Here’s what I did last month. The red is on the bike, which was limited. The dark blue is running and the light blue is in the pool, which was especially limited. It isn’t nearly enough for where I’d like to be.
It isn’t nearly enough.
30
Jun 14
Jun 14
Monday titles always suffer
In the middle or late part of the evening yesterday we decided we’d run a brick, which is a workout where you combine two of the three elements of a triathlon. We decided to ride for an hour and then run for an hour.
So we we rode out of town as far as we could for a half hour. I went 32 minutes, which is nothing, but that got me to an intersection, a gas station and a turnaround. I thought I would race myself back, beat my time and all of that. Which is about the time my knee ligaments started hurting, so I slowed it down and still almost beat myself back home.
After which we started to run. Sometimes when you run, or when I run, at least, you just don’t feel it. You have to figure out when your body is telling you something and when your body is lying to you. Today I decided that it was not a day to run. Didn’t feel it, didn’t want it, didn’t press it.
And so that was that.
We had barbecue for dinner with a friend last night, that made it all a bit better. Tonight we dined with other friends who made jerk chicken, which was even better.
Things to read … because reading makes everything better.
If you don’t pay for it, you are the product. Or the research subject. Everything We Know About Facebook’s Secret Mood Manipulation Experiment:
And on Sunday afternoon, Adam D.I. Kramer, one of the study’s authors and a Facebook employee, commented on the experiment in a public Facebook post. “And at the end of the day, the actual impact on people in the experiment was the minimal amount to statistically detect it,” he writes. “Having written and designed this experiment myself, I can tell you that our goal was never to upset anyone. […] In hindsight, the research benefits of the paper may not have justified all of this anxiety.”
Kramer adds that Facebook’s internal review practices have “come a long way” since 2012, when the experiment was run.
There is a possibility that the sorry state of scientific research funding contributes to all of this. There’s also the possibility that, at some future date, some future lawsuits over this situation are landmark things we teach in research.
There’s more on IRB, the APA ethics and the notion of informed consent at the link.
Since we are at the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of World War I, here’s a good historical read with an Alabama hook. ‘There was never a braver lad:’ Alabama’s Osmond Kelly Ingram was first US sailor killed in WWI:
Ingram, 30, was aboard the Cassin off the Irish coast on Oct. 15, 1917 when the ship was attacked by a German submarine U-61. Ingram was cleaning the muzzle of a gun after morning target practice when he spotted a torpedo on a direct course for the ship. The Cassin began evasive maneuvers which seemed to have worked until the torpedo “porpoised,” or jumped out of the water, and turned towards the Cassin, Navy historians report.
Ingram, realizing the torpedo would hit near the depth charges at the ship’s stern, ran to release them in an effort to minimize the explosion and save the vessel.
Sadly, one of the first Americans killed at sea in World War II was from Alabama. The first American killed in Afghanistan was from Alabama too. One of the first Americans killed in Iraq was from here, too.
What will change Twitter? Twitter Rolls Out App Install And Engagement Ads, And New Click Pricing, Globally:
Twitter says that in the last quarter it made about 72 percent of all its revenues (equivalent to $181 million out of total revenues of $250 million) from mobile advertising.
On top of the app install ads, Twitter will also be expanding the kinds of reporting and analytics that app publishers will get around them.
The company says that keyword targeting in the ads will follow that of its other mobile units, with publishers able to set placement based on interest, keyword, gender, geographic location, language and mobile device, among other things.
This is all very logical. This will be very useful for those advertising in Twitter, and will refine things somewhat for consumers.
There is another plan that could come to fruition, which would be less useful. I remind you of, or introduce you to, what my friend @IkePigott said earlier this year:
TWITTER PREDICTION 1: "Mute "is meant to choke down traffic, because Facebook has an algorithm and Twitter doesn't.
— Ike Pigott (@ikepigott) May 14, 2014
TWITTER PREDICTION 2: After Mute is in play, brands will have an opportunity to "purchase" analytics showing real reach.
— Ike Pigott (@ikepigott) May 14, 2014
TWITTER PREDICTION 3: Also, brands will be able to pay for sponsored tweets that will override the Mute.
— Ike Pigott (@ikepigott) May 14, 2014
TWITTER PREDICTION 4: Individuals will slowly abandon the platform, as organic social behavior is no longer rewarded.
— Ike Pigott (@ikepigott) May 14, 2014
In their last quarter Twitter reported $250 million in revenue — and $181 million in mobile advertising. This is all very big business.
29
Jun 14
Jun 14
Auburn great killed in accident
I’m having a difficult time with this, truthfully. It was stunning and tragic to read about this morning. Two young men killed in a late-night traffic accident. There’s a fair amount of disbelief from a lot of people today for a variety of reasons. I tried to write what I thought might be a common community reason for The War Eagle Reader. I’ve reproduced it here.
A car crash early this morning in Lagrange, Georgia killed two, including UGA baseball player Ian Davis and Auburn great Philip Lutzenkirchen.
If you think really hard about it, you might remember the first time you tried to pronounce the name “Lutzenkirchen.” It might have been when your friend emailed you the link to that YouTube clip from his high school play:
“This guy is coming to Auburn,” your friend wrote. Then you spent the entirety of your next weekend cookout teaching each other how to phonetically pronounce his name.
