NetNichols

Links, quotes & ramblings by Jeff Nichols

Nov 10
2008 Election Maps
Fantastic collection of red/blue election maps.  The map above, from Mark Newman, is my favorite.  I remember seeing his map from 2004 and being struck at what a simple and clear statement it makes:  while US elections might be a determined by red states and blue states, we are in essence a purple nation.
As a side note, as someone who’s spent a lot of time recently in visual design for data representation, the New York Times is to be commended for having a superb design team.  Their ‘Voting Shifts’ map is especially interesting.

2008 Election Maps

Fantastic collection of red/blue election maps.  The map above, from Mark Newman, is my favorite.  I remember seeing his map from 2004 and being struck at what a simple and clear statement it makes:  while US elections might be a determined by red states and blue states, we are in essence a purple nation.

As a side note, as someone who’s spent a lot of time recently in visual design for data representation, the New York Times is to be commended for having a superb design team.  Their ‘Voting Shifts’ map is especially interesting.


Nov 2

Banksy’s Village Petstore and Charcoal Grill

Awesomely bizarre.  I wish I were making a trip to NYC sometime soon. (via NOTCOT)


Oct 26
The Sun - The Big Picture - Boston.com
I honestly try hard not to repost every post of The Big Picture, but this photo set is just too cool to pass up. Also takes me back to my research at Furman.
The sun is a mass of incandescent gasA gigantic nuclear furnaceWhere hydrogen is built into heliumAt a temperature of millions of degrees
- Why Does the Sun Shine? by TMBG

The Sun - The Big Picture - Boston.com

I honestly try hard not to repost every post of The Big Picture, but this photo set is just too cool to pass up. Also takes me back to my research at Furman.

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
Where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees

Why Does the Sun Shine? by TMBG


Oct 18

Oct 13
Elbot - Artificial Intelligence?
A while back I was theorizing on the inevitability of Articial Intelligence.  Elbot was the winner of a recent Turing Test, and the improvement in AI since I took a course in AI back in ‘99 or so is pretty astounding. Elbot actually had me laughing out loud a few times with his perceptive and witty comments.  Granted, I could (without too much effort) get him to admit to not knowing what to say, but on the other hand I’m pretty sure I could have a more substantive conversation with Elbot than with a lot of humans that I know. Of course, I have at least once been classified as a ‘robot’ by an online personality quiz…

Elbot - Artificial Intelligence?

A while back I was theorizing on the inevitability of Articial Intelligence.  Elbot was the winner of a recent Turing Test, and the improvement in AI since I took a course in AI back in ‘99 or so is pretty astounding. Elbot actually had me laughing out loud a few times with his perceptive and witty comments.  Granted, I could (without too much effort) get him to admit to not knowing what to say, but on the other hand I’m pretty sure I could have a more substantive conversation with Elbot than with a lot of humans that I know. Of course, I have at least once been classified as a ‘robot’ by an online personality quiz…


Oct 7
Google has recently (for a limited time) made available their index from 2001.  A few of my standard reads mentioned how their very popular blogs had not even been brought yet into the world.  Well, NetNichols was already 2 years old and going strong, albeit in a much, much different form. Google has recently (for a limited time) made available their index from 2001.  A few of my standard reads mentioned how their very popular blogs had not even been brought yet into the world.  Well, NetNichols was already 2 years old and going strong, albeit in a much, much different form.

Sep 23

Sep 17

Fifty People, One Question (via Vimeo)

Terrific sampling of human desires in New Orleans.


Sep 15
Brilliant (unintentional? nah… can’t be) spoof of the plethora of Apple ‘unboxing’ videos.

2008 Summer Paralympic Games
More from The Big Picture… an incredibly moving set of photos.  I’m sorry that I didn’t catch any of the live action.

2008 Summer Paralympic Games

More from The Big Picture… an incredibly moving set of photos.  I’m sorry that I didn’t catch any of the live action.


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