Blurry Photos

Folks, I've really been struggling with a way to post quality material to this blog while I am traveling. I am in no way throwing in the towel on this, but you should be aware that I am posting nearly everything that appears on this blog -- text, photos -- from my iPhone. I've been using an app called "BlogPress," which I've used in the past with some success.

I did not, however, realize exactly how it handled photos. Today, I realized that while it is uploading the images to my Picasa account, it is creating low-res thumbnails with a separate service and hosting them elsewhere.

So from now on, the pictures on the blog are going to be smaller. They will look better, but will probably look weirdly small since they're only 200x200 pixels. They can all be clicked on, however, and your browser will be whisked away to the Picasa website where much nicer looking versions of the images abide.

I'm pretty bummed out about the whole thing, but it's the best solution I have so far. Hopefully, while on the road, I can work out a better way to get things to you, my gentle readers.

That said, I am currently in the basement of my aunt and uncle in New Jersey. More on this to follow, probably posted from my iPhone!

Everything in Pictures

It's the little things: in this time between Holidays there are very few people commuting to work. Thus, I am driving and making my normal 3 hour round-trip in about 1.75hrs.
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I've been ogling infographics lately. Academically, I am interested in them because they compress complex information into simple and often beautiful packages. I revel in the appealing mixture of science and art to create these almost poetic creations. It also appeals to my belief that through careful choice and construction, the most complex things can be transferred with the most simplicity (see: haiku).

They're also pretty.
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The New York times has some truly fantastic infographics:
Movie box office performance
Spread of nuclear weapons
Consumer spending
A year in Iraq
Human disease

Especially notable is how frightening information can be displayed so beautifully.
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Furthermore: The New York Times data illustration lab. Using a the NYTimes library of Datasets, you can construct not only neat looking but interactive flash representations.

Sadly, the tools are limited to the (scant) data sets provided by the Times. Also, the amount of customization for each representation is greatly limited. It's still fun, though. Worth at least a few short moments of your time.
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This isn't really an infographic, but it is still very neat. The New York times breaks down the new NASA launch architecture one element at a time. Brought to you in tastefully mute-tone flash.
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Unrelated: Now you too can join me in the land of iPhone bliss!
Keep in mind that these are 3g phones, not like my little 2g that slides quietly passed the nastier AT&T restrictions. Still, a good deal.
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Good Morning

It's time for the official song of the auto bailout.



Don't forget!
New phone number!

SAME AREA CODE AS BEFORE

SAME FIRST THREE DIGITS

THEN

9157