A real Moneyball story – the reinvention of pitcher Brandon McCarthy

SEVEN PITCHES. That’s how long it took for the verdict to come in. On April 5, in the first inning of his first start in an A’s uniform, Brandon McCarthy went groundout, groundout, groundout. It was a one-inning sabermetric masterpiece. For the game, he lasted eight innings — the second-longest start of his career — …

How many hours of TV, internet video, TiVo, and mobile video do Americans watch?

Average entertainment consumption on TV – 32 hours, 47 minutes ” on the internet – 4 hours ” on TiVo – 2 hours, 21 minutes Average video consumption on internet – 27 minutes Average video consumption on a mobile device – 7 minutes   What age range are you in?   Did you notice that …

Feeling Sick? Google “Flu Trends” Tool Smarter Than The CDC

A new study in Clinical Infectious Diseases shows that Google Flu Trends can predict surges in hospital flu visits more than a week before the Center for Disease Control (CDC). For the study, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researchers compared Baltimore-specific data from the Google Flu Trends website, which estimates influenza outbreaks based on online searches for flu information, to ED crowding and laboratory …

Feeling Sick? Google "Flu Trends" Tool Smarter Than The CDC

A new study in Clinical Infectious Diseases shows that Google Flu Trends can predict surges in hospital flu visits more than a week before the Center for Disease Control (CDC). For the study, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine researchers compared Baltimore-specific data from the Google Flu Trends website, which estimates influenza outbreaks based on online searches for flu information, to ED crowding and laboratory …

How many people in United States own a TV, DVR, Video Game Console, DVD player?

Of an estimated 312,000,000 in the United States in 2011: 290 million have at least one TV 253 million – DVD player 162 million – video game console 145 million – cable 129 million – DVR 95 million – Satellite TV By percentage: 93% – have at least one TV 81% – DVD player 52% …

From zero to 100,000 miles in eight years

I bought my 2004 Acura RSX as a new car back in November of 2003. In the eight years since I have driven 100,000 miles. That’s 12,500 miles/year which is 31% below the national average of 18,000 miles/yr. It also includes four cross-country trips from Los Angeles to Washington DC (10,560 miles). Of which, the milestone …

Reflections from the 1st Chief Information Officer of the USA

“Last Friday was my last day at the White House. As I begin my fellowship at Harvard University, I’d like to share my reflections on public service…” So begins, Vivek’s 12-page summary of his time in the Obama administration (the full version can be found via Alex Howard’s GovFresh piece). I’ve been a big fan of …

What Is a Data Scientist?

After performing some research on data visualization, I came across an explosion of articles on “data scientists”. This term seems to be the latest craze in Social Networking. All these web 2.0 companies with millions of users and their data, but no income. Why not find a way to turn that data into profits. The …

Twitter's edge is Big Data

Today Twitter announced that it purchased Backtype, a tiny company doing Big Data. The website says the company does “social media analytics” which is pretty much saying “Oprah sits on a couch.” It’s the buzzy-est of buzz words, but if you dig into this you find that the company doing things that everybody wants. Like …

Twitter’s edge is Big Data

Today Twitter announced that it purchased Backtype, a tiny company doing Big Data. The website says the company does “social media analytics” which is pretty much saying “Oprah sits on a couch.” It’s the buzzy-est of buzz words, but if you dig into this you find that the company doing things that everybody wants. Like …