prod & ponder

It looks like Gataica has met Web 2.0: 23andMe.

Socrates’ observation that “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology 38a) just got some nice supporting empirical evidence, at least insofar that an examined life in dire circumstances might be far more livable.

Ok, in reality, the study seems weak. There’s plenty of reason to be skeptical of self-reported attitude shifts that aren’t triangulated with other evidence of change, and it’s only a single case study/context. Still, I liked it.

(Photo was taken taken years ago while visiting friends in Vancouver.)
p.s. The skepticism about relying solely on self-reported accounts of attitude shifts reminds of an old behaviorist joke. What did one behaviorist say to the other behaviorist after sex? …. “Was it good for me?”

Several friends have been making connections between Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. I dumped the full text of both into ManyEyes, and here’s another take on comparison, looking at the most frequently used words in each.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”

Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union”

Technically, spring doesn’t start until Thursday, but the crocuses have started poking and opening up. And, since I have a looming article deadline at the end of the week, I’ve picked up the camera again, naturally.

I’m not always my sharpest early on the weekends. Actually, it’s more like this…

(image courtesy of the brilliant garfield minus garfield site)

So I’m indebted to friend Eric, who wrote me this morning to let me know that the blog’s domain name had gone AWOL. Fortunately, a quick call to my host fixed things up, and … we’re back.

It’s nice to be able to run Windows-only applications without having to spend much time suffering the operating system. Since making the switch from SPSS to JMP for statistics work, there really is only one Windows-based application that I have to spend much time in: QSR’s NVivo, which is a tool for analyzing qualitative data. Fortunately, VMWare’s Fusion lets me run Windows apps seamlessly with my usual Mac tools.

To illustrate, here’s NVivo running atop Safari:

It’s not official until I sign the contract, but as a teaser until I can say anything more: I got some very good news.

But hey, here’s good news you can use: Frisky Dingo (aka: the Funniest Show Ever) is back with new episodes.

Way to go Patriots! It’s the team’s 2nd trip to the NCAA tourney in the past three years… not too shabby.

That’s not the only thing the school has to be proud of. On Sunday night I presented at a conference at GMU’s main Fairfax campus, and I was amazed at just how much construction has been started (and in some cases, finished) in just the few years I’ve been gone.

I’ve been busy. I know, everyone says that. But really, busy. Seriously busy.

Here’s the soundtrack I’ve had going in the background: