Air traffic as seen by the FAA.

The Flight Patterns visualizations are the result of experiments leading to the project Celestial Mechanics by Scott Hessels and Gabriel Dunne. FAA data was parsed and plotted using the Processing programming environment. The frames were composited with Adobe After Effects and/or Maya.

Weeee airplanes are fun and pretty.

Flight Patterns - FAA Visualizations

I like gangster stuff. This looks very entertaining.

BET.com - BET.com | On TV | American Gangster : Main

Come back when you've got some traction.

Yeah, this makes sense, eh? As soon as I remove all risk, I'll put on my extra large knee pads and pucker up. Okay, a bit graphic, ignore the visual in your head right now. The real point I'm making is you should never put yourself in a position where you hear this. If you go to a firm which doesn't do seed/early stage, you will get something that is close to this phrase. The VC shouldn't have taken the meeting in the first place but since they did, you should at least know and all agree it is a conversation to establish a dialog for a future transaction when the company is more mature and looking for growth/expansion capital. If you are seed/early stage VC and you say this to an early stage/seed company, uh, please don't.

With the exception of a very small group of individuals you probably don't know (who want to start companies in specific areas and then take such an active role in funding companies they are basically founders as well as angels), or if you are out of Georgia Tech's Venture Labs, or if you are lucky enough to be one of a couple companies a year funded by the angel local groups... this is the only thing you will ever hear in Atlanta while seeking funding for your startup.

There is no such thing as pre-revenue funding in this town. Accept it and adjust, or move.

Period.

One of the guys who led one of the round tables at the ATDC one week said the key to getting investment was to build your business to $1 million a year in revenue, and then someone would find you. I thought he was a major dick. But he was just telling the blunt truth.

If you are a business seeking funding in Georgia, you need to generate $1 million in revenue to do so.

The Post Money Value: More favorite VC phrases

Recently, however, Jessica Wolpaw Reyes at Amherst has put together what appears to me to be the most persuasive evidence to date in favor of a relationship between lead and crime. Rather than looking at a national time-series, she tries to exploit differences in the rates at which lead was removed from gasoline across states. I haven’t read her paper with the care that a referee would at an academic journal; but, at least superficially, what she is doing looks pretty sensible. She finds that lead has big effects (and, for what it’s worth, she also confirms that, when controlling for lead, the link between abortion and crime is as strong or stronger as in our initial study, which did not control for lead.)

Did Banning Lead Lower Crime? - Freakonomics - Opinion - New York Times Blog

Imbituba, Brazil Pro
HANG LOOSE SANTA CATARINA PRO
October 30-November 7, 2007
Imbituba, Brazil

TIME DIFFERENCE: GMT - 2

COORDINATES: 27º25’ S, 48º30’ W

BAGGAGE CLAIM: TBD

TRANSPORTATION: TBD

ATTITUDE: The Brazilians are rabid surfing fanatics. Everyone from capoeira instructors to frothing junior champions prowl the line-ups. The punchy beachbreaks boasted by the region offer opportune playgrounds for the light-footed aerial specialists on tour.

THE WAVE: Brazil’s best beachbreaks, Joaquina and Imbituba, are generally smaller and shorter waves, but they can get powerful and hollow when it pumps.

PERKS: Brazilian-cut bathing suit bottoms and caipirinha cocktailos – need we say more?

PERILS: Again, Brazilian-cut bathing suit bottoms and caipirinhas cocktailos – need we say more?

APRES SURF: Brazilians are renowned for their nightlife, spend some time in Brazil and you’ll know why. Things don’t get well and truly underway until the early hours of the morning though, pre-party with energy drinks.

WCT HISTORY:Brazil has played host to many an ASP tour event over the past 30 years. Former contest sites include Rio de Janeiro, Barra de Tijuca and Saquarema, but the past four years have seen the tour set up shop in Florianopolis.

NOTABLE: Falling towards the end of the tour, the past few years have seen several ASP world champions crowned in Brazil. In 2004 it was Andy Irons, in 2005 is was Kelly Slater (who had his 2006 ASP World Title already stitched up by Brazil). Will the famed venue play host to another showdown in 2007?

Wow. I'm here for this.

Going to try surfing for the first time today. I pray I'm able to catch one wave.

