as the world’s human athletes are girding themselves for nigh-unbreathable air at the beijing olympics starting friday, their equine counterparts are heading somewhere more hospitable: hong kong.

i had no idea the equestrian events were being held in HK - i’d figured they would be in beijing with everything else, and couldn’t fathom that the horse-and-pony set would voluntary submit their mounts to the foul atmosphere of the mainland. and they aren’t, although the reason given is that the mainland could not guarantee “disease-free zones” for the horses.

it will be interesting to see how the weather holds, though, as hong kong is prone to tropical storms in august. the weather was apparently problematic enough to lead the swiss team to withdraw from the games.

two news sources cover the same story regarding the release of sealed grand jury testimony in the rosenberg spy case.

nyt: “u.s. judge upholds secrecy of rosenberg testimony”
cnn: “58 years later, records unsealed in rosenberg spy case”

however you parse it, it boils down to this: ethel’s brother, david greenglass, doesn’t want his testimony made public, and the judge won’t order it unsealed as long as he’s alive. (david vladeck, GULC professor and one of the petitioners requesting the documents, argues that greenglass compromised the confidentiality of his testimony by discussing it with 60 minutes and elsewhere in the public record, but that’s neither here nor there as far as the spin goes.) most of the rest of the testimony is now fair game.

so, dr. horrible’s sing-along blog is a lot like buffy season six - big with the getting what you ask for, and realizing that whoops, maybe you don’t really want it.

yup.

this is the google search trends from ‘04 to ‘08 from florida for the words “surfing,” “apple pie,” and “orgy.”

for a moment i couldn’t figure out why “apple pie” kept spiking each year - until i realized it was likely a recipe search spike for thanksgiving/christmas. “orgy,” on the other hand, had a spike in early 4th quarter ‘06. anyone know if anything was going on around halloween that year?¹

(the trends are being used to argue that “contemporary community standards” are much more pro-sex than prosecutors in an obscenity case would have you believe. but what i find interesting, as you can see, are the trends themselves, rather than the relative popularity of the terms.)

hat tip: mr. pogue
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¹ a google search on the terms “orgy” “2006″ “halloween” indicates i’m not the only one making that connection. interestingly, a likely culprit from that time seems to be the coverage of the arrest of the guy who is the defendant in the case at hand.

the photograph of h.d. woodson senior high school that accompanies this article is ringing a very, very faint bell. the school bears a striking resemblance to another structure i’ve seen, but i can’t put my finger on what that other structure is. the fbi building? nope. the sci li? eh… maybe.

a call to the school itself wasn’t particularly fruitful - the friendly receptionist didn’t know who the architect was (a long shot, admittedly), and when i told her it reminded me of “something,” she laughed and said “a penitentiary.”¹

woodson’s demolition is scheduled for june 30. i should go take photos this month.
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¹ interestingly, the wikipedia entry for the sci li says it was built in the brutalist style, as was woodson according to this citypaper article (with a truly horrific slideshow); perhaps there is some connection. the sci li opened in ‘71, woodson, in ‘72.

according to the AP via wired, BUCEN is having trouble rolling out the house-to-house portion of the next decennial census. apparently the handhelds are too complicated for the average census-taker.

given that this is the government - and that the census won’t be taken for another two years - i’m willing to bet gold to little green martians that both the hardware and the software they’re using is already well into obsolescence and will be obsolete in 2010. however, i do think it makes sense to move census-taking into the digital age, even if it means losing the physical link to our past created by those paper records.

with that in mind, i’m offering BUCEN my consulting services, free of charge. (they should really take me up on the offer - before earning my law degree, my consulting rate was in the $100/hr neighborhood. now, well, heh.) here’s what I think they should do:

1. use iphones instead of those handheld computers. with the release of the SDK and firmware 2.0 coming out in june, it should not be too difficult to write an app to simplify the interview process. the iphones are smaller, most likely cheaper, and while the keypad interface isn’t as easy to use as a regular keyboard, the census isn’t exactly full of open-ended questions. the iphone also has a built-in camera, which brings me to the next item, data collection.

 

2. use a web-based survey instrument. this will guarantee everyone is running the exact same instrument. it will also allow the collected data to be automatically stored on centralized servers, eliminating the risk of lost data due to handheld hard drive malfunction or that ever-increasing source of government data loss, mobile computer theft.
    

   the instrument itself could make use of the iphone’s camera, using it as an optical scanner to input a unique identifier for each household. (bruji’s bookpedia already uses the isight camera this way, to facilitate data entry in their consumer-grade library database software.) the census-takers would be issued an ID card with a scannable code to be entered at the beginning of each session (or at the end of each questionnaire when the data are transmitted, as an additional security step), as well as sheets of bar codes, one for each questionnaire. using bar codes instead of numerical sequences reduces data entry error, and linking the bar codes issued to the census taker’s ID provides an added data verification check, allowing data to be analyzed for user error or data patterns that would suggest user fraud. (i’ve managed face-to-face interviewers. it happens.)

   all this brings me to the next point, transmitting the data.

3. use the white spaces spectrum. apparently there’s a debate raging on whether the white spaces spectrum should be opened up for wireless broadband access. due to conflicting reports, the feds don’t know if such use would interfere with broadcast television signals. the census provides an excellent opportunity for a controlled, nationwide impact study, while at the same time providing better data transmission rates than current cellular phone systems allow.

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see that? easy-peasy. and in the spirit of full disclosure, this entire post was written using my iphone, although it may be edited on my laptop later today.

mebbe, mebbe not. but i’m gonna try to make it up to the concrete jungle for todd’s next lolita bar debate.

no, it’s not so much that the topic piqued my interest, but that i’ve been meaning to get up there for a debate for, what… years? todd?

okay, okay. i admit it, there is much mileage in that debate topic. *thbbbbpht* admittedly, my own experience is somewhat one-sided…

while jacob might argue that this is a “blogospheric parlor game” rather than a true meme, it has still been quite interesting to see the threads of the “five questions” reach out through social and online networks.

holly and jeffitoes have both answered the five questions i sent them per their request, and their answers are definitely worth the read. (not to mention of higher quality than the questions i sent them!)

reaching back to alejna, who graciously provided me with my questions, she has also spawned other question requests. keep an eye out on ericalee’s blog for her answers; NotSoSage answers questions from two other bloggers.

ya know, this may actually be a meme after all.

a bland article in today’s wapo led me here. fascinating stuff, especially for those who have been in the dc area for a decade or five.

back in the day (circa 1989 or thereabouts), i accompanied my mother to a conference. it was either APHA or PAA; the organization doesn’t really matter. what matters is that while i was visiting the exhibits and booths - for all conferences have them - one in particular caught my eye. it was a group promoting clean, uniform data.* the concept excited me to no end. “you’re doomed,” my mother said, rolling her eyes.

recently she sent me a link to a presentation by hans rosling, professor of international health at the karolinska institute, and founder of gapminder. even if you couldn’t give a fig about international health and development, rosling shows an amazing, dynamic use of data the likes i’ve never seen before.

so, you data junkies, you disseminators of information via graphics, put down your slide rules. close the excel datasheet. and please, PLEASE step away from the powerpoint. instead, paste your eyes to this. and enjoy!

* according to the relevant mother, the group was the u.s. census bureau. stands to reason, although there’s more political gain to be had in manipulating data than ensuring its accuracy.