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.

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:

AFPS Podcast 42

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.

The Who's Whoo-ing project studies the Great-horned Owl

Are you a Westchester (NY), Putnam (NY), or Fairfield County (CT) resident just itching for a reason to dust off that old boombox?

If so, the The Who’s Whoo-ing citizen science project needs you to play a CD of owl calls for 10 minutes and record if a response is heard. Using simple “call playback surveys”, the Mianus River Gorge Preserve hopes to better understand where eastern screech owls, barred owls, and great horned owls live and co-occur in these suburban counties.

Residents conduct six surveys between March and November for each species of owl — that’s just three hours to help these important predators flourish in their suburban ecosystem.

Check out the Who’s Whoo-ing project page and share any pictures, video, or thoughts you have on your very own Science for Citizens member blog. Owl look forward to learning more about your experiences! (worst pun ever)

Several items worth noting:

1. I did not know the Cowboys Cheerleaders would be at the South by Southwest Interactive conference.
2. Those are my lab goggles, and I did bring them to the conference.
3. That is not my cowboy hat.
4. I too am impressed by how natural and comfortable I look wearing a cowboy hat.
5. This video does not indicate in any way that I am less opposed to any modicum of success potentially achieved by the Dallas Cowboys football team.
6. The Arizona Cardinals will still win the Super Bowl in 2011. I guarantee it.
7. I am also guaranteeing that guarantee.

Gooooooooooooo SCIENCE!

1. Moon

2. 500 Days of Summer

3. The Hurt Locker

4. Inglorious Bastards

5. Michael Jackson’s This Is It

6. White Ribbon

7. Up in the Air

8. In the Loop

9. District 9

10. I Love You Man

http://oscarfest.com

You have until 8pm eastern on March 7, 2010, to cast your votes!

(click banner for full size)

Here’s your chance to be part of science history! In the video below, Andy Farke and Matt Wedel introduce the Open Dinosaur Project, a collaborative research effort to develop a database of dinosaur bone measurements.

The best part? You don’t need formal scientific training, a background in research, or even to have seen the Jurassic Park movies. You just need an interest in paleontology and access to skeletal information, publications, or fossils. Anyone who contributes data — whether high school students, teachers, or grandparents — is eligible to be a junior author on the resulting scientific publication.

Could you be the next Indiana “Bones”? (<– terrible) The only way to find out is to visit the Open Dinosaur Project page and get started! You should also check out their fantastic blog!

Defense Department Wants You to Get Scienced

SIGNAL Online Exclusive, January 2010 – by Katie Packard

The U.S. Defense Department’s weekly podcast series, “Armed With Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military,” emphasizes the important roles science and technology play in military operations by interviewing scientists, engineers, policymakers and other personnel. Not only does the series highlight cutting-edge technologies and capabilities, it also encourages information sharing and collaboration across the government and the military.

The series was launched in January 2009 through the Defense Department’s Emerging Media Directorate. It’s the only Defense Department podcast dedicated entirely to science and technology. Lt. Jennifer Cragg, USN, an operations officer in the directorate, explains that the concept was developed in 2008 after public affairs officers working in various commands in the U.S. Navy realized there was “a unique need to communicate effectively about science.”

Dr. John Ohab, a new technology strategist in the Public Web division of the Defense Media Activity, agrees. “We interview scientists, engineers, policymakers, teachers—anyone involved in science and technology in the government to have them talk about science in ways that are meaningful to the general public.”

The series has two goals, Ohab shares: to convey the Defense Department’s involvement in science and technology and to communicate science and technology in ways that are accessible to anyone. “We want to demystify science,” he says. “There’s often a disconnect between the general public, the government and scientists. We want to break down those barriers to show the scientists as humans.”

From the beginning, the series has been successful. The first podcast received 3,000 feed or download requests. Throughout the year, episodes have been downloaded 200,000 times. Because of its popularity, the series began to air every week instead of every other week.

