Midgewink - The Blog

Do Dogs Know Calculus?

2006-02-24T15:00:00.000-06:00

I found this article from Science News fascinating:

Calculating Dogs

Ivars Peterson

It all started with Elvis.

In 2003, mathematician Tim Pennings of Hope College in Holland, Mich., revealed to the world that his Welsh corgi, Elvis, appears to be solving a calculus problem when finding the optimal path to fetch a ball. In this case, optimal path means minimizing travel time.

When Elvis and Pennings go to the beach, they always play fetch. Standing at the water's edge, Pennings throws a tennis ball out into the waves, and Elvis eagerly retrieves it. When Pennings throws the ball at an angle to the shoreline, Elvis has several options. He can run along the beach until he is directly opposite the ball, then swim out to get it. Or he can plunge into the water right away and swim all the way to the ball. What happens most the time, however, is that Elvis runs part of the way along the beach, then swims out to the ball.

Depending on the dog's running and swimming speeds, the strategy that Elvis follows appears to minimize the time that it takes to get to the ball. Indeed, Pennings found by experiment that Elvis performs in a way that closely matches a calculus-based mathematical model of the situation.

"It seems clear that in most cases Elvis chose a path that agreed remarkably closely with the optimal path," Pennings argued in the May 2003 College Mathematics Journal.

Link (via boingboing.net)

NYT: There's a Cafe Scientifique Near You!

2006-02-21T16:15:00.000-06:00

This is an extremely cool idea - one worthy of spreading. Its seems so 1800s... interested citizens mingling with prominent scientists, learning about cool, cutting-edge science.

Science Comes to the Masses (You Want Fries With That?)

By MINDY SINK

Published: February 21, 2006

DENVER, Feb. 20 — A scientist walks into a bar. More than 100 people are there, eager to hear all that she has to say and ask a lot of questions. No joke.

That's what happens at the Wynkoop Brewing Company here every month when Café Scientifique is held.

Science is not cold and remote in this setting. It's live, interactive, free and informal, with a drink or two. And other Café Scientifique meetings are popping up throughout the country and around the globe on campuses, in coffee shops, bars and even a church. The purpose is to make science accessible and even fun to anyone with the time to stop by.

"A lot of people come to see real live scientists — some of whom are extremely famous and prominent — and see how their brains work," said Dr. John Cohen, a professor of immunology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and the founder of the Denver Café Scientifique. "People don't often get a chance to do that. Some come to ask questions, others are content to listen."

The Denver Café Scientifique was established in 2003 and is the largest in the country to date, drawing about 150 people (cafescicolorado.org). The topics vary from sleep to interstellar communication to Higgs bosons to nanotechnology, and they attract people of all ages and all occupations.

"Who would have thought you'd have standing room only at a geek event?" Dr. Cohen asked. He said he first read about science cafes in 1999 when they were catching on in England. "It just sounded like so much fun," he said. "I saw it as a reminder of the peripatetic philosophers who wandered the Agora in Athens." He imagined them, he continued, "stopping every so often to refresh themselves with a mug of wine from the local sellers."

It was an article in Nature by Duncan Dallas that inspired Dr. Cohen and others. Mr. Dallas, now a retired television producer, started Café Scientifique in 1998 with a note posted in a bar in Leeds, England: "Where, for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to discuss the scientific ideas and developments which are changing our lives."

He said he was inspired by French philosophy clubs; coincidentally, science cafes were starting up in France in the late 1990's. In an e-mail message, Mr. Dallas said that taking science out of the classrooms changes the expectations of the audience and the speaker — from lecturing to discussing.

"I believe that science is the most important force in our culture," Mr. Dallas wrote, "and is increasingly impinging on our public and personal lives, through subjects like genetics, neurology, pharmacology and evolutionary psychology. So public engagement with science is bound to increase in many forms over the next decade."

Café Scientifiques in Britain (www.cafescientifique.org) received public financing to get started, and dozens are now held around the country. In the United States some such cafes have no budgets and are independent — like the one in Denver — while others receive school and corporate help.

Two science cafes in New York — one in Syracuse and the other in the city — break from the tradition of free science to all and charge $5 to $10. Roald Hoffmann, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, is to be the host of an Entertaining Science cabaret at the Cornelia Street Cafe at 6 p.m. March 5 in Manhattan.

Sigma Xi, a scientific research society, was host to the first national gathering of Café Scientifique leaders this month in North Carolina to network and organize the movement.

Juliana Gallin, a 38-year-old graphic designer in San Francisco, started "Ask a Scientist" at the Bazaar Café two and a half years ago (askascientistsf.com). "I was trying to think of something interesting to do outside of my day job that would be more personally fulfilling than the typical volunteer opportunities I was encountering," Ms. Gallin said, noting that it was only later that she learned of the Café Scientifique movement.

In Seattle, Gretchen Meller, a research scientist, and a few of her friends had their first event last September in a local bookstore (scienceontap.org). "If the general population is to vote on these issues eventually," she said, "they need the opportunity to ask questions."

Indeed the topics are sometimes taken from headlines. Café Scientifique Pittsburgh will be host to the author Pamela Winnick, who will discuss her book "A Jealous God: Science's Crusade Against Religion." The Pittsburgh science cafe was started by two science writers in 2004 and is held at the Penn Brewery every month. Tim Palucka, a 46-year-old freelance science writer, shows off the humorous side of Café Scientifique when he jokes that their motto should have been "Talk to a drunk scientist" instead of "Eat. Drink. Talk Science."

The topics are not always so funny. Tony Cox spoke here recently on "Risk Analysis and Public Health." Sipping on their microbrews, people listened and then rushed up to Dr. Cox to ask questions during a break before the official questions and answers began.

"It's almost like continuing education," said Lyda Ludeman, a 64-year- old retired I.B.M. systems controller. "And the great part is, they don't test you." Ms. Ludeman comes to Café Scientifique every month with a group of regulars, some wearing denim shirts with Café Scientifique logos sewn on the chest.

John Farmer, a 49-year-old advertising executive who attended with his girlfriend last month, said he liked to come to Café Scientifique occasionally to learn about different topics. "A lot people are intimidated by science," he said. "It's great to drink a beer and to brush elbows with these geeks who have very disciplined minds. Everybody can use a little more science in their lives."

If you're interested, you can find out where cafe scientifiques occur near you:
www.cafescientifique.org/north%20america-links.htm

Here's one for Minneapolis:
www.bellmuseum.org/calendar.html

And here's the calender for the next one:

Organizing Life: A New Evolution
Tuesday, March 14, 6–8 p.m.
Varsity Theater, Dinkytown
Free. Must be 18 or older to attend.
What evolutionary patterns link Earth's species, from microbes to birds to human beings? In conjunction with the Walker Art Center's exhibition “Kiki Smith: A Gathering, 1980-2005,” the Bell Museum presents a special Café Scientifique on taxonomy, phylogeny, and evolution. Join biologist and Bell Museum Director Scott Lanyon for an introduction to a worldwide research effort that is equivalent in scope to the Human Genome Project, and find out how and why researchers like Lanyon are assembling an evolutionary “tree of life” that will organize the 1.7 million described species on Earth. To learn more about Smith’s artwork, which references taxonomy, visit walkerart.org.

Lancet Media Spot

2006-02-19T16:10:00.000-06:00

While looking for a streaming web host site, I came across StreamLoad. I've uploaded the various Lancet media appearances here.

Its free to try, and seems to work well and has the capablility to host a lot of different media types. I've uploaded Real video and mp3's so far; I plan to experiment with some QuickTime as well. I paid $44 for an annual subscription that allows 24Gb of bandwidth. Because its sort of private, we don't have the copyright issues that a free, public service like Google has to be concerned with.

The Mainstream Media Rox

2006-02-16T09:25:00.000-06:00

The Twin Cities' Fox Channel 9, did 3 live segments from our offices this morning. It was a lot of fun - we analyzed several web sites with reporter M.A. Rosko, including the Fox 9 site and pointed out room for improvement.

We also got to show some of our "before and after" work on a couple sites and of course promoted our My-Site-Stinks contest. We got 18 submissions for the contest while we were on the air!

15 Minutes of Fame - 2 more down...

2006-02-15T21:29:00.000-06:00

The LancetCard design team is going to be on Twin Cities Fox 9 tomorrow morning throughout the morning - they're interested in our My Site Stinks contest to find the worst web site in the metro area. The winner will get 40 hours of our time to do an "eXtreme Web Makeover."

