earthquakes through remotely-sensed information: Possible?

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Precicción de sismos a través de información remótamente percibida: Posible?

There is research which suggest that earthquakes could be predicted by non-traditional methods. For such purposes, the alternatives being explored range from, the monitoring of the behavior of some sensitive terrestrial and aquatic animal species, to the monitoring of regional changes in the electromagnetic spectrum through advanced remote sensing techniques. In the case of animal species, the approaches vary from the relatively simple, yet interesting, investigation of the higher sensitivity of domestic species to minor ground vibrations (e.g., browse for Prof. Mitsuaki Ota, Azabu University), to more advanced approaches that suggest that stressed rocks release electrical charges that alter the chemistry of water (e.g., Grant et al., 2011). The use of remote sensing techniques is related to the latter suggestion, based on the idea that the amount of energy released during tectonic displacements should alter the electromagnetic spectrum for some days before the occurrence of a major event (see the review by Alvan et al., 2011).

Engineering: Do you know what soil liquefaction is?

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Ingeniería: ¿Qué es la licuefacción de los suelos?

Japanese education (higher education) is worldwide famous because of the emphasis given and resources spent in physical models. Today, after watching a program on the March 11th quake on NatGEO, and the effects of liquefaction on reclaimed land, I remembered I had recorded an interesting video back in 2006 at the Tohoku EE Fair. The experimentrecreates the impacts of liquefaction on civil structures, particularly on manholes, which explains what was observed during the great event of March. I invite you to enjoy it and learn.
For those who are not familiar with this term, let me remind you that liquefaction is a process by which the soil

Simply obey your biological clock: Shift work and night work risk on health.

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El riesgo en la salud de trabajar en la noche y realizar turnos nocturnos: Simplemente escucha a tu reloj biológico

Do you feel or have you heard that working at night increases your productivity because your brain is at its peak? If so, please remember that there is research that warn on the health risks of shift work and night work. Why? In short, scientists suggest that alterations on our biological clock can damage our bodies. That seems pretty logical. Remember we are simple natural beings, and just like birds, we are basically made for working with day light. Unbelievable? Just read some of the articles cited below.

Eco-hydrology: Ranunculus aris

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The buttercup or "Botón de oro" in Spanish (golden button), is the plant that has given me the motivation to write my next research paper, to be presented at the XXV Latin American Congress of Hydraulics or at the Tenth International Conference on Hydroscience and Engineering (perhaps to a journal?). Here I will give you a snapshot on the abstract I am writing.

Reproduced with the permission of JM Gavilan

Ranunculus Repens L is the scientific name of this plant (some cite it as Ranunculus Aris), from the family Ranunculae. The name is derived from the Latin Rana (frog) and colo (inhabit), since these species are commonly found in permanently or eventually logged soils. According to the page of Eduardo León Ruiz, this species was discovered by Carlos Clusio o de L´Eclusé in the 16th century in Lisboa, after which the scientist took it to Belgium (bad idea!!). I don´t know how it came or who brought it to America, but I know it was a very bad idea.

According to some sources (e.g., Turner, 1984), this plant can be used for medicinal purposes. Other sources have even cited the botón de oro as a plant with nutritional properties for livestock (although at that time the botón de oro was named by Maecha and Rosales under a different family name Tithonia diversifolia, I shall do some research on it). However, its use is commonly

The teaching statement: Commitment, not necessarily amazing pedagogy

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Declaración de los términos de enseñanza: Compromiso, no necesariamente espectacular pedagogía

What do faculty search committees expect on a teaching statement? Commitment, not necessarily amazingly creative pedagogy - George McClendon, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Duke University.

A good curriculum will definitely matter; however, the first impression is the key to promote our participation in the selection process. The teaching statement is an important requisite asked for a faculty position. The problem is that some of us may not know how to properly organize its contents.