“Everyone wants to be a part of this,” Ohab shares. “What started as a DOD thing has now become a government thing. We have 50 government agencies and PAOs looking to find the people who can best speak about [these topics].” The series features guests from the military, government agencies such as the Department of Veterans Affairs and NASA, and other organizations such as the Science and Entertainment Exchange.

The original focus of the series was on science and technology in relation to military operations, but that has expanded. Podcast topics include anything from applications to policy to high school science fairs.

Some of Ohab’s favorite episodes include a focus on substance abuse in the military with the Military Health System and a focus on cyber crime with Jim Christy, director of future exploration at the Defense Department Cyber Crime Center. “Here he’s talking about cyber crime, which is not necessarily the most pleasant thing, and we’re learning about him as a person. He’s [a retired special agent], he’s advised multiple presidents, he’s a retired college hockey referee. He developed the first forensic technique to recover data from a cut-up diskette. He’s a Little League baseball coach.”

This emphasis on the stories and people behind the science is a driving force behind the Armed With Science blog. “Every week, I ask people, ‘What did you do to get to this division? What’s your background?’” Ohab explains. “Their background and stories are often the most interesting part. That’s going to be the focus of the blog—first-hand accounts, people’s stories.”

Ohab also intends for the blog to serve as a test site of sorts. “We’re trying to use the blog to test out some of these new social technologies.” Ohab wants to see what works and what doesn’t work. Tools being considered include applications that allow users to choose which account they want to log into when leaving blog comments, for example logging in under their Facebook or Twitter accounts.

Lt. Cragg notes, “We’re trying to use as much social media [as possible] to get the information out there. I like learning about social media tools to inform people about science. It’s like walking into a science class every day.”

In addition to the blog, Armed With Science is also on Facebook and Twitter. Follow along and get scienced!

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the 2010Consumer Electronics Show (CES), an international conference that brings together designers, developers, manufacturers, and distributors of consumer electronics products. CES reaches across global markets, connects the industry, and enables consumer innovations to grow and thrive. It was quite an amazing experience, full of new e-readers, 3D TVs, holographic displays, multi-touch screens, and some of the hottest new tech gadgets around.

Still, I couldn’t help but be most proud of this glorious yellow Albert Einstein t-shirt that I nabbed at the Promise Technology booth.  It was well worth the 20 minutes of technical jargon I had to endure while listening to a pitch for the company’s new Smartstor Zero network storage device.

Here’s Michael looking sharp on the Market Optical blog.

Yes, I came across this portrait of our 40th President at the very end of the White House tour, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t destiny.

Drew Carey, host of The Price is Right, gives an Armed with Science shout-out during CES 2010.

The UCLA Alumni website will feature a recent UCLA Magazine story about Armed with Science to ring in the new year. The swanky banner will be live at the top of the page Dec. 28, 2009 – Jan. 3, 2010.  I like to think that the banner represents my internal struggles as a human-robot hybrid with a fragile sense of self.  It is also might just be a neat collage.

Here’s the teaser:

Did you know the Navy is going green? That the Army is working on an advanced battery that will power tanks? Or how atomic timekeeping works? You would if you listened to John Ohab Ph.D. ‘07 on Armed with Science, a weekly audio webcast launched by the U.S. Department of Defense.

Parents shopping on a shoe-string budget should check out their local Toys R Us.  Sales as high as one cent are providing big savings for families and sending ripples through the high-chair manufacturing industry.  Don’t miss out on this amazing SuperBuy! Thanks to Jodi for spotting this.

Harvard is pretty much overflowing with statues of old Puritan dudes named John (see:  My Trip to Harvard).

Last night, I was reading through the January edition of Discover Magazine, which chronicles the 100 Top Science Stories of 2009, when I made quite a discovery (pun intended): a story written by our very own Darlene Cavalier placed #69! Darlene’s piece, “Prize-Driven Research Takes Off,” focuses on the growing number of organizations offering prizes for successful science and technology innovations. The article should be released online in the next few weeks, and we’ll make sure to post it here.