ASP World Tour - Florainopolis

xkcd - photoshops

We were out early on election morning and were amazed at the incredibly large turnout, with thousands of people waiting in line an hour before polls were scheduled to open. Venezuela has a system of electronic voting (with a paper ballot backup) and voters' thumbprints are recorded electronically, transmitted by satellite, and compared almost instantaneously to prevent multiple voting. A "No" vote supported Chavez, and a "Yes" vote called for his removal from office. Starting was somewhat slow, but 99.5 percent of the voting machines were on the line by 10:30 a.m. Some of the fingerprint operators did not report for duty, but this was not permitted to interfere with voting. The great waiting crowds were in fine spirits, cheering loudly everywhere we showed up.

During the day, the opposition leaders presented to us and their supporters what turned out to be erroneous exit polling data that showed Chavez losing the vote by 20 points or more, and they also sent this information to their own people and to foreign news media. However, the news media honored the CNE ruling against broadcasting any kind of alleged voting results domestically. In the meantime, long voter lines remained intact past the 4 p.m. closing time, past an extended 8 p.m. closing time, and until midnight, when they finally closed. A few people voted as late as 3 a.m.

At about 12:30 a.m., we and OAS leaders were invited to witness the disclosure of the first electronic tabulation, which showed "No" votes at 57 percent and "Yes" votes at 43 percent among the 6.6 million votes counted at that time (of 10.5 million expected to vote). Gaviria and I decided to invite the private media owners and opposition leaders to my hotel suite to let them know about this and to tell them that this was compatible with our own quick count results. The media owners and some of the opposition said they would accept our judgment while others were angry. We urged them to check their own sample voting results and stated that we would obtain updated figures next morning before making a public declaration of our judgment. We were in Venezuela to remain neutral, to observe the electoral system, and to make a careful and sound final assessment regarding whether the will of the people is expressed. Chavez called me, and I urged him to wait on any claim of victory until after a CNE public announcement and to be generous and positive in his victory statement. He promised to do so.

Finally, after three hours, we offered to the still irate opposition leaders our services in resolving any of their remaining doubts before we had to leave (after two more days). Having insisted all during election day on a 20 point defeat for Chavez, their pollster (S�mate) admitted before leaving that their data now showed only a five point defeat and that quick count data were still being received. Early the next morning, they reported that these results were reversed, with 55 percent supporting Chavez, but opposition leaders still were claiming massive fraud and a victory for their side. Final voting results, including the centers with manual ballots, showed 59-41 in favor of Chavez, with his victory in 22 of the 24 states.

Gaviria and I had another press conference early in the afternoon on Monday to confirm the legitimacy of the CNE returns. I called Secretary of State Colin Powell to report our authentication of results, and he promised to issue a statement from Washington endorsing our findings.

Kind of amazing the Venezuela's voting system is technically better than our own.

President Jimmy Carter: Venezuela Election Trip Report, Aug 13-18, 2004

Product Number: YSC-HA2401RTGXI-1000

Includes:

* 802.11g (b/g) Amplifier with RP-TNC Connectors
* Power Supply

Features:

* 802.11g (b/g) Compatible
* Active Power Control
* Cast Aluminum Construction
* Durable UV-Stable Finish
* Transmit and Receive LEDs
* Amplifiers feature RP-TNC connectors (eliminating the requirement for professional installation)

Availability:

In the US these amplifiers are FCC certified with and offered for sale only for use with XI325 PC Card. You can find this card under radios on our site. Part number H-PC325-GX

Price: $179.95

Thinking of getting one.

1W Wifi Amplifier

# Includes 12VDC Power Supply
# Receive Bandpass Filter
# 18 dB Receive Gain
# Streaming Media Ready
# 3 Watt Amp Models
# Cast Aluminum Construction
# Durable UV-Stable Finish
# Power and Transmit LEDs
# HyperLink NEMA Enclosure Mounting Available
# 1 Year Limited Warranty

Export only but, uh, wow. They have amps up to 25 Watts for Wifi.

2.4 GHz 802.11b Compatible Bi-Directional Indoor Wi-Fi� Amplifier with AGC for WLAN Systems

Apple Computer, The Homosexual’s Favorite

Friends,

The other day Sam asked me to comment about Apple computers. It’s funny that I had only recently been thinking and praying about these queerest of computers. It certainly is true that Apple computers are very popular amongst the homosexual communities, the fact that these computers are so popular indicates the depths to which our great nation has sunk to.

Hah.

STR : THE FREEDOM BLOG : Apple Computer, The Homosexual’s Favorite