operating a bit outside the lines

"If we can’t model a worm, I don’t know how we can model a human, monkey, or cat brain."

Sat, 18 May 2013 11:50:48 -0400

““If we can’t model a worm, I don’t know how we can model a human, monkey, or cat brain.””

- Is This Virtual Worm the First Sign of the Singularity? - Alexis C. Madrigal - The Atlantic

Bringing data to DC: Q&A with health data’s biggest evangelist HHS CTO Bryan Sivak — Tech News and Analysis

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:14:24 -0400

Bringing data to DC: Q&A with health data’s biggest evangelist HHS CTO Bryan Sivak — Tech News and Analysis

This Is the Most Detailed Picture of the Internet Ever (and Making it Was Very Illegal) | Motherboard

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:11:57 -0400

This Is the Most Detailed Picture of the Internet Ever (and Making it Was Very Illegal) | Motherboard

"I live with his decisions because he has a pure heart.” The terrible thing about losing is that it..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:17:59 -0400

““I live with his decisions because he has a pure heart.” The terrible thing about losing is that it makes you sentimental. Winning makes you sentimental, too, but mostly because it fills you with an exaggerated love for the people who helped you along the way. Losing makes you want to defend the people you love who’ve disappointed you. But you can’t say that stuff, because to the people who don’t feel the loss the way you feel it, you’ll sound like a moron, or worse, a mystic. When you lose, I thought as I joined the crawl toward the on-ramp, and you want to hold on to the past that you’re afraid is about to slip away from you, you have to say the opposite of what you mean. What Brooks should have told the media was not “Kevin Durant is pure of heart”; it was “sports is the worst and it sucks and I hate it.””

- I want to be Brian Phillips. (via bethlehemshoals)

"Nonetheless, we should be aware that things which can’t go on forever, stop. So, it was with health..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:38:46 -0400

“Nonetheless, we should be aware that things which can’t go on forever, stop. So, it was with health care.”

- The CBO Is Likely Still Overestimating Future Deficits - Forbes

Opening Government Data to the Public

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:45:58 -0400

Opening Government Data to the Public:

Long before steam engines and turbines carried us swiftly over the oceans, a disabled sailor who could no longer serve on a ship found something to do ashore: aggregate the data from shipping logs. When Matthew Fontaine Maury started analyzing those logs and mapping them onto charts, he found previously invisible…

gregcohn: EFF: Who has your back?

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:44:18 -0400

gregcohn:

EFF: Who has your back?

There are 12.5 unprotected versions of the average American’s personal information on the web

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:42:25 -0400

There are 12.5 unprotected versions of the average American’s personal information on the web:

Safe Shepherd is a company that searches the web for all the public records available on Americans, and then presents them in a dashboard. Try it for yourselfâit’s freeâand the results are almost guaranteed to be unnerving. The information is mostly innocuous, and includes your address, phone number and email, but the fact that it’s…

Lincoln on Flickr.

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:22:24 -0400

Lincoln on Flickr.

The White House on Flickr.

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:15:36 -0400

The White House on Flickr.

Adam's blog — What’s the Common Ingredient for Team Success in Surgery, Banking, Software, Airlines, and Basketball?

Tue, 14 May 2013 15:07:52 -0400

Adam's blog — What’s the Common Ingredient for Team Success in Surgery, Banking, Software, Airlines, and Basketball?:

(via Instapaper)

"You may have heard that the highest-paid employee in each state is usually the football coach at the..."

Thu, 09 May 2013 18:11:09 -0400

“You may have heard that the highest-paid employee in each state is usually the football coach at the largest state school. This is actually a gross mischaracterization: Sometimes it is the basketball coach.”

- Infographic: Is Your State’s Highest-Paid Employee A Coach? (Probably)

Via @SaraGregory

"The family’s principal entertainment…, “was for everyone to recount their dreams."

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:58:29 -0400

“The family’s principal entertainment…, “was for everyone to recount their dreams.””

- For 40 Years, This Russian Family Was Cut Off From All Human Contact, Unaware of World War II | History & Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine

Employment 2020

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:46:55 -0400

Just now getting around to reading the BLS 2010-2020 Employment projections. Here are the highlights/my thoughts/questions:

Master a skill: “In occupations in which a master’s degree is typically needed for entry, employment is expected to grow by 21.7 percent, faster than the growth rate for any other education category” and “In occupations in which apprenticeship is the typical on-the-job training, employment is expected to grow by 22.5 percent, faster than for any other on-the-job training category”
The baby boomers are crowding us out!: Baby boomers are expected to rise (!) from one fifth to one fourth of the work force! In the words of my friend Chaz “so much social & economic anxiety, so little retirement savings!”
The BLS does not believe in “The Manufacturing Revival”: Just a slightly negative top line decline, but it includes 11 of the 20 industries with the largest projected employment losses. Not exactly a renaissance.
Is future employment growth predicated on continued healthcare cost increases?: Healthcare is supposed to be the fastest growing job sector (35%). What happens if healthcare costs stop growing? Will that affect total employment? Is it possible to have increased employment AND lower (or less quickly growing) healthcare costs?
2020-2030 will be when the Baby Boomers move into traditional retirement: How will the world change then? Will they not be able to retire? Will it be really good to be a ~35 year old in the workforce? Will companies en masse adopt more flexible work situations for older workers (say what you want about the Boomers, but they tend to get what the want)

Google Now, Anticipatory Systems, and the Future of Big Data | MIT Technology Review

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:13:08 -0400

Google Now, Anticipatory Systems, and the Future of Big Data | MIT Technology Review:

(via Instapaper)

100percentmen: Every conservative calling for reform in the...

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:11:01 -0400

100percentmen:

Every conservative calling for reform in the Republican party, according to the Washington Monthly. (h/t @davidklion)

How come James Pethokoukis gets called out twice?

Wikipedia is now drawing facts from the Wikidata repository, and so can you

Tue, 07 May 2013 08:51:20 -0400

Wikipedia is now drawing facts from the Wikidata repository, and so can you

Time for Round 2

Sun, 05 May 2013 13:49:13 -0400

Time for Round 2

"A bill introduced by South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan would eliminate all functions of the Census..."

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:17:13 -0400

“

A bill introduced by South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan would eliminate all functions of the Census bureau except the part about counting the population every 10 years.

That means no more employment stats, GDP data, housing information — it would all be gone.

”

- As anyone who follows me knows, this would be a bridge too far. I would go to war.

Source: Business Insider

"Danish scientists are expecting results that will show that “finding a mass-distributable and..."

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:43:57 -0400

“Danish scientists are expecting results that will show that “finding a mass-distributable and affordable cure to HIV is possible”.
They are conducting clinical trials to test a “novel strategy” in which the HIV virus is stripped from human DNA and destroyed permanently by the immune system.”

- Scientists on brink of HIV cure via Counterparties