Nursing in the United States

Here's a great "graphic post" on nursing from NursingSchool.org, put together by Jess at WallStats.com.

Image provided by Nursing School.org

Macheads

I watched an interesting video on Hulu about Macheads.

The only Apple product I own is an iPod shuffle, but I think many people are aware of the cult of Mac (or Apple).  It almost seems that a prerequisite for inclusion as a Machead you have to have an eclectic style sense.

Ignite Presentations

Have you seen videos from Ignite before?  Ignite is a community of geeks that explain a subject in 5 minutes using 20 slides in front of an audience.  The presentation is recorded and shared on their site and through YouTube.

Here's a great presentation on displaying information visually:

Wordle of Blog Categories

The image below is a visual representation of the number of blog posts I have for each category.  The larger the word, the more blog posts I have for that particular category.

I created this using the advanced tools over at Wordle.

Car Salesman

I've had a few buddies that have or currently sell cars.  It's a demanding, cut throat job (from my limited understanding). 

With limited understanding in mind, here's an in depth look at car salesmen from within the profession.  A journalist went 'undercover' in the industry for three months to get a glimpse of the profession.

http://www.edmunds.com/advice/buying/articles/42962/article.html

Here's a short video about the article: Confessions of a Car Salesman

NYC Garbage Art

This is an interesting way of cleaning up litter: New York City Garbage by Justin Gignac -- Thank You for Littering.™

More photos from Ike

Over at Flickr thejulius has posted photos from the Bolivar Peninsula that document the devastation from Ike all these months later.

Below are three photos from the set, but hit the jump and check out the rest of the photo stream: Ike: Forgotten Hurricane

 

The Bolivar Peninsula:

Google Wave

Have you heard about the new app being developed by Google? 

It's called Google Wave.  I first came across it on Lifehacker's post "The Google Wave Highlight Reel".  Lifehacker has eight short YouTube clips taken from the 80 minute preview given during Google I/O 2009.

Here's Google's description of Wave:

Google Wave is a product that helps users communicate and collaborate on the web. A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where users can almost instantly communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. Google Wave is also a platform with a rich set of open APIs that allow developers to embed waves in other web services and to build extensions that work inside waves.

I watched through the highlights first and then played the whole demonstration in the background.  It's really amazing. 

The team stated their goal was to answer the question "What if e-mail were invented today?"  E-mail was created 40 years ago simulating snail mail.  It doesn't take into account many of the technologies we use today to communicate: SMS, IM, blogging or social networking, or any combination of these technologies. 

Google Wave is the answer to that question.  And it is open source.  Google wants developers writing code for Wave. 

The demonstration highlights will give you an overall understanding of how the team combined these different technologies into a single real-time collaborative communication tool.  That's a mouth full of jargon, but what it comes down to is that Wave starts off like any other email client, but allows you to reply to specific parts of the message, with that reply posted under that section of the message.  And you get to see the reply real-time like in an IM.  Only it's better than IM because the letters are transmitted real-time... not when the message is complete.  And since it's one message and the replies are kept inline with the thread or "wave", someone who's added later to the thread can see EVERYTHING that everyone else has discussed.  There's even a playback feature that allows a late comer to the thread to play the entire event back, starting with the original message and progressing through each progressive comment and reply.

To top it all off they have redefined the spell-check dictionary.

To start with, check out the short clips of Google Wave: The Google Wave Highlight Reel

Here's the full demonstration given by the Google development team on day 2 of Google I/O:

 

Additional Resources:

• Product:  wave.google.com
• Platform:  code.google.com/apis/wave 
• Protocol: www.waveprotocol.org 

8 Months After Ike

Here's a photo from a Flickr site of the last house standing on the Bolivar peninsula after Hurricane Ike.  Two friends had flown to Lake Charles in a Cessna and on the way back passed by the peninsula with a camera:

Click on the photo to read his description.

A Teardown of the G1

I came across the site iFixit via Lifehacker.  It's all about tearing down mobile electronics for hacks, upgrades or plain curiosity.

Here's a disassembled G1: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/T-Mobile-G1/782/1

Fantastic Creative Blog

I came across a fantastic website and blog today via Mindjet's blog.

The site, www.austinkleon.com, is chock full of informative and creative content.  He has mind maps of events (like SXSW), maps of books, one he's read about Charles Schulz), and poems. 