Congratulations Darlene! What an honor!

This Viagra commercial — perhaps the worst commercial in the history of the world besides the dancing Prilosec OTC lady commercial — warns that Viagra may result in chest pain, nausea, or other discomforts during sex, erections lasting more than 4 hours, a sudden decrease or loss of vision or hearing, an unsafe drop in blood pressure, headaches, facial flushing, upset stomach, bluish vision, blurred vision, and sensitivity to light.

Comprehensive. And, yet, all of these side effects really seem secondary to the fact that this man is engaged in a dialogue about erectile dysfunction with an interactive reflection of himself.

Senate staffer jumps into House race

Thursday, 10 December 2009
By Dennis Welch
The Arizona Guardian

A longtime policy advisor to Republicans in the Senate says he’s running for an open seat in the House next year.

Javan Daniel Mesnard, 29, said he intends to open a committee on Friday and start campaigning in Dist. 21, which includes a large part of Chandler.

Mesnard, a Republican, has worked at the Senate for the past eight years, serving as an advisor to numerous committees dealing with issues ranging from education to transportation.

His last day is today. Mesnard says he’s considered running for a while because he wants to be the one making the final decisions.

“There’s a lot you can do as a staffer,” he said. “But you’re still working for someone else.”

He says he’ll have an official website up within the next couple of days and plans on running under the name of J.D. Mesnard.

“That has nothing to do with J.D. Hayworth although it doesn’t hurt,” he said.

Mesnard has already picked up two prominent endorsements from lawmakers in his legislative district, Reps. Steve Yarbrough and Warde Nichols, who are both Republicans.

“I think he’s a fabulous candidate,” said Yarbrough, who is thinking about running for the Senate next year. “He’s smart and talented and I really hope he makes it through.”

Two other Republicans have filed to run for the seat, Jeff Vance and Venessa Whitener. If everything works out as planned, Mesnard says he will be running as a team along with Yarbrough and Vance.

Nichols is prohibited from running for re-election because state law limits the number of consecutive terms a lawmaker can serve in the same office.

The district is solidly in Republican hands as Republicans currently hold both seats in the House as well as the seat in the Senate. The GOP also enjoys a big registration advantage, out numbering Democrats by roughly 20,000 in the East Valley district.

According to the Secretary of State’s website, there are about 58,500 registered Republicans, 38,700 registered Democrats and 43,203 voters not affiliated with the two major parties.

Can’t decide on a holiday gift for Granny? Don’t know what to get your 10 year-old brother,  Billy?  Tired of wasting money on Barbies and video games that may not last through the New Year? I say, give your loved ones a gift that keeps on giving: a do-it-yourself experimental hydrogen fuel cell car that runs on water!

That’s right! The Fuel Cell Car & Experiment X7 Kit provides a playful introduction to one of the most significant technologies of the 21st Century: reversible hydrogen fuel cells. Each kit comes with a full-color, 16-page manual with easy, step-by-step instructions for assembling and using the car. In addition, the kit contains scientific explanations on how fuels cells work, the intricacies of fuel cell car design, and potential alternative energies for automobiles.

Most importantly, the kit is appropriate for anyone aged 10 and up, which means you’ll never be stuck wondering what to get that friend or family member who always seems to have everything. While other kids are showing off their boring skateboards and lame iPhones, yours could be harnessing the power of water. Don’t miss out!

Get the  The Fuel Cell Car & Experiment X7 Kit today!

To mark the 40th anniversary of the Internets, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has announced the DARPA Network Challenge, a competition that will explore the role of social networking in communication, team building, and group mobilization. The challenge is to be the first person to submit the locations of 10 8-foot, red, weather balloons at 10 fixed locations in the continental United States.

Here’s how it works: The red balloons will be deployed on Saturday, December 5, in readily accessible locations and visible from nearby roads. Teams and collaborators will have approximately 9 days, until 12:00 PM (ET) on December 14, to collect the locations of the balloons and submit their entries.  All locations must be submitted in latitude and longitude coordinates. The event is open to individuals of all ages irrespective of nationality or residency (except Federal employees and their spouses and dependents), but first you must register your team on  the DARPA Network Challenge website.