Tune in if you're in town! First appearance is supposed to be around 6:20am.

iPLod Cam

2006-02-15T08:44:00.000-06:00

I'm testing out a small webcam from Creative as a possible way to keep our teams together over long distances - we're getting a lot of opportunities far from home, and haveing the ability to communicate, face to face, after a fashion seems important. Its cheaper to do now with so many hotels equipped with high speed internet and the cameras and software are virturally free. Combine that with a service like Skype, and you're talking video conferencing for nuthin'.

I've got the webcam hooked up for testing - its pointing at my iPLod treadmill desk at the office for now - have a look..... I might be writing on this blog as you watch.

http://www.walkingwhileworking.com/webcam.html

Art by Katrina Affected Artists

2006-02-15T08:14:00.000-06:00

Fellow blogger Shawn Lea has created a cool website where you can really support artists that have been affected by Katrina - by buying their art. When you need are, take a look here. Shawn writes:

KatrinaArtists.com is a Web site I've created for Coast artists affected by Hurricane Katrina to promote and sell their work. I am slowly but surely getting more takers - I was on Mississippi Public Broadcasting this morning talking about the Web site and the Jackson newspaper published a small blurb about it today too. When you get ready for some new artwork, shop here first! ;) (And please forward this to others on your e-mail distribution list if you think they would be interested. The only way this site will help these artists is if I get the word out that it exists.)

www.katrinaartists.com

Sincerely,
Shawn

Shawn writes a very fun blog called Everything And Nothing.

Interesting: The Caffeine Nap

2006-02-12T09:16:00.000-06:00

I've done some long-distance driving in my life. When I lived in New Jersey, I would drive back to Minnesota in one, 24-hour shift. At times I got pretty sleepy and I know I've tried all the usual methods - hanging my head out the window, slapping my own face a few times, coffee, singing loudly along with the radio. All of which work for a couple minutes at best it seems.

Now comes new research on a possibly very effective method.

I found this on another blog, Achieve-IT!:

Sleep researchers at the Loughborough University in Britain did several tests on fatigued drivers to compare the effects of different methods for a driver can use to stay awake. They put the volunteers in driving simulators while they were sleepy and let them drive. Some of the tests included rolling down windows for cold exposure, blasting the radio and slapping oneself in the face to try to stay awake. But what researchers found worked the best was a Caffeine Nap.

The Caffeine Nap is simple. You drink a cup of coffee and immediately take a 15 minute nap. Researchers found coffee helps clear your system of adenosine, a chemical which makes you sleepy. So in testing, the combination of a cup of coffee with an immediate nap chaser provided the most alertness for the longest period of time. The recommendation was to nap only 15 minutes, no more or less and you must sleep immediately after the coffee.

There is more information at the Loughborough University Sleep Research Center website.

My Two Minutes of Fame - Thirteen to Go

2006-02-08T00:01:00.000-06:00

WCCO TV (Channel 4 to you Twin Citians) did a nice little piece on my treadmill desk after hearing about it on Jon Gordon's Future Tense show in the morning. I got to spend an hour or so with reporter Rick Fuentes and his trusy videographer Pete. Great guys.

I made compressed versions of the 5pm and 6pm stories - they're different... the 5pm version is longer, about 2 minutes and features a variety of things. The 6pm version is shorter by half, and has more talking heads.

The downloads are 5mb and 2.5mb - I don't have a streaming video server so the files have to be downloaded for viewing - sorry... the format is RealPlayer.

Click here for 5pm
Click here for 6pm

Interviewed by WCCO-TV about his "Office of the Future"

2006-02-07T15:15:00.000-06:00

See it tonight (in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market) on the local CBS (channel 4) affiliate on the 5pm news hour.

Interviewed by FutureTense

2006-02-07T08:49:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was interviewed by Jon Gordon of American Public Media's Future Tense, about my Treadmill desk... here's a link to his site where you can listen.

February 07, 2006
Fighting fat by walking while working

As technology advances, we become more sedentary. At home, we spend more time in front of our computers and televisions. In the office, we type e-mails instead of walking down the hall to talk with colleagues.

Thomas Niccum, president of Twin Cities-based Lancet Software, has decided to fight the motionless lifestyle of a modern white collar worker by rigging his office so he can do most of his work while walking on a treadmill.

Niccum's treadmill-equipped office was inspired by the work of the Mayo Clinic's Dr. James Levine, whose research finds that the more people move around during the course of a normal day, the thinner they'll be. He calls it "NEAT" (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis).

Levine says we need to incorporate more motion into every part of our day.

The show is archived here

Roth vs Traditional 401(k) Calculator update

2006-02-02T21:10:00.000-06:00

I discovered a small error in the spreadsheet posted on 1/29, which has now been corrected. I also refined my model - in the previous spreadsheet, I modeled the creation of a side, taxable account where one would invest the difference (or tax savings amount) that the traditional 401(k) would generate. It makes more sense to stick this amount IN the 401(k) itself, where it will grow tax-free. Unless, of course, one is contributing the maximum -- in which case the amount above the cap must be contributed to a side, taxable account. The spreadsheet has now reflects this more rational behavior.

New version of the 401(k) modeler is here.

401(k) - Roth vs. Traditional Smackdown

2006-01-29T22:58:00.000-06:00

Our company will be offering a Roth 401(k) option starting in February. While trying to decide what to do with my personal money - choose the traditional 401(k) or switch over to the Roth, I've been looking for 'calculators' that will allow me to play with various scenarios.

The search has been futile - the few that I have seen are really too basic to help make a decision.

So I built my own spreadsheet in Excel to help decide.

The big think lacking in most calculators is this: The Roth costs real money up front - in taxes. In my way of thinking the fairest way to calculate a true comparison would be to take the extra money that the Roth costs, and add that to the traditional 401(k) - as a 'side' investment account. The gains would be taxable, probably at divident or capital gains rates. This evens the playing field quite a bit.

You can download my spreadsheet calculator here.

Comments or criticisms welcomed!

Wash Clothes Without Water

2006-01-28T17:44:00.000-06:00

Researchers at Singapore's National University have developed a prototype clothes washer that uses puffs of air containing negative ions.

The ions cause dirt and dust to clump and be carried away by the air. The benefits seem great: No dryer needed, sensitive fabrics that normally must be dry-cleaned can be "washed" at home, and of course no scarce water is used and polluted with soap.

Keep your eyes open for this one...

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17965878^11869,00.html

Wired Mag: 10 Best Geek Gatherings in North America

2006-01-26T18:41:00.000-06:00

1. Rocket Racing League Inaugural Event
Las Cruces, New Mexico, October 21-22
Think Nascar - but 5,000 feet off the ground and with rocket engines. The new racing series, from the founders of the X Prize, has pilots navigating GPS-created aerial routes at speeds of up to 300 miles per hour.
Las Cruces is a place we are considering for retirement - this just bumped it up a notch...

2. World Championship Punkin Chunkin
Millsboro, Delaware, November 3-5
Every year, 45,000 spectators gather to watch competitors hurl pumpkins for distance. Categories include air cannon, trebuchet, centrifugal toss, and catapult. The longest shots travel a gourd-splattering mile.

3. LDRS 25
Amarillo, Texas, June 29-July 4
LDRS - short for Large Dangerous Rocket Ships - celebrates its silver anniversary. Keep your eyes on the skies (and be prepared to take cover) as amateur rocket builders launch hundreds of massive, high-powered, extremely volatile model missiles.

4. Trinity Site, White Sands Missile Range
White Sands, New Mexico, April 1 and October 7
Twice a year (the first Saturdays in April and October) the US government opens the birthplace of the atomic bomb to visitors. Slip deep into the secure confines of a missile range to see where the end began.
New Mexico is cool - we drove past this site not too long ago, and also Los Alamos Labs...

5. The Montreal International Fireworks Competition
Montreal, Quebec, June and July
Join nearly 3 million fireworks enthusiasts at Canada's premier pyrotechnics contest. Ten of the world's greatest explosion makers will compete in the ultimate show of decorative blasts set to music.

6. Jet Propulsion Laboratory Open House
Pasadena, California, May 20-21
Chat up JPL scientists and engineers at Nasa's party for the public - the only time the masses are let inside the gates.

7. The 58th Annual Speed Week
Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, August 12-18
The most daring drivers on earth get together and go really, really fast. Tricked-out Toyota Priuses hit 130 miles per hour, and far-less-sensible vehicles travel more than three times that speed.

8. RoboGames
San Francisco, California, June 16-18
Robots get ready to rumble in a heavy-on-the-metal smorgasbord of competitions, including robo combat, robot soccer, and art bots.

9. Defcon 14
Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada, August 4-6
Defcon continues to be the largest noncommercial celebration of hackers, programmers, and other digital cognoscenti. As Linus Torvalds once said, "Software is like sex; it's better when it's free."

10. Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture Race
Baltimore, Maryland, May 6
Monster Garage meets MoMA in a 15-mile race of half-machine, half-art contraptions that slog through mud, sand, and water. Pimp my ride, Pablo.

Scientists use www.wheresgeorge.com to build model of disease spread

2006-01-25T20:41:00.000-06:00

From the Washington Times
via fark.com

California scientists using an Internet game that traces the movement of dollar bills have created a model for tracking the spread of infectious diseases.

"We were confident we could learn a lot from the data collected at the www.wheresgeorge.com bill-tracking Web site, but the results turned out far beyond our expectations," said Lars Hufnagel, a postdoctoral fellow at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California-Santa Barbara, and co-author of the study.

Historical pandemics, such as the 14th-century plague, moved slowly since people could typically only travel a few miles daily. It took the plague three years to move up the European continent, with an average rate of spread of about one mile a day.

"But today people move great distances in short time periods, as well as short distances, and they use variable means of transportation," said Hufnagel.

At the Web site, participants register a bill of any denomination and then monitor its geographic circulation. Analyzing data from the game, the scientists developed a theory that represents a major breakthrough for mathematical modeling of the spread of epidemics.

An article describing the research appears in the journal Nature.

Finally - Anatomically Correct Soap

2006-01-24T08:14:00.000-06:00

Just in time for Valentine's day - a heart-shaped soap you can respect!

Via BoingBoing

Short Your House

2006-01-23T07:26:00.000-06:00

Fidelity's eNews has an interesting interview this week with Jeremy Siegel, of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business, and Robert Shiller, of Yale University School of Management.

In the interview, Shiller mentioned something that caught my eye:

Q: What advice can you share with American investors for the coming year?

Shiller: Most American portfolios are underweight in foreign investments. But I'm particularly interested in housing opportunities. Some of my colleagues and I have made an arrangement with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to start trading futures on single-family homes in April. Because there is so much volatility in the housing market, we think this structure may create an opportunity for property owners to hedge risks.

More info:
Betting the House
Futures Contracts for Ten US Cities to be Based on Case-Shiller Index

Could a Parasite Cause Schizophrenia?

2006-01-22T23:25:00.000-06:00

I'm in the middle of reading Parasite Rex, by Carl Zimmer... Today I stumbled across an update by the author, that should give you a taste of what the book is about. Its fascinating...

The Return of the Puppet Masters
Posted by Carl Zimmer

Are brain parasites altering the personalities of three billion people? The question emerged a few years ago, and it shows no signs of going away.

I first encountered this idea while working on my book Parasite Rex. I was investigating the remarkable ability parasites have to manipulate the behavior of their hosts. The lancet fluke Dicrocoelium dendriticum, for example, forces its ant host to clamp itself to the tip of grass blades, where a grazing mammal might eat it. It's in the fluke's interest to get eaten, because only by getting into the gut of a sheep or some other grazer can it complete its life cycle. Another fluke, Euhaplorchis californiensis, causes infected fish to shimmy and jump, greatly increasing the chance that wading birds will grab them.

Those parasites were weird enough, but then I got to know Toxoplasma gondii. This single-celled parasite lives in the guts of cats, sheddding eggs that can be picked up by rats and other animals that can just so happen be eaten by cats. Toxoplasma forms cysts throughout its intermediate host's body, including the brain. And yet a Toxoplasma-ridden rat is perfectly healthy. That makes good sense for the parasite, since a cat would not be particularly interested in eating a dead rat. But scientists at Oxford discovered that the parasite changes the rats in one subtle but vital way.

The scientists studied the rats in a six-foot by six-foot outdoor enclosure. They used bricks to turn it into a maze of paths and cells. In each corner of the enclosure they put a nest box along with a bowl of food and water. On each the nests they added a few drops of a particular odor. On one they added the scent of fresh straw bedding, on another the bedding from a rat's nests, on another the scent of rabbit urine, on another, the urine of a cat. When they set healthy rats loose in the enclosure, the animals rooted around curiously and investigated the nests. But when they came across the cat odor, they shied away and never returned to that corner. This was no surprise: the odor of a cat triggers a sudden shift in the chemistry of rat brains that brings on intense anxiety. (When researchers test anti-anxiety drugs on rats, they use a whiff of cat urine to make them panic.) The anxiety attack made the healthy rats shy away from the odor and in general makes them leery of investigating new things. Better to lie low and stay alive.

Then the researchers put Toxoplasma-carrying rats in the enclosure. Rats carrying the parasite are for the most part indistinguishable from healthy ones. They can compete for mates just as well and have no trouble feeding themselves. The only difference, the researchers found, is that they are more likely to get themselves killed. The scent of a cat in the enclosure didn't make them anxious, and they went about their business as if nothing was bothering them. They would explore around the odor at least as often as they did anywhere else in the enclosure. In some cases, they even took a special interest in the spot and came back to it over and over again.

The scientists speculated that Toxoplasma was secreted some substance that was altering the patterns of brain activity in the rats. This manipulation likely evolved through natural selection, since parasites that were more likely to end up in cats would leave more offpsring.

The Oxford scientists knew that humans can be hosts to Toxoplasma, too. People can become infected by its eggs by handling soil or kitty litter. For most people, the infection causes no harm. Only if a person's immune system is weak does Toxoplasma grow uncontrollably. That's why pregnant women are advised not to handle kitty litter, and why toxoplasmosis is a serious risk for people with AIDS. Otherwise, the parasite lives quietly in people's bodies (and brains). It's estimated that about half of all people on Earth are infected with Toxoplasma.

Given that human and rat brains have a lot of similarities (they share the same basic anatomy and use the same neurotransmitters), a question naturally arose: if Toxoplasma can alter the behavior of a rat, could it alter a human? Obviously, this manipulation would not do the parasite any good as an adaptation, since it's pretty rare for a human to be devoured by a cat. But it could still have an effect.

Some scientists believe that Toxoplasma changes the personality of its human hosts, bringing different shifts to men and women. Parasitologist Jaroslav Flegr of Charles University in Prague administered psychological questionnaires to people infected with Toxoplasma and controls. Those infected, he found, show a small, but statistically significant, tendency to be more self-reproaching and insecure. Paradoxically, infected women, on average, tend to be more outgoing and warmhearted than controls, while infected men tend to be more jealous and suspicious.

It's controversial work, disputed by many. But it attracted the attention of E. Fuller Torrey of the Stanley Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Torrey and his colleagues had noticed some intriguing links between Toxoplasma and schizophrenia. Infection with the parasite has been associated with damage to a certain class of neurons (astrocytes). So has schizophrenia. Pregnant women with high levels of Toxoplasma antibodies in their blood were more likely to give birth to children who would later develop schizophrenia. Torrey lays out more links in this 2003 paper. While none is a smoking gun, they are certainly food for thought. It's conceivable that exposure to Toxoplasma causes subtle changes in most people's personality, but in a small minority, it has more devastating effects.

A year later, Torrey and his colleagues discovered one more fascinating link. They raised human cells in Petri dishes and infected them with Toxoplasma. Then they dosed the cells with a variety of drugs used to treat schizophrenia. Several of the drugs--most notably haloperidol--blocked the growth of the parasite.

So Fuller and the Oxford scientists joined forces to find an answer to the next logical question: can drugs used to treat schizophrenia help a parasite-crazed rat? They now report their results in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London (press release). They ran the original tests on 49 more rats. Once again, parasitized rats lost their healthy fear of cats. Then the researchers treated the rats with haloperidol and several other anti-psychotic drugs. They found that the drugs made the rats more scared. They also found that the antipsychotics were as effective as pyrimethamine, a drug that is specifically used to eliminate Toxoplasma.

There's plenty left to do to turn these results into a full-blown explanation of parasites and personalities. For example, what is Toxoplasma releasing into brains to manipulate its hosts? And how does that substance give rise to schizophrenia in some humans? And even if the hypothesis does hold up, it would only account for some cases of schizophrenia, while the cause of others would remain undiscovered. But still...the idea that parasites are tinkering with humanity's personality--perhaps even giving rise to cultural diversity--is taking over my head like a bad case of Toxoplasma.

------------------

Wow. link

Photo of the Day

2006-01-21T16:13:00.000-06:00

Photo of the day

2006-01-20T00:01:00.000-06:00

Squidoo - Movin' on up

2006-01-19T08:44:00.000-06:00

Our Squidoo Lens (Walking While Working - How to Take Your Cubicle from 'Fattening Pen' To 'Fitness Center') is now ranked #36 out of 12,001 lenses.

Internal ideas lead to sharper outside messages for five finalists

2006-01-18T00:30:00.000-06:00

My company - Lancet Software, took home the hardware in a little business building contest promoted by a local magazine. We won an award for best practice in communications and marketing...

