undead astronauts

marginal revolution points to an interesting search result from google. if u do a search for unemployment rate, u get pointed to a wonderful chart of public unemployment data and they plan to put more of these charts out.

notably, madison county has 3% lower unemployment than the rest of the state. defense and gov’t work is king during war & recession. my company is currently in a hiring phase, which is completely counter-cyclical to the wider economy.

anyways, wired had a story on the trend towards greater access to vast amounts of data leading to a change in the way science is conducted. the story argued that w/ enormous amounts of data available to ppl, everyone could just mine the data for correlation and disregard the process of coming up w/ a theory to test against.

razib points out that even economists are taking note. to date, there’s been a rather large gap between economic theory and empirical results (e.g. the equation of economic death), but w/ all the data we have available today, maybe that’ll change. maybe in the future, we’ll have all the data we need to correctly value all the variables in that equation and so avoid the mess that poor correlation creates.

Dumplings

For the next episode of delectable delights, we venture our inspiration from the continent of Asia. Tired of the corruption by pre-fab and frozen poisons, we set forth to find the freshness, the succulence, the satisfaction of the real deal. Some ingredients included in this version are napa cabbage, shitaki mushrooms, ground pork, shrimp, ginger root. Once all were bathed and prepped, they enjoyed an icebreaker in a large bowl, before being wrapped up. From that point they either enjoyed the fate of simmering in the boiling pool of water or dancing on the frying pan floor. As mentioned before, I will continue in my attempts to document these adventures. Attempt to enjoy. (more…)

u read that right, zimbabwe’s currency, which at times was inflating at 230 million percent, is now worth some money. but not how u might imagine.

(more…)

Speed Dating

Last saturday I went to a speed dating event with Manuelo and another female friend who was Dutch Chinese from Holland (“dc girl”). The event rules stipulate that you have 8 minutes to talk to a girl, after 8 minutes, you rotate to the next girl. from 7:30 to 10, you should be able to talk to about 20 girls. I got there at around 7 and met my dc girl to first have a light drink while waiting for Manuelo to show up… (more…)

You'll never see cosplay like this from american shows.

(more…)

A video explaining how mathematics dictates that coincidences happen more often than we might intuitively think they should.  What do you guys think? (more…)

The Oh-So Good Burger. 4/20/09.

Time for some food.  The missus decided on making some burgers.  I decided I still need much practice/learning with the camera.  So here it is, the beginning of the “Foods”.  We will see where it goes from here. Hopefully both, the food and the camera work, continue to improve.

i’ve seen this going around, but figured i’d post it anyways.

it’s nice to see an asian couple on tv having great sex, but the couple is stereotypically “reserved” and the need for a lubricant seems to imply the guy can’t typically satisfy the girl or that the girl needs help getting past her shyness. 1 step forward 1 step back?

see if u can recognize the faces shown here. cognitive daily has a post up about super-recognizers. this is a class of ppl that have the opposite of prosopagnosia, which is the inability to recognize faces. ppl with this ability can apparently identify ppl having seen them once many many years ago.

read the original post to see how they tested for this ability, and see if u got your guesses right. i got 3 right, and ruled several ppl out for the other but wasn’t able to guess it correctly (although i’m not sure that i remember seeing his real face much). i have noticed that i seem to remember faces rather well if i’ve seen the person a few times, but that i have great difficulty w/ names.

P-Zed and I were sitting in B&N (as we always do) bored to tears (as we always are) when we decided to create our own culture.  We took 8 arts & culture magazines and created a short list of likes and dislikes of what we saw in them.  The results are as follows: (more…)

so true.

My backyard. Click on image to see fullsize. (check out the water tower closely).

Today is a beautiful day. The conscious decision was made to enjoy it. Need I drive out? Drive to where? A beach? A park? A shopping center? I do not look far when I spot a great location. True, some work needs to be done; the greens a bit patchy, and there is no aquatic facility per say, but make ado, the water display of the sprinkler system provides a pleasant scene. The recently planted palm trees provide a hint of the tropics. The umbrella and cushioned lounge chairs most definitely do not hinder the experience. The clear blue sky above, the faint whisper of a breeze from the east, the occasional surround sound chirping of birds. With a little imagination, eliminating the rooftops nearby, this possesses the potential for a great relaxing destination, a place to slowdown, a place to get away from the commotion and routine of life. And the silence…ooo the silence….so peaceful. Ahhh….the calm serenity is right in my back yard? Nice.

matt yglesias points to a report of new study that has some very counter-intuitive results.

In one study, college students were given one of two menus. One menu featured French fries, chicken nuggets and a baked potato; the other included those same items as well as a salad. The French fries, widely perceived as the least healthful option, were three times as popular with students selecting from the menu that had the salad as they were with the other group.

i really really don’t understand this b/c of the choices i make when faced w/ this exact question. at wendy’s and chick-fil-a, they offer no cost trades to alternatives to fries and i almost always take them. at wendy’s i take the chili, and at chick-fil-a, i take the cole slaw. i will say that it’s possible i just don’t like fries, but i still eat them when no alternative is available. i started swapping fries out solely b/c of health concerns.

the study author’s say that offering a healthy alternative lowers your guard and so u make the choice for something less healthy. that just doesn’t make sense to me.

if this result is repeatable in other contexts, i wonder if they’ll start mixing beer into the fruit juice section and selling condoms next to the bible. ppl are freaking idiots.

check out this interactive map showing jobs lost by county. jan and feb 09 look pretty devastating.

looks like if u need a job, u should go to texas or louisiana. the east and west coasts are red inkblots.

Double Decker bus heading into the city. I was disappointed that no one tried to hang onto our moving bus with an umbrella.

I believe this man has just received a call from his triad to participate in an upcoming street brawl.

For many of us, we grew up watching movies filmed in Hong Kong. Some of the names that immediately come to mind are; city hunter, police story, hard boiled, and various Wang Kar Wai films. For those of us who’s never been, its not just a city, but a nostalgic fancy and a fond impression. From our favorite childhood movies I remember the cramped streets, the city harbour, the triad gang wars. But on this occassion, I was lucky enough to actually travel to the place of my youth for the very first time. There I really walked on the cramped streets, traversed the city harbour, and I firmly believe I also witnessed many triad related activities (note the man on the cell phone above and the pollice boats below). (more…)