13 Random Words

I guess the best word for Lemony Snicket's latest book, 13 Words, is that the title isn't really accurate. While it is true that 13 words are highlighted, it is unclear why they were given prominence over the other 100 or so distinct words in the book. The story is rather bland, makes little sense and ultimately is quite depressing. My kids loved it. So if you want to read you children a book that doesn't try to have a story that is interesting, makes sense and is not depressing but that they will simultaneously love and think about, this one is pretty much it.

Hate the New IMDB interface? There is a solution

I am sure a lot of you hate the new interface the Internet Movie Database introduced a little while ago, but there is a little secret I think everyone should know.

Technically, you can still reach the older version of the IMDB if you know where to look. And lucky for you all, I figured that out.

If you are looking at a movie, television show and the like and you want to see the old style view of its listing, put in the following after the its specific listing.

/combined

For example, if when you visit the listing for The Social Network, it comes up like this, change /maindetails at the end of the url to /combined, and the old version of the page should appear.

And for people, like say, Kiefer Sutherland, add /filmotype to the end, and you should have a more normal looking display.

Sadly, I haven't found a way to bring back the old front page, but if there is a way, I will share with the group.

Hopefully the IMDB keeps these views available for people who hate the new layout. I hope this helps a few people out.

Sunday Video: Machete Trailer in Lego

The original Grindhouse trailer for Machete recreated in Lego. Two awesome things in one beautiful package.

I didn't know they had Legos that could replicate Danny Trejo, I honestly didn't.

TV Weathercasters

A question that I get asked all the time (including yesterday, which stimulated this blog) is what do I think of TV weathercasters? Who is the best one? And similar questions.

The truth is that the quality of these folks vary widely and many are not even meteorologists. And their forecasts tend to follow the NWS closely.

One thing is remarkable--the only scientific discipline to have a representative on virtually every news broadcast is MY field---meteorology. Quite an opportunity! TV weathercasters are often consider the station scientific experts...which has its ups and downs as I will note below.

I like to use the term TV weathercaster, even though many, if not most, call themselves meteorologists. The truth is that many, if not the majority, are NOT meteorologists...if by that you mean someone who has an actual degree in the subject. They looks good and talk well on TV, which is a real skill, of course. But it drives me crazy seeing people without a real background in the topic call themselves a meteorologist. Should TV medical reporters be called doctors? Or TV financial reporters be called economists?

Those with the strongest backgrounds tend to do the weather during the week, with the weaker folks (with a few exceptions, like Shannon O'Donnell of KOMO) doing the weekends. Some of the weekend types are a real problem, point to the wrong features on satellite pictures or misinterpreting the radar imagery (no names!).

I teach atmospheric sciences 101 and on several occasions I had asked my students (for extra credit) to write down the forecasts of the TV weathercasters from all of the local stations. Then we did a statistical analysis comparing the TV folks to the National Weather Service (NWS). The result: there was no statistically significant difference among the forecasts. Bottom line: the TV weathercasters don't stray far from the NWS forecasts, and they probably shouldn't. The NWS forecasters have degrees, many years of experience, and are receiving updated training. I occasionally have my issues with NWS forecasts (like a slow update cycle, not wanting to change forecasts too rapidly, and lack of emphasis on strong-range forecasting), but they are experienced pros. And they are willing to go on rotating shift to give us 24-h forecasts, which we all should be thankful.

A maddening aspect of the TV weather business is the weather hype that news directors seem to think as mandatory. Here in Seattle, snow is hyper-hyped. And one station even has a professional weather hyper, Jim Foreman of KING TV, who I love to tease. "Pinpoint forecasts", "County by County Forecasts", "Severe Weather Center", Doppler this and that, you have heard it all! Sometime I would like to visit a "Severe Weather Center"--but perhaps it would be too dangerous. And some of the graphics on air are impressive, but entirely confusing--like the "fly-through" 3D clouds and precipitation animations that are so popular on some stations.

The American Meteorological Society has a program to certify TV weathercasters--the AMS Seal of Approval--which has recently been updated to REQUIRE that the certified have real degrees. Other organizations, like the National Weather Association, also have certifications that require less background.

Here in Seattle we are very fortunate to have a very good group of TV weather folks. Many have real degrees (from the UW!) including Jeff Renner, M.J. McDermott, Shannon O'Donnell, and Rich Marriott. Steve Pool was not only tutored at the UW (by me), but works closely with Scott Sistek, who got his degree at the UW. Steve has been around long enough to know the local ropes. Scott S. also has a very good weather blog. Rebecca Stevenson took the weather course at Mississippi State and sat through the UW senior weather forecasting class. In short, the Seattle market has very good people, except for some of the unnamed and less experienced weekend folks. Portland also has some excellent weathercasters, such as Mark Nelsen, who is also a degreed meteorologist.



