Some portions of JohnOhab.com are based on real people, places, events, and other nouns. Everything else is fictional. If you are unable to tell the difference between reality and fiction, this means you are either not part of the joke or you don't know enough about the world to separate the two. The opinions expressed are completely independent of any organizations with which I affiliate.
Two weeks and two interviews with San Francisco 49ers Gold Rush cheerleaders who are both smarter and have better abs than me. If I don’t get to work, I may lose the “John O-Ab” moniker that I have secretly given to myself and not revealed in a public forum until now.
Christine’s story is pretty awesome. She has a Masters in biomedical engineering from Arizona State and is currently pursing a PhD in the Joint Graduate Group in Bioengineering at UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. And she previously cheered for the Arizona Cardinals and the Phoenix Suns, which by default pretty much makes her my favorite former Cardinals and Suns cheerleader. Go Science!
The AZ Republic is reporting that my good friend JD (Javan) Mesnard has won the 2010 Republican primary for the Arizona House of Representatives, District 21. Things are looking good for Javan — he’s all but assured of taking office in January because no Democrats are on the November 2 ballot.
I recently had the opportunity to interview San Francisco 49ers Gold Rush cheerleader, Erica, for a story on ScienceCheerleader.com. In addition to her cheerleading duties, Erica is software engineer who develops online courses for graduate students. As someone who operates in the seemingly unrelated worlds of cheerleading and science and technology, she offers a really unique perspective. Check out the interview!
I was admittedly a little hesitate about this interview. There was some serious conflict between the tortured Arizona Cardinals football fan part of my brain and my passion for connecting science and society. But, when I found out that both Erica and I have a habit of sneaking out of our office to practice double pirouettes in the bathroom, I realized this was something that just had to be done. Enjoy!
The most recent edition of the Office of Naval Research (ONR)’s Innovation Newsletter explores “open innovation” — essentially the notion that organizations can and should innovate by drawing from external sources of knowledge. Seems like a good idea, right? I made it up. (I didn’t)
Dr. Larry Schuette, ONR’s Director of Innovation, and his team gave me the opportunity to contribute a short article discussing how social technologies (e.g., Faced Book, Classmates.com, and YourTube) are playing an increasingly important role at the government-society interface. The three areas I focused on were crowd sourcing, intra-government collaboration, and citizen science.
Also inside the newsletter, you’ll find an article capturing the entrepreneurial spirit that drives Open Innovation forward co-authored by three professors from the Naval Postgraduate School of Business; an article on massive multiplayer games and insight generation; and an article on Open Innovation and lessons learned within a specific Naval science and technology community of interest.
The Innovation Newsletter is published quarterly and covers a variety of exciting topics. It include articles from scientists, engineers, warfighters, professors, program officers, and others, all sharing their insights and research on a particular field of interest.
Last week, I had the opportunity to fill in as the voice of the American Forces Press Service News Roundup Podcast for the Defense Department. It was a fun and informative experience. I didn’t realize how poorly I enunciated sometimes until I started stumbling over my own words for six or seven iterations of a sentence. Ah, but that’s why we have editing.
Topics in the podcast include: Army Gen. David H. Petraeus formally assumed the command of the International Security Force in Afghanistan; Lt. Gen. David M. Rodriguez discussed the progress the coalition forces are making in Afghanistan; Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden met with servicemembers in Iraq on Independence Day; and more. Listen:
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Fresh off a vacation to Seattle, I thought I would highlight some of the amazing citizen science projects taking place in Washington state. Check out my recent post on the Science for Citizens blog. Look, there is also a picture of a happy fun western gray squirrel, which I’ve obscured below to entice you.
I was recently convinced against all of my conventional wisdom to support my friend Jen and her happy fun baby in their efforts to win the 2010 Parents Magazine 2010 Cover Contest. It was very easy. I went to the webbed site and clicked “VOTE FOR ME”. The only other requirement was to verify my vote by entering the words below. Ridiculous.
On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to give a lightning talk at the Gov 2.0 Expo Keynote Kickoff. All of the talks were 5 minutes and consisted of 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. It was definitely a great experience.
The title of my talk was, “You’ve Been Scienced: Communicating Military Science and Technology with Social Media”. I would love to know your thoughts unless they aren’t complimentary.
I somehow came across all of these yesterday. It’s safe to say I watched the Dale Peterson ad 50 times, and it kept getting better with every viewing. What is your favorite campaign ad ever?
Last week, I had the opportunity to fill in as the voice of the 
