A New Year - A New Start

I just moved into my new place in Portland, Oregon. The drive was long and tedious, broken up by a cold night in Three Island Crossing State Park, just outside of Boise, Idaho. I love it when I'm the only person in an entire campground. It makes everything feel so serene. (It probably means I'm the only one crazy enough to spend the night in sub freezing temperatures, too.) I did make it easier, however, by stopping into the Carmela Winery just outside the state park. It was a great mix of a classy winery and the local bar hang out - and the Southwest eggrolls were amazing.

I'm starting chiropractic school at the University of Western States this next week. It's been a plan of mine ever since high school, but things got in the way - poor grades, hobbies, uncertainty. In fact, I'm still not settled on the dissonance between the claims of chiropractic and the medical science. I mean, I know chiropractic benefits people – me included – but there's not a whole lot of scientific evidence that explains the mechanisms or even supports a lot of the claims. This was a key factor in my decision to attend the University of Western States, which is touted as one of the more evidence-based chiropractic schools.

In the past few years, I've become intrigued with science. (There's some irony here in that the classes I struggled with most were the hard sciences, but I never said I was good at it, only that I am fascinated by it.) I love listening to Neil Degrasse Tyson's Star Talk Radio podcast, reading tweets from skeptics and scientists, and trying to learn how the scientific method applies in daily life. (By the way, check out this Haiku Deck I made based on the BadAstronomer's blog post about why science is great - It even won an award.) This curiosity has actually led to some difficult life changes, particularly in my beliefs about religion and spirituality. You may have noticed my posts becoming more politically liberal in nature, and you possibly felt that I was becoming cynical. I prefer the term skeptical. Although it usually is used with strong, negative connotations, it simply means not being easily convinced, kind of the opposite of gullible. There are lots of reasons to be skeptical - avoid falling victim to financial scams, resist following the crowd and spreading rumors that are untrue, or to not fall victim to fears of the world ending. There are some potential drawbacks as well, like becoming a crotchety old curmudgeon who 'bah-humbugs' every potentially beneficial new discovery.

Lately, I've been following a Facebook page called "I Fucking Love Science" and last night saw this quote by Carl Sagan, another of my favorite scientific literacy evangelists.

In case you can't read the image, here's a summarized version (emphasis my own):

It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas. ...

If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you.

On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful as from the worthless ones.

Our species needs, and deserves, a citizenry with minds wide awake and a basic understanding of how the world works.

So the challenge is finding moderation in skepticism and being willing to accept new ideas.

I think this will be my motto for 2013 and as I start chiropractic school - be a well-balanced open-minded skeptic.

Hmm... Maybe I'd better first confirm that Carl Sagan actually said this.

Things every person should have | via WIL WHEATON

Things every person should have:

• A nemesis.

• An evil twin.

• A secret headquarters.

• An escape hatch.

• A partner in crime.

• A secret identity.

Stephen Colbert - A Man I Suppor(t)

Now and then I end up inadvertently staying up way too late while watching video after video on YouTube about some new fascination - chiropractic and massage therapy techniques, evolution vs. creation debates, how to become a hacker… and last night, Stephen Colbert.

Reconstructive Satire

I have been a fan of The Colbert Report for a couple of years. (I love watching clips via Flipboard on my iPad.) I appreciate the depth of satirical humor he and his writers use. I like The Daily Show with John Stewart as well, but those jokes seem so much more obvious to me. In one of the videos I came across, Colbert explained in an interview that his goal is to not just deconstruct political situations, but to also reconstruct them with a twist as a satirical Republican pundit.

Out of Character

I get the feeling that a lot of people don't quite get that last point: Stephen Colbert is a character. It's not often that you get to see the real Colbert, but I came across this short interview with him.

This blew me away. I had never seen him act so polite and … intelligent. I had to look for more and I was constantly impressed by his breadth of knowledge and talent. Here he is as a guest on Whose Line Is It Anyway? Yeah, apparently he speaks German. Check out some of the related videos and you can see he's dang good at improv and singing as well. Then there was this behind the scenes video of him welcoming John Kerry to the show. Evidently he greets each guest to make sure that they understand that he is in character on the show and that his character is "an unwitting idiot" and that they should "disabuse him of his ignorance."

Finally, there's this recent NPR Author Interview in which he discusses his recent book, America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't and shares some of his true personal opinions, including his support for Mitt Romney, desire to shed light on political controversies, and how lucky he his to work with great writers.