One of the many creative aspects of Austin's site is his "blackout poems".  He creates poems using newspaper articles as his source of words.   The process begins by outlining the words he wants to use for the poem, then blacking out the surrounding content. 

He's been commissioned to publish a book of poetry in this manner, due out in 2010.

Another great aspect of his site are his analysis of events, books, festivals and other happenings which he mindmaps.  He keeps a gallery of these on his Flickr account and they're also linked from his site.

Custom Fonts

I came across a periodic table for fonts recently and it made me think of generating a custom font.

 

Image from http://www.behance.net/

 

A quick search for custom fonts led me to this site: http://www.yourfonts.com/

Basically the steps break down like this:

1. Print out the character form
2. Fill in each letter with your handwriting
3. Scan the form
4. Generate your font using the scanned image of the form
5. Download and install your font

The first font I created was really messy, so I created a second, which I think is an improvement, but still isn't quite what I want. 

I also had an idea for a "ransom" font which could be funny.  If I were to cut out characters from newspapers and magazines to use, paste them to the form and generate a font.  I'll let you know if I get around to that.

Here's the first font I did, starting with the form:

CBOND FONT 1

SINCE I USUALLY WRITE IN ALL CAPS, I WILL WRITE OUT THE SAMPLE STATEMENT IN ALL CAPS.

“WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, IN ORDER TO FROM A MORE PERFECT UNION, ESTABLISH JUSTICE, INSURE DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY, PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON DEFENCE, PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE, AND SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY TO OURSELVES AND OUR POSTERITY, DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

 

And here is the second font, starting with the form:

 

CBOND FONT 2

SINCE I USUALLY WRITE IN ALL CAPS, I WILL WRITE OUT THE SAMPLE STATEMENT IN ALL CAPS.

“WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, IN ORDER TO FROM A MORE PERFECT UNION, ESTABLISH JUSTICE, INSURE DOMESTIC TRANQUILITY, PROVIDE FOR THE COMMON DEFENCE, PROMOTE THE GENERAL WELFARE, AND SECURE THE BLESSINGS OF LIBERTY TO OURSELVES AND OUR POSTERITY, DO ORDAIN AND ESTABLISH THIS CONSTITUTION FOR THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA”

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

An intersting article

Amid Obama's change, there's also more of the same

More on ZAP

Apparently there's some controversy surrounding the ZAP company.  Specifically the issue deals with the hype versus delivery.  While the company does produce and sell electric vehicles, it only has two lines.  Many of the products they announce never materialize, although the company's board is quick to issue press releases and then capitalize on the stock gains.   Their consultants then ask for the press to tread lightly on the company since they operate in the "green sector".

It sounds like this company is nothing more than a sophisticated swindler, producing a couple of products and then hyping up relationships and products that don't or won't exist and cashing in on investors' money.

The ZAP Alias is the newest vehicle that they're hyping.  You can place a $99.00 deposit now for the $35,000 vehicle.  If you look at the brochure, though, it doesn't have any interior shots or design specs.   How can this be when the vehicle is due for delivery at the end of 2009?  Probably more hype.

The Alias, ZAP says, will be built and marketed by the venture jointly run by ZAP and Youngman Automotive Group. The name of this partnership is Detroit Electric, a brand originally created by the Anderson Electric Car company, which existed between 1907 and 1939. Detroit Electric (now located in California and run by Lam) says it will be bringing a whole range of electric vehicles to market in the next 14 months. "Our plan is to launch with a 12-meter pure electric transit bus, the ZAP Alias, and two family sedans as early as the summer of 2009," Lam said in a press release. Analysts familiar with the Alias say delivering even that car on this timeline is unlikely, given that ZAP is reportedly still looking for suppliers to design components to make the car feasible.

Wired Report: Hype Machine: Searching for ZAP's Fleet of No-Show Green Cars

 

Even dealers were swindled.  Here's one story:

Hype Machine: Searching for ZAP's Fleet of No-Show Green Cars

John Martin, a schoolteacher from Austin, Texas.

Martin says he met Schneider once, in spring 2006, when "I flew to California to sign the papers and write a check." He says he made it clear that he had limited funds — less than $160,000 from savings and a small inheritance. Company officials assured Martin that this would be enough to get "up and running."

