Yes, I’m on Twitter- alandove: Another reason we need universal healthcare. @DrFriedenCDC "education & income ... keys to better health. Another reason to stay in school!"
- alandove: No, the Lexus with its lights on probably doesn't belong to anyone at this public health meeting.
- alandove: RT @stevesilberman: Taxes, spending and deficits are all lower today than when Obama took office. http://t.co/NGnJlr5l
- alandove: Good: Apple store next door to conference. Bad: they couldn't fix it either. Good: bought Bluetooth keyboard, now phone = laptop.
- alandove: @lhrandall Cool! I've been sitting about five rows back, end of row, house left. Will probably take same seat tomorrow.
- alandove: My new laptop. #oldschool http://t.co/UK1oPLAQ
- alandove: Just arrived in ATL to cover 2 conferences, and my brand new MacBook Air suddenly and completely croaked. No words for how much this sucks.
- alandove: The journey of a thousand miles should begin with an empty bladder.
- alandove: RT @profvrr: This Week in Virology (TWiV) episode 183 is up: Bats out of hell http://t.co/8ukXCDCq
- alandove: Plenty happens if you listen to HF radio frequencies. "We keep hearing about these ... sunspots and nothing happens!" @sciencegoddess
Tag Archives: fun
If The Shoe Fits…
Try visiting Typealyzer and entering the address of a blog. You’ll get a Myers-Briggs personality type indicator for that blog’s content. Yes, this is silly, but anyone who maintains a blog is obviously narcissistic enough to try it. Here’s the … Continue reading
Snakeheads Are Good Eatin'
One of the big problems with invasive species is that they decimate native species without replacing them economically. For example, inedible zebra mussels have depleted the bottom of the food chain throughout North American freshwater lakes, collapsing the populations of … Continue reading
Back From Vacation
After a wonderfully off-line week on Cape Cod, the Doctors Dove (and their daughter Sophie, pictured below) are back. No deeper thoughts in this post – it’s really just an excuse to put up another baby photo.
Yet Another Robot Psychologist
Dutch clinical psychologists have announced the release of a computer program that allegedly does psychotherapy. I was amused to see them claim that the system, called MindMentor, is the first of its kind:
Two clinical psychologists associated with the Institute for Eclectic Psychology in Holland, Jaap Hollander and Jeffrey Wijnberg, have developed the first robot psychologist, named “MindMentor.” MindMentor is an online computer program that helps people solve problems and achieve goals. It has the unique quality, as compared with other on line psychological help systems, of requiring no live human intervention and being completely automated. Said Hollander in an interview with a Dutch radio program: “What made this whole endeavor exciting, was that we suddenly saw a possibility to create an unlimited amount of psychological help.”
Unlimited, but not free. If you visit the system (at MindMentor.com), you discover that this psychologist charges about ten bucks an hour. That’s cheap for a psychologist, but infinitely more expensive than his competition. If you’re an Emacs user, just type “M-x doctor” and enjoy a free session that lasts as long as you like. Maybe the Emacs version is more primitive, but it would be very interesting to see someone do a study to see what its “success” rate is, using the same definition as the Dutch researchers use for their system.
And, of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask the obvious question: when androids dream, what is the significance of the electric sheep?
Continue reading
Article of Cheese
Continuing my occasional theme of poking fun at the Federal Register (see this post and this one), here’s another fascinating bit of insight into our weird republic:
Quarterly Update to Annual Listing of Foreign Government Subsidies on Articles of Cheese Subject to an In-Quota Rate of Duty
Section 702 of the Trade Agreements Act of 1979 (as amended) (“the Act”) requires the Department of Commerce (“the Department”) to determine, in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture, whether any foreign government is providing a subsidy with respect to any article of cheese subject to an in-quota rate of duty, as defined in section 702(h) of the Act, and to publish an annual list and quarterly updates of the type and amount of those subsidies. We hereby provide the Department’s quarterly update of subsidies on articles of cheese that were imported during the period July 1, 2007 through September 30, 2007.
You can read the full text here, but even after doing that, I’m left wondering: exactly what is an “article of cheese”? I’m pretty sure this posting would count as an article about cheese, but I don’t receive any foreign subsidies, so hopefully The Act (as amended) won’t require The Department to list dovdox.com next year. Continue reading
Friends' Projects
The All Mighty Senators: Dave Finnell, a horn player for this group, was a friend of Alan’s in college. But that’s not why you should check out their music. The Senators are a ton of fun live, and good to play in the car if you don’t mind getting a ticket.
The Columbia University Graduate Student Organization: Alan finished graduate school a long time ago (hear that, Dann?), but while there, he helped start this group, so he felt they deserved a link. Continue reading
Endorphins, Testosterone, and Oxytocin – I Might Overdose
I was pleased to see Jane Brody’s story today about the campaign to get more kids walking or biking to school. As Brody points out:
Forty years ago, half of all students walked or bicycled to school. Today, fewer than 15 percent travel on their own steam. One-quarter take buses, and about 60 percent are transported in private automobiles, usually driven by a parent or, sometimes, a teenager.
Unsurprisingly, private cars turn out to be the most dangerous, most polluting, and least efficient way to transport children. What does this have to do with the title of this post? Well, my wonderful daughter (pictured below, by popular request) already travels to daycare and on errands around town in human-powered style.
She’s too small to pedal, but she loves riding in her elegantly designed bicycle trailer behind Dad or Mom. Dad, in particular, likes towing a weight behind a bicycle rather than driving – it’s an enforced workout that really builds power and speed. With my workout hormones flowing, I also get the benefit of hearing the trailer emit adorable giggles and cheers whenever we hit small bumps. And Sophie, who has never really taken to her car seat, actually begs to go out in the bike trailer. Since moving to our new suburban neighborhood, the Dove family has adopted this setup as a major mode of transportation, postponing the purchase of a second car and saving us hundreds of dollars a month. What’s not to love?
Okay, maybe I won’t love it so much when our Western Massachusetts winter sets in, but I plan to keep using my awesome new bicycle as practical transportation for as long as possible. In keeping with the science bent of this blog, I’ll try to post periodic updates on this experiment in alternative transportation. Continue reading
An Antibacterial … What?
Among the deluge of press releases I see each day, there are inevitably a few odd ones. This news from computer technology maker ATEN, however, was exceptionally odd. It seems they’ve developed a new line of antibacterially-coated KVM switches. A KVM switch, as if you didn’t know, is the switch the über-geeks who administer server farms use to switch a single keyboard, video monitor, and mouse between multiple computers. And why does the world need antibacterial KVM switches? The PR flack at ATEN is glad you asked:
The average desk harbors 400 times more bacteria than the average toilet seat, and some of the most germ-contaminated items include the keyboard and mouse, according to a study conducted by the University of Arizona. Despite this fact, network administrators rarely have time to clean their desktops which can lead to the spread of bacteria in the data center. As a result, the presence of microbes contributes to the spread of pneumonia, the flu, pink eye and strep throat, among other extremely contagious viruses.
“We have designed these groundbreaking and nanocoated enterprise KVM switches to serve the needs of network administrators who operate in ‘clean room’ environments such as hospitals, laboratories, manufacturing facilities and others,” said Sampson Yang, CEO, ATEN Technology, Inc. “Beyond these specific environments, product protective antimicrobial nanocoating can benefit data centers and multi-user environments, as well as server rooms within libraries, schools or government facilities where protection is critical.”
Can you count the factual errors and logical fallacies in the above two paragraphs? I see at least five, maybe six, but I’ll close with a nod to one of my biggest pet peeves. All together now, chant it with me: Bacteria Are Not Viruses. Continue reading
Unanticipated Consequences of Beach Replenishment
I was amused to see the story in the New York Times about the surprising souvenirs now available on some New Jersey beaches:
The explosives problem arose on March 5 when a resident using a metal detector came upon a rusted military fuze, an ignition device incorporating mechanical or electric elements, buried in the sand. Believed to have been dumped off the sides of ships sometime during World War I, the discarded military munitions lay on the ocean floor for 90 years or more, according to Mr. Follett. Last fall, the Army Corps dredged up 500,000 cubic yards of sand from the bottom of the Atlantic as part of a $9 million beach replenishment program for Surf City and part of Ship Bottom.
Why do I find this amusing? Well, a few years ago some of my scuba diving friends and I had a somewhat closer call with a piece of ammunition in New Jersey waters (I wrote about it on the old version of this blog). This stuff is definitely down there, and it doesn’t get safer over time. In fact, according to a Navy source one of my diving buddies talked to, it actually gets more dangerous, as the explosives become less stable. Yet another reason to question the wisdom of beach-replenishment projects. Continue reading
The Nerd Anthem
In the unlikely event that a reader of this blog hasn’t already bookmarked this item, here’s Weird Al Yankovic’s latest stroke of genius. I’ve had this song in my iPod for a couple of months, but hadn’t seen the video until now. Continue reading