From the category archives:

Data Mining

The US Budget Deficit in Plain English

13 December 2011

How can you explain the US budget deficit in layman’s terms? Try a paper bag and an old style font, that displays some fairly simple math.

Does this help you to understand the entire budget process and problem better? Do you think it is too simplistic?
[Via Samantha Adams.]

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The Value of Data Visualization

18 October 2011
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Have you ever wondered why data visualization matters? Do you prefer to look simply at numbers in a spreadsheet, or would you rather seen an image of that data?
Many people learn better visually. We all have to crawl through a great deal of data each and every day as well as process the meaning of [...]

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Social Paranoia and Graduate School

3 May 2011

Are you paranoid about your social standing and what others’ think of you? Instead of Taming Data, are you Taming Fear?
Then you must be a graduate student, according to Don Troop’s recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Paranoid? You Must Be a Grad Student“.

Source: PhD Comics via The Chronicle.
Have I had my moments? [...]

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The Science Network – A Social Network Parody

18 April 2011

You don’t get to 11 million papers without a few dodgy results.

So, what do you think? Did he or didn’t he invent PubMed?
[Via Jane G.]

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Save the Data

13 April 2011

Welcome to my own version of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard-ism).
Yes, I know the US federal budget needs to be cut, but not my programs.
Seriously. :)
The Sunlight Foundation writes:

Some of the most important technology programs that keep Washington accountable are in danger of being eliminated. Data.gov, USASpending.gov, the IT Dashboard and [...]

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Being a Google Autocompleter

4 April 2011

Can you type 34,000 words a minute? Are you psychic?
If so, you may wish to apply for a job with Google as an Autocompleter. The video below details some of the requirements of the position.

Yes, this is another one of Google’s jokes for April Fools’ Day 2011.
Happy Monday!
[Via TechCrunch.]

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Data Access and Reuse Entropy

28 March 2011

What if you have access to all kinds of personal data, yet you just can’t bring yourself to Be Evil with it?

Happy Monday!
I hope you have a great week.

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Aisles of Library Shelves on Something the Size of a Dime

25 March 2011

Happy Friday!

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Tsunami — Animation of Cause and Effect

24 March 2011
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The great Indian Ocean tsunami that struck 11 countries on 26 December 2004 killed an estimated 150,000 people and left millions homeless. The epicenter of that 9.0 quake was near the west coast of Sumatra, underneath the Indian Ocean.
On March 11, 2011, the Honshu Tsunami, caused by a 9.0 earthquake with its epicenter off of [...]

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NOAA Maps Shows Honshu Tsunami Wave Heights Around the Globe

15 March 2011
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How can you display wave height in a meaningful way, particularly when a tsunami strikes after a major earthquake?
NOAA researchers and staff took the maximum predicted wave heights from buoys positioned in the Pacific as the Honshu Tsunami spread across the Pacific on March 11, 2011. Using that data, they created the dramatic images [...]

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