Man, that's a man I'd like to be like. I mean, I used to do a little theater myself, and really admire the craft of acting. I studied voice for many years, but I'm not nearly as capable of jumping into a showtune as he is. But mostly, I wish I could lie like that. I am such a an open book that my pages are my cover. I can't lie worth crap. I kind of envy people who can. And want to hurt them when they do.

Olympics Math: 800 m Race

Alright guys, help me out here. I've been watching the 4 x 400 m relay, the 800 m race, and the other track races which require runners to start in assigned lanes and then merge to the inside lane after a certain distance. And I can't help but wonder why the runners quickly merge to the inside lane on that straight away rather than go straight for the curve. Wouldn't it make more sense for them to gradually make their way to the inside lane and time it so that they hit it just as they begin the next curve?Here's what I mean:If a runner is in lane eight as they make the curve, let's assume they're about 8 m from the inside lane. As they run down the straightaway most runners cut immediately to that inside lane and are there by about 50 m down the straightaway. I did the math, using Pythagorean's theorem, and it looks to me like timing the merge for the end of the straightaway would shave off .3 m. In an 800 m race, that adds up to about 5/100 of a second. That may not sound like much, and in an 800 m race it may not be significant, but races have been won by lesser fractions of a second.What do you think? Is my math sound? Are there other factors to consider?

Design is Intent

John Hockenberry makes the case that Design = Intent.

I have become increasingly interested in design over the past 10 years, to the point that I now avoid purchasing anything that is poorly designed and am willing to spend a significant margin more on items that are well designed. But not just because they're pretty or look cool. No, design is so much more than that. It's the way a device functions, not just the amount of things you can do with it. It's the efficiency of the materials, not just the cost of them.

I love seeing redisigns of common day items. I fell in love with this series of Boarding Pass Designs. The wallet sized card is one of my favorites:

This Bar Menu Before & After from NoteAndPoint.com also gets me excited and happy.

I wouldn't dare call myself a designer, but I do a bit of redesign and page layout for work. I posted previously about designing our Mission Statement posters and about the user experience of buffets (something I regrettably enjoy all too often at my office).

The idea of design being all about intent recently helped me while redesigning some classroom posters on behavior. We lost access to the original print, so my job was to reproduce it. The original (seen below) was a fairly wild design with many colors and fonts. Since I don't have the design skills to reproduce it exactly, I decided to simplify it and see if I could accomplish the same functionality without the distractions. Here is my attempt:

And a few of the design decisions I made:

1. The word "Chart" does not need to be printed. It's obvious by looking at it that it is a chart.
2. "What if…" doesn't need to be typed at the top of each column. Allow the "What if…" title to work with the column title.
3. One font. Different weights, sizes, and styles. But just one.
4. Two colors. Different values and opacities, but just two.
5. Allow the whitespace between columns to be the dividing line. Remove the redundant dividing line.
6. Lastly, and most relevant to this post, what was the intent of the Mystery Motivator envelope? It's a placeholder for the teacher to place behavioral motivator on the poster, likely a 3x5" card or similar piece of paper. The dashed border leaves it incomplete, encouraging the user to complete it by placing something there.

It's certainly not the best solution, but it's definitely cleaner than the original and may reduce symptoms of ADHD in the classroom. :-P

Vertical Video Syndrome - A PSA

I can't say how freaking glad I am that someone finally made this video!

Favorite line: "It ain't crack or nothin', but it's still REALLY BAD!"

Vertical videos really bug me. Especially once you get the video onto a desktop computer to edit or play it back. It becomes a sea of black with a tiny bit of vertical video in the middle. Not only is it weird to look at, but it's a waste of data space (all that black doesn't come from nothing, it still has to be stored somewhere). Worst of all, it just limits the experience of what can be a great video.

That said, I won't be surprised if vertical videos become increasingly popular, just as high-quality photographs have given way to lower quality mobile photos. The fact is, most people look at media on their mobile devices as much or more than anywhere else. If you take a vertical video on your iPhone and play it back on the iPhone, you can still see it full screen in vertical orientation. With Facetime and Skype available on mobile devices, looking at vertical videos will become more and more normal.

Besides, shooting vertically sometimes comes in handy, like when recording yourself dancing and need to see the feet and upper body which just won't fit in the frame when you're up close. I still think we should all learn a little bit of good technique and use cameras like they were meant to be used.