One of the more controversial aspects of TV weathercasting these days is that a small number of them have been energetic global warming "skeptics." An survey of more than 500 TV weathercasters found that one in four of them say there is no global warming, with 27% agreeing with the statement "global warming is a scam". Most of what these people are saying makes no sense, and quite frankly TV weathercasters generally have little background in climate science. My advice--go elsewhere for guidance on this issue.

Week 21: Pageant of the Transmundane

A man from the Washington State Potato Commission is going to go on an all-potato diet. Look, I love potatoes, I really do, but even I am going to say "That dude's crazy".

This week's winning entry comes from the blog Toxel.com.

In this case it is a series of Stuffed Animals with Mental Disorders, which is both weird and insanely cute. (If I was otaku, I would have said it was kawaii).

And since this week's winning entry has to do with mental disorders, I thought Shining-inspired Homer was the best

Congrats. Here is your badge.

The rules of this little contest: Every week I will be selecting one blog post that I have seen from the vast reaches of the blogging village to bestow with the Homer Simpson Transmundanity Award for being one of the freakiest(in a funny way) things I've seen or read during a 7 day period. It doesn't necessarily have to have been written during the week, I just had to have encountered it. That means that if you find something interesting and repost it like a movie or whatever, if I saw it at your blog first, you get the prize. Of course, creating your own content is also a very good way to win.

This is not a meme. This is an award that I give out, and thus, I am not "tagging" you.

Now, if you see a post that you think is worthy of this illustrious prize, just drop me a line at campybeaver@gmail.com and we'll see if we can't get your suggestion up and award-ready while giving you some credit and a link to your own blog.

Python Library for Google Analytics Management API

It’s been only 7 weeks since we’ve launched the Google Analytics Management API and we’ve heard a lot of great feedback. Thanks!

Since Python is one of our more popular languages, we’ve updated the Google Analytics Python Client Library to access all 5 feeds of the Management API. Now it’s easier than ever to get your configuration data from the API.

To show you how simple it is to use the library, here is an example which returns all the goal names for a profile:

import gdata.analytics.client

APP_NAME = 'goal_names_demo'
my_client = gdata.analytics.client.AnalyticsClient(source=APP_NAME)

# Authorize
my_client.client_login(
    INSERT_USER_NAME,
    INSERT_PASSWORD,
    APP_NAME,
    service='analytics')

# Make a query.
query = gdata.analytics.client.GoalQuery(
      acct_id='INSERT_ACCOUNT_ID',
      web_prop_id='INSERT_WEB_PROP_ID',
      profile_id='INSERT_PROFILE_ID')

# Get and print results.
results = my_client.GetManagementFeed(query)
for entry in results.entry:
  print 'Goal number = %s' % entry.goal.number
  print 'Goal name   = %s' % entry.goal.name
  print 'Goal value  = %s' % entry.goal.value

To get you started, we wrote a reference example which accesses all the important information for each feed. We also added links to the source and PyDoc from the Management API Libraries and Examples page. Have a look and let us know what you think!

By Nick Mihailovski, Google Analytics API Team

Friday Favorite: Stories from a Pop Culture Past: Stand By Me

Originally published in June 2007
--
Two for Flinching. Those were words I grew to loathe with my entire essence in grade school. TFF was a concept that hadn't hit my school until 1986, and I can thank one particular movie for bringing this form of torture into my life: Stand By Me.

Now this game really sucked for me because, like Jerry O'Connell's Vern, I was overweight and I always flinched. I mean, always, so my arms between my elbows and shoulders were purple at the end of a school week from getting wailed on every single day. And when your arms are purple, well, getting punched full bore hurts like hell. And given the fact that in addition to two for flinching, there was also the deadly game, and I can tell you, you really don't want to move your arms.

In adult life, well, if someone or a group of people were doing that to you, well, you probably flat out deck them, but when you are a kid, you play by those stupid rules. If I had been smarter and braver back then, I should have hit someone in the face and when they got pissed at me, told them that they should have flinched. It could have worked. At least in my mind it would have.

Of course, I am very hard to bruise now... I could probably get hit in the arm with a sledgehammer and have just a little light bruising. Not that I want to put that to the test mind you, but I've taken a lot of hard shots to the arms in the past 15 years, and really haven't bruised... so perhaps all that punching did toughen me up.

And with some of the other things that happened in that movie... like I could have gotten a leech stuck in my underwear like Wil Wheaton, or have a huge fat kid barf blueberry pie all over me, because let's face it, those two things would screw you up for life.

Tags: game, two for flinching, stand by me, wil wheaton, 1986, movie, bruising, pop culture, past, corey feldman, jerry o'connell, river phoenix