I got to make a speech... I hadn't done one for some time, and this one was limited to just 4 minutes - I couldn't afford much stumbling. I did an old trick - I recorded the speech, timed to the second. Transferred it to my iPod, and listened to it about 100 times in the 2 days leading up to the event. I've never been so confident, or gotten so many good laughs because my timing was "on" before.

Here's a bit of the article... the picture of me (with Tika) on the blog is from the article's photo shoot.

Loud and clear
Internal ideas lead to sharper outside messages for five finalists

by Elizabeth Martin

When it comes to communications and marketing, five finalists show that a little creative thinking can create a big business advantage.

To wit: Connecting with customers in a new way landed Bard Advertising a finalist position. When a prospective client asked to learn more about the firm’s capabilities, but specifically begged not to see another PowerPoint presentation, the company knew it had to put its best creative foot forward. The end result was an interactive game in which prospective clients are asked to guess how the company obtained measurable results. Bard won the business, and a new sales tool.“In all cases of our presentation, people were amazed at the results,” says Barb Stabno, founder.

Employees rule
California Closets uses plasma TVs within its Bloomington store to showcase its new sales displays at the beginning of each year. But after the displays were revealed in the beginning of the year, the TVs sat idle. So, the company decided to use the TVs to better communicate with its employees. Today the TVs are installed throughout the company’s offices and display financial information, success rates, and bonus updates as well as information submitted by employees. “The fun part is throughout the important information we pop in pictures of company functions,” says Michele Skjei (pronounced Shay), vice president and franchise co-owner. Using the TVs to communicate and acknowledge employees helps engage people with different learning styles as well, she says. Some employees want to read information, while others want to see or hear it. “People get turned on, they get stimulated, they want to be part of the company,” when they’re engaged, says Skjei. She adds that when the TVs are appropriated for their original purpose of showing the new sales displays, her 32 employees tell her that they miss the steady stream of company information.

California Closets has a unique take on its employee newsletter, as well. Instead of a long missive drafted by executives, the company distributes a brief newsletter written by the employees themselves.“Less is more in my mind,” says Skjei. “One page, one side, that’s it. ”Having employees draft the newsletter gives management an insight into morale and other issues. “If you let them write the newsletter as though it’s not the company newsletter, you get a different perspective.”

'Addicted' clients
Tom Niccum, president of Burnsville-based Lancet Software Development Inc., got to his latest marketing strategy through lateral thinking. His firm decided to market its Web design services for small and mid-sized companies through a stored value card, much like the ones used at many coffee chains. So what is lateral thinking? And how does one begin to see the similarities between coffee bars and Web design?

Niccum describes it this way: “What if Web design was like fast food? It would be cheap, fast, reliable,” he says. And, he adds, you don’t haggle over the price of fast food. The card allows customers to pay for a certain amount of Lancet’s Web development time and then use the time as they see fit. The LancetCard is targeted to micro and small businesses at which, Niccum says, an employee’s brother or niece is often hired to do Web design.“Our first big challenge was how to create an offering that would make someone fire their relative,” he tells the audience. Lancet now gives its card-holding customers a Web site where they can see how much work has been done on their site and how long it took.

The benefits to Lancet go beyond simply marketing. The fact that the cards are pre-paid allows the company to anticipate its workload and staff accordingly.“Like Starbucks, we now have addicts,” jokes Niccum. He told the audience that the company now has customers who are constantly tweaking their sites because the stored value makes it so easy to do. But the stored value has differentiated them from other Web design firms too. “We wanted to do something, rather than just say something, about why we’re different.“We think the paradigm has a lot more to be squeezed out of it,” says Niccum, whose firm posted $2.88 million in revenue in 2004. He envisions a “Domino’s model” in which “your Web site is done in 24 hours or its free.”

Plan B, fast
MetroConnections in Minneapolis is a full-service meeting planning company. But the company discovered that its clients were overwhelmed by the variety of services available through the company. So, beginning in 2000 MetroConnections gave each of its divisions a separate identity and logo. But then came September 11, 2001, and the entire hospitality industry was turned inside out. MetroConnections lost $1 million in business in the week after Sept. 11, says Tom McCulloch, vice president of marketing and conference services.

“We decided we needed to figure out what our customers were thinking,” says McCulloch. Working with an industry publication they discovered that the majority of meeting planners were proceeding with plans to hold meetings, but they were no longer holding these meetings in locations that involved travel. So, MetroConnections, which had marketed itself nationally, decided to refocus its efforts on the Twin Cities. But its rebranding efforts paid off as well. “Because we had developed our independent brands, we learned that there were a lot of people that hired us for transportation that knew nothing about our other services,” says McCulloch. Metro Connections refocused its sales database and marketing efforts on cross-selling to existing clients and has been reaping the rewards ever since. McCulloch says that Metro Connections is on track to make 2005 its best year since 1999.

High notes
Musical performers The O’Neill Brothers have been able to harness the power of the Internet to sell more than 1 million CDs. The company now sells $1,000 of wedding music per day through their site, says Tim O’Neill, half of the eponymous duo. Sales have increased 40 percent in the past year.“Marketing today is the easiest that it’s ever been,” O’Neill tells the audience. “The Internet allows small companies to look like big companies.”

As an example, O’Neill tells of the company’s efforts to find a female vocalist for The O’Neill Brothers’ upcoming concert tour. O’Neill says he sent an e-mail along with a link to the duo’s Web site to the management of 1980s pop singer Deborah Gibson. Shortly thereafter, O’Neill received a call from Gibson’s management and an agreement was reached to have Gibson join The O’Neill Brothers for this year’s tour.

So how did a 10-person company out of New Prague, Minnesota, create such a Web marketing success story? “Because we have embraced the Internet, because we realize that 90,000 people per month go to Google and type in ‘wedding music,” explains O’Neill. Previously, the company had directed hits from Google directly to its home page. But when the company realized that it could use the demand for wedding music to increase sales, it began directing those searching the Internet to a specialized landing page featuring The O’Neill Brothers’ wedding music.

Apple iPod Customer Support gets an "A"

2006-01-18T00:17:00.000-06:00

After hauling my new iPod w/Video 60gb unit all over India in November and December, it failed on me. It was odd - the device got pretty warm, I could copy songs and files to and from the iPod, but it wouldn't play any music. Bummer. I went to the website and followed the diagnosis and return instructions, on a Saturday.

I was rewarded with an email saying a special box would be delivered in a few days.

On Monday, a bright yellow DHL truck showed up at my office with a shipping box, pre-addressed to Apple's repair facility. So Tuesday, I called DHL for a pickup, and off my iPod went. On Wednesday I received an email indicating that the iPod had been received at the repair facility. I checked the website daily for status. Thursday it moved into "Diagnosis" status, where it remained over the weekend. Monday, it moved to "Return Pending," and it showed up today.

I received a new (or refurbished) iPod. Which is great since I had scuffed the old one pretty badly by dumping it in my photo bag during our trip. So now I'll try to keep it nice with a case.

Photo of the day

2006-01-18T00:01:00.000-06:00

From our recent trip to southern India. I found the colors fantasic there - a building would be painted and fade into so many shades...

Things the Make Me Laugh - The Flickr Song

2006-01-17T00:01:00.000-06:00

This one totally kicks my butt. Flickr is a quicktime movie - so you need quicktime to watch, and it takes a while to download and start playing. Be patient.

Computer History

2006-01-16T23:51:00.000-06:00

I don't remember how we heard about it, but I still remember the day in January 1975. We drove from the 'burbs to downtown Minneapolis to Shinders to get a copy of Popular Electronics with the sexy MITS Altair on the cover. The personal computer revolution was on, we drooled over the possibilities. Now the old stuff seems pretty funny, and I'm enjoying finding bits and pieces of old computer stuff on the internet, like here.

Good times, good times.

Things the Make Me Laugh - Stairway to Gilligan's Island

2006-01-16T21:34:00.000-06:00

Gilligan's Island (Stairway) is a brilliant mash-up of Stairway to Heaven with the words to the love theme from Gilligan's Island... Made in 1978, it belies the notion that mash-ups are the new new thing.

Movie of the Week: Grizzly Man

2006-01-15T23:50:00.000-06:00

Netflix brough Grizzly Man to our mailbox this week. Its an great look at someone on a noble mission that just isn't thinking quite straight about it. Ex-addict Timothy Treadwell loves bears. Maybe a little too much. `For thirteen years Treadwell spent most of every summer living on the Alaskan penninsula, with his beloved bears. Until they ate him.

His love causes him to have a lot of interaction with them - thus habituating them to human contact. Not good. His long rants about poachers and other threats to the grizzlies are contradicted by the fact that he rarely sees anyone in his remote part of Alaska - let alone people interested in hurting bears.