But it didn’t take much longer than that. The boy from Georgia became an Auburn man and, just as quickly, became a fan favorite. Maybe it was the clean cut look, or the physical stature. Perhaps it was the calm way in which he always seemed to comport himself.
Maybe it was the style of play:
It could have been how he embraced Auburn that made you embrace him back. From beginning, to the middle, to the end. It could have been the charm or how he accepted what became his legend. And think about that for just a second: Here was a guy at — what, 19? — who became a legend. Look how he handled himself.
Maybe it was that you could see him around town, at Momma G’s, having Japanese or wherever you’d run into him, and how a guy who was such a BMOC was always seemingly so approachable.
Other things you knew mattered, too, even more important things: the prom story, how he gave of himself to others, the respect he earned from his professors or for how he stood for what he believed. Perhaps it was the graceful way he said goodbye or the sense of humor he had about his sibling Iron Bowl rivalry or his burgeoning professional work or his promising coaching career.
Maybe that is what it was. The promise that Philip Lutzenkirchen always showed and the way he seemed to carry it with ease, returning all of your smiles and War Eagles and even embracing that dance.
Maybe it was that he was so personable as to make it seem he was always all of ours, and the way it seemed to bemuse him, like he was always us, too.
Auburn lost a great one today, an irreplaceable one. Our thoughts and prayers are extended to his friends and family, who feel the loss most personally. As sad as we are, it is difficult to imagine your profound grief. We thank you for sharing him with us. We grieve with you over the loss of a great Auburn man.
28
Jun 14
Jun 14
The present, the past, the immediate future
Spent the day watching World Cup. I have come to at least one conclusion: Brazil shouldn’t win the tournament. They just aren’t as good as the great Brazilian teams, and they’ll prove to not be of the same quality as the better teams that are still in the thing. Also, Colombia is a fun team to watch.
One hundred years ago … This was the front page of the New York Times: ARCHDUKE FRANCIS FERDINAND AND HIS CONSORT, THE DUCHESS OF HOHENBERG, ARE ASSASSINATED WHILE DRIVING THROUGH STREETS OF SARAJEVO, BOSNIA.
And, if you’ll remember your high school history, that led to all of Europe arming up for war. The link has some great contemporary content, if you’re interested.
The Guardian, meanwhile, is coming to terms with how they played down the assassination:
The Manchester Guardian, then edited by the legendary CP Scott, was far from alone in playing down the significance of the death of the archduke, shot by the young radical Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, in Sarajevo. The Sleepwalkers, historian Christopher Clark’s seminal work on how Europe went to war in 1914, reflects the mixture of complacency and rhetoric Europe indulged in.
But the Guardian did devote the bulk of its main news page, illustrated by a small map and family tree of the Austrian royal house, to the shooting.
[…]
The next day, 30 June 1914, a Guardian headline read “World’s Sympathy with Aged Emperor”. The paper noted that the archduke and his wife had recently visited London and, his uncle, emperor Franz Joseph, held the title of a British field marshal.
[…]
Though the newspaper’s first analysis – headlined What the Murders May Mean – played down the “immediate or salient” effect on European politics, it did warn of the dangers of increased hostility between Austria and Serbia. It also warned of “the more serious danger of a Russian attack” on Austria in defence of its Slavic ally.
It is a fascinating little summary as the paper looks back upon itself.
We’re still learning about that war, meanwhile. Earlier this month Finland announced they had divers that have discovered a lost WWI German U-boat, apparently preserved in exceptional condition.
I wonder what the researchers will learn.
Maybe there will be an augmented reality tour of it one day. Here’s the latest from the AR world, by the way.
Or would you prefer holorooms at Lowe’s? Non makeup makeup? Actual spy glasses? Or South Park?
Fascinating world.
Hope yours is riveting too!
27
Jun 14
Jun 14
Friday, Friday
Breakfast was at Barbecue House, oh how I’ve missed it while we’ve been gone. Dinner was the Irish Bread Pub. The sandwich I had in between, then, didn’t really matter so much.
I brought home leftovers which means: A.) I’m entering into the irregular phase of not eating very much and B.) they will be delicious tomorrow.
And, yes, it is Friday, why do you ask?
We’re just watching videos, feeling bad about our athletic prowess. Take Alysia Montano, for example. Perhaps you’ve heard of her. She’s a track star. Also, she just ran the 800 at nationals again. And, of course, she did it at 34 weeks pregnant.
She ran it in 2 minutes, 32.13 seconds, which is faster than I can run it. And I’m not with child.
And, finally, Major Mobile Milestones in May: Apps Now Drive Half of All Time Spent on Digital:
May turned out to be a banner month for mobile as it delivered on some huge milestones which underscored just how impressive the medium’s ascendance has been in the past few years. Mobile platforms – smartphones and tablets – combined to account for 60% of total digital media time spent, up from 50% a year ago. And perhaps more impressively, mobile apps accounted for more than half of all digital media time spent in May, coming in at 51%.
I blame the cat. I catch her on the iPad every now and again.
