Health Related Tweets studied by Johns Hopkins

This is so excellent! Two scientists from Johns Hopkins have analyzed 1.6 million health-related tweets to see if they can assist in tracking disease progression across the country & provide other useful information. Result: Yes!

Guess publicly complaining can be useful at some point after all...

Read about it in The Atlantic, or just jump to the actual study.

Lytro's Light Field Technology

I’m very intrigued by the Lytro “light field camera” technology. Can’t wait to get my hands on one and try it out. I’m thinking it will be a really interesting online storytelling device. I’m not so interested in it as a way to “correct” photos, so much as a new way to be able to do a “rack shot” in a static image similar to how this can be done in film.

This photo is an example of this - it suggests different stories to me if the focus is on the rose, on the smiling girl, or on the girl with a book in the background. (Click on different parts of the photo to change the focus).