That's not to say bears don't need protection. But his type of protecting, maybe not so much.

It appears that he was filming his own Jeff Corwin Experience or Crocodile Hunter style documentary. Over 100 hours of footage was available, allowing Treadwell to tell much of his own story. Director Werner Herzog narrates a bit and interviews friends and family members to allow us to understand Treadwell better. I don't think I understand him, but it was a very interesting movie.

Mr. Colbert - you need to move bears back to the number 1 spot on your threatdown list.

Associated Press is the number one threat facing America.

2006-01-15T09:32:00.000-06:00

As reported by the Associated Press, Stephen Colbert has launched a vendetta against the associated press...

Colbert: AP is America’s ‘number 1 threat’
Comedian wants credit for coining ‘truthiness’

Joel Jeffries / AP file

NEW YORK - Stung by a recent Associated Press article that didn’t credit him for coining the word “truthiness,” Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert has struck back.

The world’s oldest news organization, Colbert says, is the “No. 1 threat facing America.”

On Wednesday evening, Colbert placed the AP atop the Threat Down segment of “The Colbert Report” show. What was No. 2?

Bears.

In October, on Colbert’s debut episode of the “Daily Show” spinoff, the comedian defined “truthiness” as truth that wouldn’t stand to be held back by facts. The word caught on, and last week the American Dialect Society named “truthiness” the word of the year.

When an AP story about the designation sent coast to coast failed to mention Colbert, he began a tongue-in-cheek crusade, not unlike the kind his muse Bill O’Reilly might lead in all seriousness.

“It’s a sin of omission, is what it is,” Colbert told The AP on Thursday. “You’re not giving people the whole story about truthiness.”

“It’s like Shakespeare still being alive and not asking him what ‘Hamlet’ is about,” he said.

The Oxford English Dictionary has a definition for “truthy” dating back to the 1800s. It’s defined as “characterized by truth” and includes the derivation “truthiness.”

Michael Adams, a visiting associate professor at North Carolina State University who specializes in lexicology, pointed to that definition and has said Colbert’s claim to inventing the word is “untrue.” (Adams served as the expert opinion in the initial AP story.)

“The fact that they looked it up in a book just shows that they don’t get the idea of truthiness at all,” Colbert said Thursday. “You don’t look up truthiness in a book, you look it up in your gut.”

Though slight, the difference of Colbert’s definition and the OED’s is essential. It’s not your typical truth, but, as The New York Times wrote, “a summation of what (Colbert) sees as the guiding ethos of the loudest commentators on Fox News, MSNBC and CNN.”

Colbert, who referred on his program to the AP omission as a “journalistic travesty,” said Thursday that it was similar to the much-criticized weapons of mass destruction reporting leading up to the Iraq War.

“Except,” he said, “people got hurt this time.”

Nikon to Stop Selling most Film-Based Cameras This Year…

2006-01-13T08:03:00.000-06:00

The Nikon UK website dropped the bomb - only the super high-end F6 and the retro, all-mechanical FM10 film cameras will continue to be produced. I'm sure the numbers make a lot of sense. I made the switch from film to digital over the course of about 3 years. Starting with a Nikon D1, while still shooting most of my travel photography with an F100. After a trip to Vietnam and the resulting hours spent scanning the slides, it felt time to switch over. I did my research and went with a Nikon D70. Its at a nice point in the price/performance curve.

Almost Famous...

2006-01-12T11:42:00.000-06:00

BookofJoe had a nice mention today of my website and the newly created squidoo lens walkingwhileworking.

I'm very curious to see how much buzz it will generate..

Tired Legs - The Treadmill Desk Rolls along

2006-01-11T07:23:00.000-06:00

At the end of the day yesterday, my desk had 6 Miles on the odometer... I'm a bit skeptical of that - but its still somewhere around 5 miles that I walked while doing my emails, reports, budgets, and taking phone calls. This morning my legs feel a little tired... but I'm looking forward to clocking another 5 miles today.

The desk experiment - Details

2006-01-10T09:00:00.000-06:00

Above is my current "desk", as it sits at Lancet Software's world headquarters and nerve center. It started with a part of my office furniture that you see in the foreground - which was a perfect work surface for standing while working. In that incarnation, I slipped my HP notebook under the desktop (there's a perfect gap between top and some drawers for this) and added a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse combo. I also added a Plantronics CS50 wireless headset to my IP Phone. This allowed me the freedom to roam around the office and still be able to take phone calls easily.

When the treadmill arrived certain adjustments had to be made. The monitor had to be raised about 12 inches to get back to eye level. I'm currently using a case of printer paper to perform that duty while I look for a more permanent solution.

Two other problems demanded solution - a keyboard space that was solid, and auxiliary desk space for phone, in-box, coffee cup, etc.

I solved the keyboard problem with a trip to Home Depot - where I bought a 12"x36" piece of black (to match the treadmill) shelving. I added a 1 1/2" pipe strap, drilled appropriate holes and attached the shelf securly to the handgrip of the treadmill.

The auxilliary workspace has only a temporary solution at this point.

I'm using a trash can with a board on top - "holy college dorm room, batman!" It works for now, but I'm on the trail of a permanent solution.

Walking While Working: The Lens

2006-01-09T22:24:00.000-06:00

From bookofjoe comes an artice he found in yesterday's Washington Post Business section. Seth Godin, internet guru, and author (I've read 4 or 5 of his books), has introduced "Squidoo" - a new way to build content on the web.

Here's the article.

Squidoo.com
Type in "best" and "espresso maker" into Google, and you'll have to sift through more than 200,000 results in your quest to score the perfect machine.

Wouldn't it be great if there was a know-it-all you could turn to for a speedier answer?

That's the idea behind Squidoo.com, where, as the slogan says, "everyone's an expert on something."

The Web site's concept: Enthusiasts and aficionados create free single-page blogs called "lenses" dedicated to their favorite subjects, be they coffee makers, cars or calypso.

"If there's a passionate person, they can have a lens," says Squidoo founder Seth Godin.

Having launched to the public last month, the site already carries more than 10,000 such pages, devoted to subjects including microfinance, giraffes and the Dandy Warhols.

Godin says that he hopes to see 100,000 by year's end.

But if anyone can be a self-appointed authority, how do you know that the information you're getting is good?

The site doesn't offer any official evaluation of its lenses, but Godin is confident that the information economy will naturally sort the wheat from the chaff.

"If we have a hundred lenses on a topic, the highest ranked will be the freshest, the most popular, the most useful," he says, "and the junk lenses will sink to the bottom."

Thanks to Squidoo's easy-to-implement template, creating a page of your own requires little effort -- and could offer a big payoff.

Godin says that the company plans to start a profit-sharing system for participants based on ad sales and affiliate royalties from sites such as eBay and Amazon.

If your lens includes links to buy stuff, you'll receive a commission.

----------------

Squidoo has called, and I have answered. Dr. Joseph Stirt (www.bookofjoe.com) and I are collaborating on a Lens that we're calling "Walking At Work." The lens is inspired by the ideas (and has the blessing of) Dr. James Levine, of Mayo Clinic's NEAT Laboaratory.

Dr. Levine advocates that anyone in a "desk jockey" type job could do much of it while walking. Joe and I have reoriented our workspaces to accomodate treadmills so that we can walk all day. We'll be posting as much content as we can scrape up at http://squidoo.com/walkingwhileworking

This Week's Movie: Murderball

2006-01-08T08:38:00.000-06:00

On the surface
Murderball is a look at about 2 years in the life of the US quad rugby team as it gears up for the 2004 paralympics in Athens. Prior to watching this movie I didn't know there was such a thing as "quad" rugby... The title "Murderball" is the sport's original name, changed to quad rugby, as one participant wryly notes, for marketing purposes. But Murderball it is. Its rough, tumble, and hyper-competitive. These are serious athletes. The film really works to get you to see these guys as guys, normal in every respect, their disabilities are part of them for certain, but maybe not that important. The film explores in a natural and frank way difficult themes of post injury recovery, depression, sexuality, relationships, and dealing with the world.

I found it absolutely fascinating in nearly every respect.

The Areas of His Expertise

2006-01-06T18:12:00.000-06:00

I just finished John Hodgeman’s “The Areas of My Expertise”

If you’re a fan of “This American Life” on NPR, he should be familiar to you – his best known segment was asking people on the street “If you were a superhero and had a choice, would you choose invisibility or the ability to fly as your super power.” Revealed deep psychological truths…

The book is probably a love it or hate it thing. The reviews on amazon are pretty much 5 stars or 1 star. I laughed very very hard at some of the stuff.

