Exploding head scene
An amusing article in Newsweek about Peter Arnell, self-styled renaissance man, inventor of the “Peapod“, a “a mix of Darth Vader, a bullet train, and a Citroën deux chevaux”: > “[snip…] With no air conditio...
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All my blog posts and articles
Page 81 of 141 (2815 total posts)
June 2009
Open Government: Remixing Government Data
I found this article to be a good primer on what’s going on with open government data. Remixing Government Data: Through mashups and Web apps, third parties are making innovative use of agencies’ information… This is part of the impetus and inspiration for two projects I am working on, “Decentralized Data Discovery” and “Government SDK“. 
[GEEKY] A DSL for Image Analysis
I have been working quite a lot on Election Reform over the last few weeks, at least from the technology side. To be honest there is just so much I could be blogging about in this narrow specialized space that my cup overfloweth, but also it ...
Read more →Wandering through Asia
My friend Amy just recently arrived from an incredible trip through Asia. If you are curious, check out Amy’s blog: > “My travels in Southern Laos were indeed more successful in terms of being able to get out and see things than my time in the ...
Read more →May 2009
Maldives looking for new land
A while back I wrote a post saying that it was “Official: The Maldives is the most beautiful place on earth.” So you know I have a warm spot for it (or is it them?). [An article ran in the New York Times Magazine re...
Read more →Comedian in chief
You’ve heard about (or maybe you haven’t) President Obama’s turn as a comedian at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. I was looking for, and I found the full video of his remarks. In fact, pretty funny. (Who writes for him?)
Government Efficiency
Check this post Government Efficiency from Dilbert.com Blog: > A confusopoly is a situation in which companies pretend to compete on price, service, and features but in fact they are just trying to confuse customers so no one can do comparison shopping. (from: Government Efficiency) Nice new term: Confusopoly
Manny being Manny
Check this post Thank you Jason Bay from 38 Pitches: > “… Yet somehow we’re hearing these same people talk about being struck momentarily stupid when West African bullfrog se...
Read more →Help your favorite Massachusetts historic site win a grant
The National Trust of Historic Preservation and American Express are giving away $100,000.00 to a Massachusetts historic site. All you have to do is to exercise your left mouse finger to increase the chances of your site. [Click here to register and cast your vote. It’s all free and takes (by my wat...
Read more →A touching piece by Curt Schilling
This is from his blog: “When our third child was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome almost two years ago all I can say is that my heart was aching. A child that I had raised to that point like his siblings, I couldn’t understand how he could be so different. I was in the doctors office when I heard the words ” On the spectrum of Autism” Aspergers.” (from 38 Pitches)
April 2009
Twice as many people vote for Idol than watch it?
This does not compute: **“As the final five contestants on “American Idol” competed for a chance at the top prize on Tuesday, Fox once again took first place in the night’s ratings. According to Nielsen’s estimates, 22.5 million viewers tuned in to the reality show during the 8 p.m. hour, easily m...
Read more →“What’s next in tech” event in Boston in June
If you live in the Boston area and somehow connected to technology professions you should be interested in this meeting being put on in June: What’s Next In Tech – Where will the next waves of growth will come from? > Date: Thursday, June 25th Time: 6:00 PM –...
Read more →Back from Barcamp Boston
This weekend I had a chance to attend BarCamp Boston (4). As usual it was fun and interesting and I had a chance to hang out and talk with a bunch ...
Weapons of civic mass destruction
I am struck by how broken our political process is. I’m not the first nor the last to make this observation, How did we get here and what are the underlying reasons? Here’s one way I have started to look at it: we have perfected the science of persuasion to such a point that it is **now destroying u...
Read more →The torture discussion back in 2001
Recently of course, because of the ‘torture memos’, the topic is all over the papers and cable ‘news’ programs. It’s brought back to mind a discussion that was raging hot and heavy, starting back in 2001, about the idea of allowing the issuance of ‘Torture Warrants‘. [Alan Dershowitz](http://en...
Read more →Great proposal re: http://data.gov from Sunlight Foundation
Check out this post [Re...
Inside the Shot Heard ‘Round the World
Did you wonder how those snipers were able to shoot those pirates when both groups were on boats on the open sea? Check out this post Inside the Shot Heard ‘Round the World: > ""These guys can put three rounds onto the head of a quarter at that range," Allen told me. " (from: from Defense Tech)
[GEEKY] How DataRSS might work
Editors Note (that’s me, Pito): I’ve decided to change the name of this thing to “Decentralized Data Discovery – DDD” because I learned from more than one person that calling it Data RSS was misleading and confusing. I need to go back and update the papers and blog posts. I’ve just finished writ...
Read more →An excellent paper about Curaçao Politics
This is probably not high on your radar, but if you have interest in the island of Curaçao you may have heard about the big referendum issue that is being hotly debated these days. I won’t even try to capture the sides of the argument, rather I want to refer you to this outstanding paper written by ...
Read more →Has Paula gotten Smarter?
I’ve been an American Idol fan for a while now, in fact from the very start. I’ve been commenting to the TV Set that Paula is seeming much smarter, incisive and interesting this year than in the past.[I see I am not the only one to notice 🙂](http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2009/04/07/judging_p...
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