Personal Blog

Welcome to Fascist Italy

2009-08-04T16:10:00Z

"Using the iPhone is like living in Mussolini's Italy. Trains run on time, but there is some bad stuff going on." -- Leo Laporte

As I'm walking to school yesterday listening to the fantastic podcast This Week in Tech, I hear that phrase in the middle of a big group of people and start laughing loudly. Yes, I'm that weirdo.

All of this culminated with last week Apple's rejection of the Google Voice app prompting an FTC investigation. Google's CEO up until yesterday sat on the Apple Board of Directors.

I'm no fan of Apple. In fact, I downright loathe them for reasons too numerous to list (future blog post?). It can basically be summed up in two words of advice for Apple: OPEN STANDARDS!

But something I find really funny ... yesterday I posted Leo's quote on Twitter and when I'm checking out my Flickr stats last night, my most viewed photo, having more views yesterday than it previously had in the year it's been posted is my photo of Steve Jobs speaking at my commencement at Stanford in June of 2005

Now this may all be coincidence. Perhaps Steve Jobs became a popular search topic because of the news yesterday (though he's been in the news enough recently), but couple that with the fact I'll be joining Google in a month and it seems slightly strange.

And by you clicking on this pic you can inflate the stats even more!

Do You Want Fries With That?

2009-07-17T18:31:00Z

The CDC posts a shocking timeline about obesity in this country. In just 12 short years we have gone from ZERO of the 50 states having 20% or more of its population obese to now 49 of the 50 states having 20% or more defined as obese (the lone exception being Colorado). Obesity is defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 or greater. Now the criticisms against the BMI are numerous (e.g. many professional athletes would be defined as overweight or obese, and see this for example).

Even if we concede that the BMI is a shitty metric on an absolute scale, that doesn't mean it's a shitty metric on a relative scale. For example, suppose I have a scale that systematically says I'm 20 lbs heavier than I really am. It's terrible at measuring my absolute weight. However, suppose over the next 2 months, I lose 10 lbs. While the scale still sucks at measuring my absolute weight, it will accurately measure that I have lost 10 lbs -- a relative measurement. This is often how to deal with bias -- taking differences cancels the bias.

We're an increasingly fat nation. I'm not breaking any ground by making that claim but I was shocked by magnitude of this trend. We go from one extreme 0 out of 50 to the complete opposite extreme 49 out of 50.

I'm sure there are many causes like kids of the video game generation are increasingly lazy or the meteoric rise of corn syrup as a cheaper sugar replacement in our food, but the fact remains obesity is linked to some of our biggest health risks, and if you want to talk a way to decrease our health costs that Democrats and Republicans can agree with its this: Go out and get some exercise. In fact, what are you doing reading this right now? Get off your ass.

July 4th in D.C.

2009-07-12T06:41:22Z

Growing up I always watched the fireworks shows on the 4th of July. I never really thought I'd see one of the big ones in person, but this year I met up with some college friends in D.C. and we staked out a great seat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It didn't really dawn on me until it was happening just how totally cool of an experience it was. So, booya! Cross that one off the bucket list.

Here's the final minute plus of the show when it starts to get really intense. Is there a better backdrop for fireworks on the Fourth than the Washington Monument? I think not.

It was shot on my new Creative Vado HD. Enjoy!

I'm Published!

2009-06-23T06:16:08Z

In the current issue of the American Scientist, I have my first magazine publication! It's an article about the importance of plotting your data through an example that had the author correctly plotted the data, he would have made a discovery 30 years before it was found.

Fair and Balanced My Ass!

2008-10-11T05:58:00Z

William Henry Harrison, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, William Howard Taft

There are few things more presidential than a middle name.

Even if the President doesn't use his middle name, we at least know his middle initial – Ulysses S. Grant, John F. Kennedy, James K. Polk, George W. Bush.

So to my surprise, this past week as I'm watching Fox News, I hear them repeatedly reference the Democratic candidate as Barack Hussein Obama. The election isn't for a few weeks, and whoever wins won't become President until January 20th. Yet, Fox News, purported to be “Fair and Balanced” is already giving Obama the Presidential treatment by calling him by his first, middle and last names at every possible opportunity. Barack Hussein Obama.

You might be asking yourself, why is this unfair?
Well, do any of you know John McCain's middle name? Or at least the initial?
I confess that I didn't. I had to go to Wikipedia and I discovered it's Sidney.
John Sidney McCain. Has a nice ring to it, no?

So my proposal to fight back against the elitist liberal media:

Every time we mention McCain's name in the future, we promise to use his first, middle and last names. John Sidney McCain.
Examples:
1) Did you know John Sidney McCain used to be against overturning Roe v. Wade before he was for it?
2) One of John Sidney McCain's close personal friends and contributors, Charles Keating, was responsible for duping thousands out of their life savings, costing the federal government $3 billion and ultimately sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison.

Let's stop these Fox News elitist Ivy-League liberals: O'Reilly (Harvard), Ann Coulter (Cornell), Geraldo (Penn and Columbia) and show them that first, we don't need to go to your fancy schools and second, it's ok to graduate in the bottom one-half of one percent (894th out of 899) as John Sidney McCain did.

Who's with me? Who's bloody with me?!

And Colbert does this on a nightly basis? damn