Here’s an excerpt, published in LA Weekly…

The Areas of My Expertise
by JOHN HODGMAN

Greetings, Los Angeles. As you may know, we are at the beginning of another Gregorian year. In New York, where I live, the ball has dropped. The rivers of champagne have run dry. Over 3,000 pounds of confetti, broken promises and shredded Justinian calendars have been removed from the canyon of Times Square. Now it is time for sober, hung-over reflection — and of course for failed palindromes. Because amongst the momentous turmoil of 2005, the de- and re-Poping, an amphibious assault on our shores by hurricanes, I am humbled to report that my small book was published: The Areas of My Expertise, a compendium of fascinating trivia and historical oddities like any other, with the distinction that in my book, all of the amazing true facts are made up by me. I make no claim that this small book is important, or even amusing; but I do hope at least that it is distracting in a year when distraction was needed. May these small, good-natured lies help you forget the facts for a moment. And to the “Failed Palindromes” below I may add two more:

1. 2005

2. THE YEAR 2006, READY YET?

When Writing, Please Avoid These Failed Palindromes
Slow speed: deep owls
Drat that tard
Two owls hoot who owls hoot too (owt)
Sour candy and Dan C. roused
Desire still lisps: Arise! D.
A man, a plan, a kind of man-made river, planned.
Hobos! So!
Eh, s’occurs to me to succor she
Tow a what? Thaw!

Idiosyncrasies of the Great Detectives

Miss Millicent McTeague This elderly spinster is not as senile as she seems! Also, she eats cats.
Juno Dix This refined, morbidly obese attorney solves crimes without ever leaving his own bathtub.
Inspector Franz Duvet-Perez This fastidious foreigner refuses to say exactly what country he is from, thus keeping everyone guessing.
Buddy Jimmy Smith This freckle-faced fourth-grader is actually the reincarnation of an Egyptian slave whose ancient memories of embalming techniques mystically guides him as he cracks “The Case of Janey’s Kitten, Who Has Been Missing for Days.”
Brother Metrigon This 10th-century monk actually believes he is a ninth-century monk.
Sergeant Demonicus Rex This uniformed police officer is also a high magus in the Church of Satan.
Dr. Kathleen Pietro This brilliant medical examiner occasionally wears the victims’ skin in order to “see the crime through their eyes.” This habit becomes something of a liability when she begins wearing the victims’ skin to nightclubs and restaurants.
Lord Miles Overstreet This debonair, mentally ill aristocrat does not realize that he is his own nemesis, the mad Dr. Craig Kittles.

Nine Presidents Who Had Hooks for Hands

Jefferson (who designed his own hook)
Van Buren (known as “Old Kinderhook”)
Garfield (when President Garfield was shot, Alexander Graham Bell attempted to locate the bullet with a crude metal detector of his own invention; instead, he discovered “a curved, metallic sharpness in the vicinity of the wrist’s end.” Historians agree: hook)
T. Roosevelt (first draft: “speak softly and pierce their eyes with a golden hook”)
F. Roosevelt (note: his hook was actually a wheelchair)
Nixon (many believe that the sight of his horrific hook lost him the first televised debate with Kennedy, who was hookless)
Bush I and II (however, Bush II replaced his hook with a chain saw in an effort to seem less privileged)
Edward “Thach” Teach, a.k.a. Blackbeard (although technically, President Blackbeard was only president of the pirates)

Colonial Jobs Involving Eels

Eels, as any schoolchild knows, were the true main course at the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving, largely because the eels themselves had eaten all the turkeys. While it’s difficult to imagine now, our nation’s rivers were once glossy and black with majestic herds of eels. And the eels played a critical role in the economy and culture of colonial New England.

Paling Man A legitimate eel merchant.

Eel Picker A person who sorted through the village trash to find reusable eels.

Eel and Bone Man An itinerant merchant of eel carcasses and especially eel teeth. (See Scrimschonger, below.)

Eel Crier A young man who was posted to watch at the edge of a town or settlement for eels. Often an unintelligent person.

Eelwright Maker of false eels as decoys or for decorations.

Ratter Someone who caught rats to throw at eels to distract them. It was well-known that an eel would stare at a rat for hours, allowing a human a quick escape.

Eel Checker Once the eels were first spotted on land, an eel checker was often employed to check a home for hidden eels and to check under wagons for the same. This was not a skilled job and should not be confused with an eelsmeller, who was an artisan trained in the art of detecting eels that had disguised themselves as Dutchmen.

Eel Almanacker Many printed almanacs predicted the eel seasons, those periods when the eels would be plentiful, and when they would disappear for months on end to spawn. An eel almanac would also include a calendar of when eels would be wistful, secretive or accusing.

Scrimshander or Scrimschonger An artisan who carves scenes of daily colonial life in delicate, small etchings upon eel teeth. Many family portraits and early images of colonial life were immortalized on eel teeth.

Toothsmith A dedicated eel-tooth polisher and seller. The best eel teeth were those found lodged in trees, which eels would often attack at night.

Eel Meterer One who wrote poems about eels. When the eels proved amphibious and began walking on land, they became objects of deep and fearful fascination. And so many folktales were spawned of Dan Crate, the Brackish Man, who tied eels together to build a rope ladder to the clouds, and at the same time of Sleek Cynthia, the noble eel who stared down the sea.

Eel Tonguer One who learned the language of the eels.

Eel-Orphan A human child raised by eels after his parents had died or willingly given him up to become an eel tonguer. The eel tonguer’s parents were usually held in high regard for their sacrifice, though one printed memoir by an eel-orphan, The Eel-Boy’s Confession and Spelling Handbook, suggested that the author was much happier with the eels.

Rod-Man Also known as an eelpoker. Self-explanatory.

The desk experiment... Part II

2006-01-06T14:39:00.001-06:00

The Smooth Fitness 5.25 treadmill arrived today - great customer service. I ordered it from their website. The contacted me immediately via email to discuss shipping options. The treadmill arrived today, a week sooner than promised in the initial order. I like it when that happens.

Took me about 20-30 minutes to assemble in my office, and i've been playing around with rearranging my (stand-up) desk, monitor etc. to make it usable. I'm walking as I type this - not too bad - i thought it would take a long while to get used to, but its working pretty well.

To do's: (1) secure board where my keyboard and mouse are sitting - need to bungy-cord it so it won't slip off the treadmill grab bars. (2) find better place for phone - i use a wireless headset, so that's not an issue - but I still need to reach the phone to dial; (3) better access to my desk drawers; still need a staples and tape occaisionally...

all in all a good way to end the week.

The desk experiment...

2005-12-29T10:34:00.000-06:00

I got this idea from
www.bookofjoe.com, who got it from this researcher at the Mayo Clinic.

So - I've taken the first step, moving to a standup desk. No chairs for me anymore. I've also added a wireless headset and 24" monitor, wireless keyboard, and wireless mouse. This is phase one, and I've been doing the stand-up thing for about 60 days.

So far, so good.

Now the treadmill, a Smooth Fitness 5.25, is on order. I'll be able to start the new year by walking all day while at my desk.

I need to.

After successfully losing 100 pounds about 8 years ago, I've regressed. Through weightlifting and other excersize I'm in better shape, but starting to get really big again - mainly due to smoking cessation about 4 years ago, I believe.

Its time to get serious - again.

Bombay

2005-12-29T10:30:00.000-06:00

My wife, Nancy, did a nice article on her website about our day in Bombay during our recent trip to India. You can read it at nancydowling.com.

India - Photo of the Day - Ranganathitoo - Day 16

2005-12-05T08:56:00.000-06:00

Giant fruit bats nesting at Ranganathitoo

India - Photo of the Day - Nagarahole - Day 15

2005-12-04T08:56:00.000-06:00

Mmmmmmm, fresh tamarind... taken on the grounds of Kabini River lodge

India - Photo of the Day - Nagarahole - Day 14

2005-12-03T08:53:00.000-06:00

How do you stop an elephant from charging?

India - Photo of the Day - Nagarahole - Day 13

2005-12-02T08:52:00.000-06:00

Crested Serpent Eagle at Nagarahole refuge.

India - Photo of the Day - Kannur - Day 12

2005-12-01T08:47:00.000-06:00

Traditional Teyyam Dancer prepares his makeup.

India - Photo of the Day - Thrissur - Day 11

2005-11-30T16:57:00.000-06:00

India - Photo of the Day - Kochin - Day 10

2005-11-29T16:53:00.000-06:00

Santa Claus is comin' to town...

India - Photo of the Day - Kochin - Day 9

2005-11-28T16:11:00.000-06:00

Kathikali dancers in Kochin

India - Photo of the Day - Kochin - Day 8

2005-11-27T15:33:00.000-06:00

Mother and Child in old Kochin, Kerala.