After quitting his job, Martin leased a prime Austin location and spent much of his remaining cash remodeling and rewiring the building for his new dealership. He was thrilled by the publicity his October 2006 grand opening generated among the local media. Attracted by stories in the newspaper and on TV, dozens of potential customers showed up at the dealership that first week, though Martin could offer them little more than a ride in the Xebra sedan he had purchased as his personal car — ZAP had failed to deliver any vehicles for him to sell.

In December 2006, Martin laid off his staff and became a one-man operation. He received his first shipment of Xebras shortly before Christmas. But by then, Martin explains, he had realized how quickly the Xebras ran out of charge. "When I had to tell people about the range, I could see it in their eyes," Martin recalls. "This was the deal killer."

Martin sold one Xebra in January 2007, two in February, and three in March. "Then business just dried up completely," he says. Martin's first customer, an attorney, had to have his car hauled back to the dealership for warranty repairs four times in the first month. Martin managed to remain optimistic, he says, because he knew that the new Obvio model was supposed to begin arriving from ZAP sometime in the spring. "But of course the Obvio never came," Martin says, and he was forced to close the doors of his new business at the beginning of August. By then, his $160,000 was gone. The lawyer who bought that first Xebra from Martin sent a threatening letter to ZAP on Martin's behalf, and ZAP replied by promising to repay at least some of the money he had lost. Then Martin heard nothing for five months — ZAP didn't return his calls. Finally, in January, as Wired prepared this story for print, ZAP settled with Martin, giving him 50,000 shares of ZAP stock in exchange for his agreement not to sue and not to talk to the media.

Martin was able to get his teaching job back, but the school soon had to lay him off. Strapped for cash, he had to pull two of his three young daughters from the private school where they had been enrolled since kindergarten. (Parents, teachers, and friends took up a collection to pay the tuition of his oldest daughter.) As of January, Martin was supporting his family by working construction during the day and delivering pizzas in the evening.

"I wanted so much to believe," he says.

A Forbes article from the summer of 2007 lets ZAP have it because of the hype and failure to deliver:

Forbes: Shock Jocks

A small electric vehicle company stays alive by promising wonderful things--just around the corner.

The Zap-X is a marvel. It solves every problem that has foiled attempts to build electric vehicles. It can recharge in ten minutes and can travel 350 miles on that charge. This rocket produces 644hp and goes from zero to 60mph in 4.8 seconds, with a top speed of 155mph. It carries seven passengers. Oh, and the windows are made out of photovoltaic glass that turns sunlight into horsepower.

Resources:

• Wired: Hype Machine: Searching for ZAP's Fleet of No-Show Green Cars
• Forbes: Shock Jocks
• Wikipedia: ZAP (motor company)
• ZAP Alias Brochure

The Zap Car

Here's a company with some interesting vehicles:  Zap

 

 

Or if you want, you can check out Bajaj USA.  I actually have seen Bajajs on the streets of Houston.

Video Shows Every Flight on Earth in 72 Seconds | Autopia from Wired.com

There are a series of videos from YouTube showing the air travel around the globe in different ways:

Video Shows Every Flight on Earth in 72 Seconds | Autopia from Wired.com

Checkout the Google Zeitgeist 2008

Google has a Zeitgeist analysis for 2008.  It's interesting to look at:

2008 Year-End Google Zeitgeist As the year comes to a close, it's time to look at the big events, memorable moments and emerging trends that captivated us in 2008. As it happens, studying the aggregation of the billions of search queries that people type into the Google search box gives us a glimpse into the zeitgeist the spirit of the times. We've compiled some of the highlights from Google searches around the globe and hope you enjoy looking back as much as we do.

Google Zeitgeist 2008

Mind Mapping

I like to use mind mapping to brainstorm and organize thoughts and tasks.  I use a licenced software that I paid for, but there are a number of free mind mapping applications available.

Here's one that Justin and I collaborated on for a joint best man speech  at Geoff and Pam's wedding:

 

For a list of the free applications, see Wikipedia's article on it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mind_Mapping_software

Che Guevara

I found this to be an interesting article from the Houston Chronicle.

 
Fresh from CIA scrapbook: A lock of Che's hair

MIAMI — A former CIA operative and Cuban exile plans to auction what he
says is a lock of Che Guevara's hair, snipped before the Argentinian
revolutionary and friend of Fidel Castro was buried in 1967.

Gustavo Villoldo, 71, was involved in Guevara's capture in the jungles
of Bolivia, according to unclassified U.S. records and other documents.
He plans to auction the hair and other items kept in a scrapbook since
the joint CIA-Bolivian army mission 40 years ago.

