Ron Frisard's Blog

David McCandless on data visualization

Ron — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:13:30 +0000

Just saw this great TED talk on data visualization. Just great.. Here is his webpage. Also the interactive data visualization he talks about in his talk about supplements.

Benford’s Law

Ron — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:40:41 +0000

Breakdown of digits

I was listening to one of my favorite webcasts recently (Radiolab) and they were talking about this engineering at GE in Syracuse who noticed more pages used on a logarithmic table book then others. This got him thinking that there must be some guiding principles of how numbers multiplied together create certain numbers over other numbers. here is a good explanation of the math.
Well his formula that determines what the percentage of digits should be in what order on all numbers in the universe are being used everywhere! One of the biggest areas is law enforcement. If you are cheating on your taxes or stealing from teh balance sheet you better double check that you did not create any random number. Here is the story in Radio lab - I highly recommend it.

The Anosognosic’s Dilemma

Ron — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:27:08 +0000

One of the most important articles I have read in many years. This principle of believing what your mind or own incompetence can handle is fascinating. The story of the bank robber and lemon juice just highlights the point so well - I can’t stop making comparisons to it everywhere. I think many things today regarding politics revolves around this. The first part is really the best one but in the others there is some good stuff regarding the wife of President Wilson.
Some of my favorite quotes:

If I were given carte blanche to write about any topic I could, it would be about how much our ignorance, in general, shapes our lives in ways we do not know about. Put simply, people tend to do what they know and fail to do that which they have no conception of. In that way, ignorance profoundly channels the course we take in life. And unknown unknowns constitute a grand swath of everybody’s field of ignorance.

Stefan Fatsis, in his book “Word Freak,” talks about this when comparing everyday Scrabble players to professional ones. As he says: “In a way, the living-room player is lucky . . . He has no idea how miserably he fails with almost every turn, how many possible words or optimal plays slip by unnoticed. The idea of Scrabble greatness doesn’t exist for him.” (p. 128)

Unknown unknown solutions haunt the mediocre without their knowledge. The average detective does not realize the clues he or she neglects. The mediocre doctor is not aware of the diagnostic possibilities or treatments never considered. The run-of-the-mill lawyer fails to recognize the winning legal argument that is out there. People fail to reach their potential as professionals, lovers, parents and people simply because they are not aware of the possible. This is one of the reasons I often urge my student advisees to find out who the smart professors are, and to get themselves in front of those professors so they can see what smart looks like.

I must read!
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/the-anosognosics-dilemma-1/

Animated Demonstration of Bernoulli’s Principle site

Ron — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:19:21 +0000

Found this great interactive website that demonstrates the Bernouli’s principle. This comes in handy when we are talking about pump packing and flush pressure going into a smaller area. Check this out!
http://home.earthlink.net/~mmc1919/venturi.html

Trip to Quebec City..

Ron — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 01:21:04 +0000

What a great time I had last weekend in Quebec! The city is incredible clean - we did not see one coke can or candy wrapper on the street! Here is the link to the rest of our photos.

Stanford video on Heat Exchanger design

Ron — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:50:46 +0000

I was poking around youtube recently and found such a great resource in Stanford University. They look like they are trying to be the MIT open-courseware of the west coast with their incredible website. Below is a video I found of a lecture in Chemical Engineering on heat exchanger design.

Song a day guy..

Ron — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:38:20 +0000

Before Steve Jobs came out to greet the press about the Iphone 4 issue he played a youtube video of this guy who is writing a song a day. I thought it was the funniest and coolest thing I have seen in a long time. Of course I then looked up his website and I am hooked. He has some mad video skills and what a mental challenge to create a new song every day. He just oozes creativity.
I think my favorite has to be this one:

Another Hans Rosling presentation at TED

Ron — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:23:12 +0000

By far, Hans Rosling is the most interesting guy I know on the internet. If I created a bucket list of who I would like to have dinner with before I die, Hans Rosling would be near the top. This discussion he focuses on a future where the world comes together and everyone moves forward into financial prosperity. Check it out..

“Press your luck” game show - FAIL

Ron — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:15:52 +0000

I was listening to This American Life this week and was fascinated by the story on Micheal Larson. He stacked many TV’s in his living room and recorded many infomercials and game shows. After many hours studying he realized that in the game show “press your luck” the board was not random (like they said) but followed a certain pattern that he figured out.
He took this hidden talent to the show and made the most money in game show history!

Dirty Jobs - Packing at Hydro plant

Ron — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:34:44 +0000

I love the Dirty Jobs TV Show. Recently an episode was at a hydro power plant and it looks like they are replacing a ring of packing on the wicket gates - kind of hard to tell.
Here are the Utube versions.