India - Photo of the Day - Kerala - Day 7

2005-11-26T15:38:00.000-06:00

India - Photo of the Day - Kerala - Day 6

2005-11-25T15:30:00.000-06:00

Lady and dog in the Kerala backwaters.

India - Photo of the Day - Thekkady - Day 5

2005-11-24T15:22:00.000-06:00

An auto-rickshaw careens through rainy Thekkady, Kerala.

India - Photo of the Day - Periyar - Day 4

2005-11-23T15:07:00.000-06:00

Young monkey scrabbles up an embankment, Periyar National Park.

India - Photo of the Day - Madurai Day 3

2005-11-22T14:36:00.000-06:00

Family in a Dalit( formerly "untouchable") village, near Chettinad, Tamil Nadu.

India - Photo of the Day - Madurai Day 2

2005-11-21T14:32:00.000-06:00

Closeup of carvings on Shree Menakshee Temple, Madurai, Tamil Nadu

India - Photo of the Day - Madurai Day 1

2005-11-20T13:57:00.000-06:00

A priest lights an oil lamp at the Shree Menakshee temple in Madurai, Tamil Nadu.

1 Leg to India Down

2005-11-18T07:55:00.000-06:00

Hello from Amsterdam - 7.55am here, just arrived after eight hours of flying. I cranked my new iPod Video the entire way, and it helped shorten the trip. The new Etymotic ER6i earphones really cut down the ambient noise. I literally could not hear plane noise or babies crying, etc.

We board up in 2 hours to continue on to Mumbai, when we land it will be 11pm local time.

More later!

Off to India!

2005-11-16T20:37:00.000-06:00

Namaste!

Temps are dropping to the teens here in MSP tonight… time to fly the coop for warmer climes.

Our journey to India will take us to Tamil Nadu and Kerala, 3 different wildlife refuges and uncountable temples. We’ll be doing a houseboat trip into the backwaters of Kerala…

I hope to be able to upload some pix on the run… we’ll see.

Have a great turkey day – we’ll be dining on chickpeas and curry, lentils, dosa and idli… mmmmmmmmmm

I’ll be back in the office on December 8… seems like a long time from now.

Namaste!

Carputer update

2005-08-14T11:00:00.000-05:00

The carputer has been a reasonable success. I have it semi-attached in the Infiniti. An old Sony Vaio laptop tucked under the seat, conntected to a touch-sensitive 7" LCD panel mounted on a flexible stalk. Two issues to solve... the stalk comes loose at the point where the flexible part meets the mounting bracket - a poor design... i need to add some locktite or epoxy to the screws to keep the stalk from flapping in the breeze. I'd like to permanently wire the computer to the car's power - i'm currently using just a cigarette lighter arrangement. The hassle is that the laptop needs to be switched on manually, by groping under the seat. AT the very least, I need some sort of remote switch.

Software wise, I'm using iGuidance, which is working really well. I'd like a better LCD screen - the cheapo "Liliput" that I'm using is washed out in any kind of sunlight.

We've created a "go-kit" as well, with secondary powersupply and GPS antenna. I detach the laptop and bring it along when we travel. This has worked fantastic.

Carputer update 1

2005-03-16T21:43:00.000-06:00

We have GPS... and mobile internet...

Here's the hardware manifest so far:
- Computer: Sony Vaio SR7K, 256Mb Ram, 12Gb Disc, 600Mhz process (whee!)
- OS: Microsoft XP Media Center Edition
- GPS: Microsoft Streets and Trips with GPS antenna
- Phone: Audiovox SMT5600 Smartphone, connected via bluetooth
- Targus bluetooth USB
- Targus wireless mini mouse
- Carputer front end: Centrafuse

I wiped the Vaio clean of 5 years of accumulated junk - took 'er down the bare metal as it were and started with a fresh install of XP MCE. I added the bluetooth USB connector, and I was able to easily connect to the internet via my smartphone. Should be nice for driving around - Nancy can navigate and check email while I drive.

Picked up a car power supply for the laptop... ready to go mobile with the rig and start testing this weekend on a trip to North Carolina...

Project: The Carputer

2005-03-14T09:43:00.000-06:00

It seems time for a new project. So here we go...

I started by looking at ways to install a nice GPS/Navigation system in my car (2002 Infiniti I35). After looking around the web, I decided to aim a little higher and install an full Windows-based computer in the car. It looks like there are a lot of components arriving so that one could purchase a fully blown system right now, but I think it will be more fun to construct it from the ground up.

My initial requirements are:

GPS/Navigation
Connection to Internet (via my smartphone for now) - for weather, road conditions, restauraunts...
Bluetooth (for connection to smartphone)
Control of the phone - dialing from directory, hands free

Future upgrades may be to replace the car's sound system with DVD/MP3/CD play. For now, I'm leaving that alone, as the I35 has an insanely complex Bose system integrated into the dash that may be difficult to extricate. But the ultimate goal would be to pull that out and replace it with a touch panel video display.

For first steps, I've ordered a Holux GPS USB GPS receiver and a USB bluetooth dongle. I'm using an old Sony Vaio 700mhz laptop that weighs only a pound and a half and is very tiny. Initial testing will just use the laptop as is, powered by an inverter. The whole affair should slide under the passenger seat if needed.

Software testing has commenced while I wait for the GPS receiver... http://gpss.uk.co has shareware for non-commercial use. I'll take a look at some other GPS/Nav software also - iGuidance looks interesting.

I'm also testing CenterFuse as the controlling application - looks very nicely done and is also available as beta test version for free from http://www.mediaflux.com

I'll keep this updated and add photos as the project progesses!

Investigate like the pros

2005-03-09T12:50:00.000-06:00

The New York Times has a nice little portal from where you can launch a lot of different kinds of lookups....

"Navigator is the home page used by the newsroom of The New York Times for forays into the Web. Its primary intent was to give reporters and editors new to the Web a solid starting point for a wide range of journalistic functions without forcing all of them to spend time wandering around blindly to find a useful set of links of their own. Its secondary purpose was to show people that there's a lot of fun and useful stuff going on out there.

The list is by its nature highly selective and constantly changing. Suggestions are always welcome."

Link

Slim Devices releases Squeezbox2

2005-03-09T06:21:00.000-06:00

About 2 years ago I took the plunge and dumped our entire CD collection (about 400 discs) to a small server. We purchased a SlimP3 player and a Linksys wireless to ethernet connector and we were broadcasting from the "media server" to the living room with full access to our collection from the handy remote control. We've since added a TiVo, which can play music from the same media server.

The SliMP3 has performed flawlessly. The large display is readable from quite a distance, and the remote is intuitive. I chose this device because it has this great display and doesn't require a TV set or entire media center to set up. We have ours in the living room where there is no TV set - it seems like most similar devices require that for display purposes.

The SlimP3 continues to evolve, and I just received word that their newest device is ready to go:

"...Slim Devices has been hard at work on Squeezebox2, our next-generation network music player. Squeezebox2 features include:

- True 802.11g wireless
- Lossless compression (FLAC) support
- Audiophile-quality digital and analog outputs
- Enormous audio buffer
- Grayscale display with more than twice the resolution
- Pure-software audio decoding on a screaming fast processor
- Bridging, cross-fading, visualizers, and more..."

Link

Google Maps

2005-03-09T06:15:00.000-06:00

Engadget has an interesting article about how to make your own annotated multimedia Google map.

Their method allows you to take out a camera and a GPS and "annotate" a google map with pictures taken on location. You can create a virtual walking tour of your neighborhood with photos of the mean neighbor, the cat lady, the house where the lawn is never mowed, etc.

Link

More fun with maps - World Wind by Nasa

2005-03-09T06:06:00.000-06:00

World Wind is another cool product of your tax dollars, and it allows you to visualize earth data such as Landsat images very easily.

"World Wind lets you zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth. Leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, World Wind lets you experience Earth terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really there.

Virtually visit any place in the world. Look across the Andes, into the Grand Canyon, over the Alps, or along the African Sahara."

Link

Travel: Visit North Korea...

2005-03-07T06:21:00.000-06:00

Boingboing.net has an interesting story about a game of cat and mouse with the Korean Friendship Association. Seems the KFA posted a flash movied inviting one and all to join their group and come along on a magical tour of the DPRK. Boingboing found that interesting, and posted a link. The KFA website (apparently run out of Barcelona) posted an interesting reaction:

Access to the requested object was denied.
Due to some inconsiderate people linking directly to our multimedia we were forced to take the content offline since it generated too much traffic.

This kind of careless linking to high-profile sites is typical of the internet where people no longer respect that such links could make free content less available.

