BloomEnergy has been running the media circuit recently with their announcement of a hydrocarbon based fuel cell for electrical power generation. They were on 60 minutes this past weekend, Good Morning America this morning and will probably be on 20/20 later this week. The hype surrounding the box is huge and almost buried in... »
Every now and then we run across an article that appears off-topic but upon inspection showcases perfectly what we’re trying to do here. Recently the free dating website OkCupid.com ran an article analyzing the pictures people used on their dating profiles and how effective those pictures were at making contact with the opposite sex.... »
Just a short article this week. (Another short article may appear later in the week.) I’m slowly updating the graphics and visualizations in earlier articles. This week I’ve updated the original Popsicle Stick Economy simulation to include a real-time sparkline showing the “level of the economy”. Every time someone uses a babysitter a counter... »
Last time we saw that mathematical tools allow us to identify congressional districts that may be gerrymandered. These congressional districts are oddly shaped, but what isn’t immediately clear is whether these shapes are that way for legitimate political purposes (eg AZ-02) or for legitimate boundary purposes (eg rivers, coastlines) or signs of true gerrymandering.... »
When a state gains population it may also gain a new congressional representative. Frequently this causes the state to redraw its congressional district boundaries. Since 2010 is a Census year, states that gain or lose a representative will be going through the redistricting process. Therefore this is a good time to look into gerrymandering. A... »