"It's time for me to put the past behind and pass these on to someone
else," said Villoldo, also a veteran of the ill-fated Bay of Pigs
invasion of Cuba.

The scrapbook also holds a map used to track down Guevara in Bolivia,
photos of Guevara's body, intercepted messages between Guevara and his
rebels and a set of Guevara's fingerprints taken before his burial.

It's hard to predict how much the collection will net at auction
because there is nothing comparable on the market, said Tom Slater,
director of the Americana department at Heritage Auctions of Dallas,
which will put the collection on the block Oct. 25-26.

"We cannot recall ever having seen artifacts relating to Che's dramatic
career and death appearing on the auction market, and we expect this
offering to excite broad bidder interest," Slater said.

The Cuban government announced in 1995 that its anthropologists had
uncovered Guevara's remains from Bolivia, and re-interred them in Cuba
without doing DNA testing. Villoldo and other exiles and experts say
the body is still in Bolivia.


Brought to you by the HoustonChronicle.com

 

An Armed Society is a Polite Society

There was an article on the Drudge Report today that states the United States is the most armed nation in the world.  I say "Hell, yeah, we are."  Now, out of the 50 states, where does Texas rank?  And how guns does the average armed American own?  You have to consider that many Americans don't own any firearms, so of those who do, what's the average? 
 
Justin throws the average.
 

U.S. most armed country with 90 guns per 100 people
U.S. citizens own 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey 2007 by the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies.

 

Not Your Grandfather's Door Gunner

Jefe sent this to me. I thought it was worth sharing.

The Power of Stupid

I don't necessarily agree with everything that Scott Adams is saying in this post, but it is pretty funny.

The Power of Stupid

via The Dilbert Blog by Scott_Adams on Aug 24, 2007

A reader sent this story about his workplace.

-------------
"A theme from many of your previous comics came true to life for us today. Quality in the workplace.

Yesterday, a pointy-haired boss decided our meeting room needed nice motivational pictures on the wall. Twelve by eight inch, wooden frame, 1940s-style motivational tools (think 'Rosie the Riveter' in artwork, color and font). So an assistant was ordered to procure such things.

The first mistake was where the artwork was obtained from. Rather than pay $15 per picture for the real thing, it was decided to take the small JPEG images of what we wanted from a website that sold these trinkets. Cheap picture frames were bought (from a dollar store, by the look of things).

When the images were enlarged to fit into the 12 by 8 frames, the pixelation was terrible. In itself, this was funny. A picture that celebrates the idea of quality in the workplace looked cheap, and knowing it was a stolen image lessens the impact of the message slightly."
-------------

This story made me think about one of the great wonders of capitalism: It is driven by morons who are circling the drain, and yet. . . it works!

Think about all the people working and earning paychecks from companies that will ultimately fail. It's a lot of people. But until those companies fail, the employees are getting paid, buying goods, and contributing to the economy. After the failure, those employees hop over to another sinking ship, and so on.

Within successful companies, a huge portion of resources are dedicated to projects and products that will ultimately fail. But in the meantime, everyone is getting paid and propping up the economy.

I once worked in a bank, making loans to small business start-ups. Our rule of thumb was that 90% of new businesses fail. The exceptions were franchisees and pizza places. But we saw no shortage of people willing to mortgage their homes to start their own sporting good stores and boutique dress shops, despite the 90% chance of failure. Without clueless optimists, the economy would grind to a halt. My own career has been a long string of failures and a few notable successes.

I understand the math of capitalism, and how the few successes are so large they pay for all the failures and then some. But at any given moment, the majority of resources in a capitalist system are being pushed over a cliff by morons. This fascinates me. And it's clearly the reason that humans rule the earth. We found a system to harness the power of stupid.

In the rest of the animal kingdom, being a moron is nothing but bad. A moron lion, for example, who can't catch anything to eat, is adding nothing to the lion economy. But a moron human who starts a business selling garlic flavored mittens is stimulating the economy right up until the point of going out of business.

My point is that I hope the monkeys that already know how to use sticks for tools don't start using leaves for money. If that happens, we're screwed.

Godwin's Law

I came across this in an article and thought it was worth sharing:

Godwin's Law is simply stated: "As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one."

The article: Defending Wikipedia's impolite side