We will never charge money to pay for the bandwidth, so if people are going to expect high-quality content they should make their own copy of the large file and share it from their own server.

Questions can be sent to support@korea-dpr.com for technical advice.

Thank you and have a nice day.

Link to the movie

Link to the story

Article: Healthy Results from IT Investments

2005-03-06T07:17:00.000-06:00

My company (Lancet Software) has been working closely with one of our partners (Solutions for Healthcare) to create a commercially viable, lightweight, electronic medical record for small to medium sized clinics. The Minneapolis StarTribune was kind enough to run an article by me this morning in the business section.

Wanting health care costs to go down is a lot like talking about lousy weather and the playoff performances of Minnesota's pro sports franchises: Everybody wrings their hands, but the weather vane keeps spinning and the scoreboard totals are depressingly correct.

But in health care, at least, solutions that look promising are emerging. The recent federal government report, "The Decade of Health Information Technology," issued to coincide with formation of a national private-sector consortium (the Health Information Technology Leadership Panel), estimates that if patient records were in electronic form, 10 percent of the nation's annual health care bill -- $140 billion a year -- could be saved.

The reality piece is where it gets sticky.

According to a New York Times story by way of the Gartner Group, health care investment in information technology (IT) is slow and minuscule: Only 13 percent of the country's 6,000-plus hospitals currently use any kind of electronic patient record system. Meanwhile, the $1.5 trillion-dollar health care industry spends on average $3,000 on IT investments for each worker. That compares with $7,000 per worker in private industry and almost $15,000 in banking.

Hospitals and clinics argue that the dollar and time costs of investment are significant barriers to making the much-needed change. But those comparative investment figures seem to be asking, "What's more important, your money or your life?"

And that's disturbing, because the federal report makes clear that health care IT benefits don't stop at mere cost savings, they extend into quality care and longevity.

According to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, today's medical errors associated with paper handling and patient record-keeping alone are estimated to be responsible for 45,000 to 98,000 deaths a year nationally.

Related stories in the Star Tribune and a recent talk by Gov. Tim Pawlenty at the Mayo Clinic in January indicate that Minnesota must shore up its IT inadequacies in the medical arena as soon as possible.

While no system will ever be perfect, health care IT applications can contribute significantly better results than the ones being posted in the old-school way, especially with patient records and doctors' chronically illegible handwritten notes.

The new-school method relies on the quick electronic entry and delivery of patient information across several departments, doctors, administrative roles and even billing procedures.

The benefits shown by one physician-owned clinic system in central California (Visalia Medical Clinic) that switched to an electronic patient data record are worth noting for our health care institutions here in Minnesota. (In the interest of full disclosure, my company played a role in recrafting the clinic's master patient index -- MPI -- along with another Minnesota-based company, Health Care Solutions.)

The Visalia clinic faces many of the same operational issues as other health care organizations. As the leading medical provider in the area, Visalia's patient administrative data, clinical records and physician transcriptions represented a sizeable challenge in managing the organization's increasing information database.

Visalia's former CEO (now a consultant to other central California clinics), Bill Brouwer, encouraged the clinic "to think five steps ahead" in managing health care. That's sound advice for everyone.

Today the clinic has an Intranet model that serves as a data warehouse for transcription, radiology reports and lab results. By providing anytime, anywhere access to a more complete and readable record of its patients, the new MPI is revolutionizing the way Visalia patient data is made available to all health care professionals in the clinic. The Web-based application is improving operating efficiencies -- and the bottom line -- by speeding the workflow processes. The benefits are telling:

• A once-costly and cumbersome transcription process has been altered so that now physicians use digital recorders that are easily input into the master patient index, with pertinent patient-related information made available over a protected internal Intranet site.

• Patient records are scanned into the index, including numerous forms and data that reside on other clinic computers, centralizing all the information in one location.

• The index integrates scheduling information, which captures appointment dates and the reason for the patient visit.

• Billing information is made available more quickly and accurately via the same Intranet.

It's a creative and innovative health care management toolset. And it's pulling its weight.

"The MPI gives the clinic physicians, management and administration greater access to patient information, while reducing the time and cost of accessing that information, its delivery, analysis and storage," Brouwer said.

The MPI benefits the clinic's physician-owners, the operation of the clinic and, most importantly, its patients. It's a model program and it couldn't come at more propitious time: The Institute of Medicine would like to eliminate "most handwritten clinical data by the end of the decade."

It's an achievable goal.

But the onus is on physicians and the health care business. According to the nonprofit Markle Foundation, if health information sharing is to be improved, technology must be adopted by physicians in small and midsize practices, because this group represents more than half of the nation's physicians and the ones least likely to use IT advances.

If this large segment of health care providers can take that simple first step of throwing away the notepads and pencils and adopting electronic devices and intranets, that will put us on the path to reining in health care costs, life-threatening mistakes and endless complaints.

Link

Keyhole - Google does Satellite Maps

2005-03-05T21:22:00.000-06:00

Very, very cool. This software ($29.95 for a one year subscription, 7 day free trial) allows one to fly, virtually, around the world, hopping from place to place using satellite imagery. Where it is hi-res, its great - a lot of the urban areas of the world are very hi-res. Manhattan, London, etc. The software allows you to tilt the viewing angle so it appears you are flying in a plane with a good sense of the terrain below.

Link

Crazy Packaging

2005-03-05T12:20:00.000-06:00

If a pink crazed rabbit likes 'em, who am I to say no?

Yes, they were delicious.

Imagine the uses!

2005-03-05T12:03:00.000-06:00

I'm about to put the finishing touches on my home theater, and I'm going to need to find some wires, buried in a wall nearly 3 years ago.

I'm thinking that might justify dropping a few hundred bucks on this gizmo...

The 'Fiber Optic Borescope' is "like a combination of a periscope, telescope and microscope for mechanics and builders (or anyone else) who needs to see inside really confined spaces - a truly useful tool that is almost magical and also a heck of a lot fun to use. And the image is very clear."

Apparently its based on the medical type scopes used to peer inside us...

Check it out here.

Midgewink - The Blog

Do Dogs Know Calculus?

NYT: There's a Cafe Scientifique Near You!

Lancet Media Spot

The Mainstream Media Rox

15 Minutes of Fame - 2 more down...

iPLod Cam

Art by Katrina Affected Artists

Interesting: The Caffeine Nap

My Two Minutes of Fame - Thirteen to Go

Interviewed by WCCO-TV about his "Office of the Future"

Interviewed by FutureTense

Roth vs Traditional 401(k) Calculator update

401(k) - Roth vs. Traditional Smackdown

Wash Clothes Without Water

Wired Mag: 10 Best Geek Gatherings in North America

Scientists use www.wheresgeorge.com to build model of disease spread

Finally - Anatomically Correct Soap

Short Your House

Could a Parasite Cause Schizophrenia?

Photo of the Day

Photo of the day

Squidoo - Movin' on up

Internal ideas lead to sharper outside messages for five finalists

Apple iPod Customer Support gets an "A"

Photo of the day

Things the Make Me Laugh - The Flickr Song

Computer History

Things the Make Me Laugh - Stairway to Gilligan's Island

Movie of the Week: Grizzly Man

Associated Press is the number one threat facing America.

Nikon to Stop Selling most Film-Based Cameras This Year…

Almost Famous...

Tired Legs - The Treadmill Desk Rolls along

The desk experiment - Details

Walking While Working: The Lens

This Week's Movie: Murderball

The Areas of His Expertise

The desk experiment... Part II

The desk experiment...

Bombay

India - Photo of the Day - Ranganathitoo - Day 16

India - Photo of the Day - Nagarahole - Day 15

India - Photo of the Day - Nagarahole - Day 14

India - Photo of the Day - Nagarahole - Day 13

India - Photo of the Day - Kannur - Day 12

India - Photo of the Day - Thrissur - Day 11

India - Photo of the Day - Kochin - Day 10

India - Photo of the Day - Kochin - Day 9

India - Photo of the Day - Kochin - Day 8

India - Photo of the Day - Kerala - Day 7

India - Photo of the Day - Kerala - Day 6

India - Photo of the Day - Thekkady - Day 5

India - Photo of the Day - Periyar - Day 4

India - Photo of the Day - Madurai Day 3

India - Photo of the Day - Madurai Day 2

India - Photo of the Day - Madurai Day 1

1 Leg to India Down

Off to India!

Carputer update

Carputer update 1

Project: The Carputer

Investigate like the pros

Slim Devices releases Squeezbox2

Google Maps

More fun with maps - World Wind by Nasa

Travel: Visit North Korea...

Article: Healthy Results from IT Investments

Keyhole - Google does Satellite Maps

Recommended Reading: Influence

Crazy Packaging

Imagine the uses!