Find the red balloons. Win $40,000. Do you have what it takes to be the next Balloon Boy/Girl?

Ian is in the band, Deville. He also looks like this statue of Caeser, which gained considerable poularity after Laura mimed it in Caesar’s Palace. There is pretty much nothing else about Ian that I would like you to know at this point.

Armed and Scientific

By Dan Frankel
Published Oct 1, 2009 8:00 AM

Did you know the Navy is going green? That the Army is working with industry and academia on an advanced battery that will power, among other things, tanks? Or how atomic timekeeping works? You would if you listened to “Armed With Science: Research and Applications for the Modern Military,” a weekly audio webcast that the U.S. Department of Defense launched in January at blogtalkradio.com/ArmedwithScience.

Hosted by neuroscientist Dr. John Ohab Ph.D. ‘07, the show features one-on-one interviews with scientists from a wide variety of government agencies discussing everything from electronic warfare to drug abuse in the military. A new media guru with his own weekly podcast, and nearly 2,400 followers on Twitter, Ohab’s mission is to make the broad topic of science accessible to the broader population.

“We’re primarily going after the non-science audience, people who have an interest in science but no science training,” he explains. “What it all goes back to is communication and information sharing. People say scientists can’t communicate. People say government can’t communicate. By and large that’s not true; we just speak different languages.”

Meanwhile, the program also serves the mandate of making the Pentagon more open and accessible to the tax-paying public. “People think of the Department of Defense as guns and missiles and tanks, and to some extent that’s true, but this is a great opportunity to understand the breadth of science operating within the federal government and to understand how it impacts society,” says Ohab.

Meanwhile, the peripatetic scientist/podcast personality is also fascinated by the ongoing media revolution, using just about every social networking tool he can find to expand his show’s audience. Besides his social network activity, Ohab seeks to expand on the “Armed With Science” dialog through his personal blog, and a key voice for the Science Cheerleader, a web-based media platform that, like Ohab’s podcasts, aims to make science more fun and understandable to wider audience. In fact, some of the questions Ohab asks his scientist guests originate among his Twitter followers.

“We’re sort of on the forefront,” he concludes. “To do something that no one else in the government is doing, that is to host a radio program that discusses controversial topics that have implications for our national security, is pretty neat.”

Last week, I saw Jason Alexander in the upper west side of New York City waiting to be seated for brunch in what can only be described as the most weather-inappropriate clothing I have seen in my entire life. What an authentic New York City moment!

9FH83XHBZJEB

In August, Brandon Skar of Snoqualmie, WA, systematically destroyed all of my Super Mario Kart Records on Twin Galaxies. I’ve chipped away at his efforts with five new World Records, but there is still a long way to go before The Quest is complete. I will try to post some of my record-setting runs on the YouTubes when I get a chance.

Click on these links to be impressed by my accomplishments:

Ghost Valley 1 – Fastest Race

Ghost Valley 1 – Fastest Lap

Ghost Valley 2 – Fastest Lap

Donut Plains 1 – Fastest Race

Donut Plains 1 – Fastest Lap

I’ve really been into user-generated content lately, so I was extremely pleased when Laura sent me this mime from Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.  Three stars for the mime and another half star for navigating the Vegas crowds to find a piece of historical art.

That being said, I’d much rather have a mime of that strange little naked man-child thing holding onto Caesar’s leg.

Humans evolved. Shouldn’t our websites? That’s the idea behind NOVA’s new Beta Evolution website, an experimental effort to transform the way NOVA delivers its award-winning science and technology programming.

Since 1996, NOVA has pioneered new forms of web-original content with more than 30,000 pages covering anything from string theory to aviation to how the Pyrimids were built. The Beta Evolution website serves as one-stop shop for all matters evolution, including the recent three-part NOVA series, Becoming Human, which explores the latest scientific research on human origins. Over time, NOVA will rely on user feedback to help inspire new ways of designing, organizing, and presenting this content to make it more useful for viewers.

Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with Lauren Aguirre, executive director of NOVA’s Web team, about goals of the new project, the challenges of organizing 13 years of content, and her experiences at the forefront of science communications. You can listen to each individual question and answer by clicking on the audio player below. Enjoy!

MG performs a seemingly perfect mime of this George Washington statue inside the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, VA.  Unfortunately, that full set of teeth is going to cost her 50 points. Sorry, MG. It’s just not your day.

If Windows 7 was our idea, does that mean Microsoft is going to blame us when it sucks? Are we also responsible for this unbearable series of commercials? What about Vista or the Zune – were those our fault too ?

This Pepsi commercial starring Jimmy Fallon and Parker Posey is perhaps my favorite commercial of all time for reasons that include but are not limited to:

1. The background music, “Steamline” by Newton, comes with a mandatory 10-day period in which one cannot stop whistling the tune.

2. Jimmy Fallon’s dance moves look exactly how my dance moves would look if I were dancing through a crowded city street. Ironically, I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to emulate his elbow maneuver at the :59 mark and have yet to figure it out. I’m pretty sure it’s impossible. Seriously, try it. Impossible.

It’s been 1o months since the Cardinal lost to the Steelers in Super Bowl XLIII, and today I finally looked at the pictures taken during our Super Bowl party. It may sound ridiculous, but I honestly feel so much residual pain from the experience that I couldn’t bring myself to revisit that day until now.

People that have followed an even mildly successful sports franchise will never understand what it is like to be a Cardinals fan. Since forever, they have been the laughing stock of not just the NFL but the entire sports world. Detroit Lions fans get it . Los Angeles Clippers fans get it. People who cheer for the Yankees or the Broncos simply do not understand what it is like to support a team that has zero chance of ever winning anything.  Cowboys fans, Steelers fans, Lakers fans are all given credit for being such amazing supporters, but really, cheering for a winner isn’t the best way to measure devotion.

Last year, Cardinals fans finally had a chance to feel like a winner. When Larry Fitzgerald scored the go-ahead touchdown in the Super Bowl, 20 years of pain was almost instantaneously dissolved, only to rematerialize 10-fold a few minutes later when Santonio Holmes scored the game-winning touchdown. While Steelers fans were ho-hum happy about their SIXTH Super Bowl, it was absolutely devastating to true Cardinals fans. Our only chance in 20 years, and possibly, our last chance for another 20.

It was a a day of extreme highs and lows that I had experienced only a few times in my life. Is that sad? Sort of. Sports are fundamentally about entertainment. But, when you commit yourself to supporting something–a person, a cause, or a sports team–your pride and happiness ares at stake, and it doesn’t matter how seemingly trivial that something might be. Thus, while I am admittedly embarrassed to still be unable to watch Super Bowl XLIII highlights, I am proud to have to supported the Cardinals in their best and worst moments.

Anyway, this is a meaningless discussion since the Cardinals are guaranteed to win the Super Bowl in 2010.

While we most commonly associate Google with its ability to search the Intertubes for our favorite science FAILs, the tech giant is also opening new doors for citizen science. A recent article in the Public Library of Science (PloS) ONE highlights a new mobile phone application, powered by Google Maps and Google’s Android operating system, that allows professional and citizen scientists to gather, submit, and access research data from the field.

The application, called EpiCollect, was initially designed for epedimiological and ecological studies but has potential for a number of other fields, including economics, public health, and resource allocation. Individual users can input data records (variables, photos, GPS location, etc) into EpiCollect from their mobile phone, which is synchronized to a central database. An accompanying web application, located at www.spatialepidemiology.net, provides a common location for mapping, visualization, and analysis of the data by everyone involved in the study. The two-way connectivity between the EpiCollect mobile application and the central database could increase the collection and collation of data for community projects, particular in resource-limited areas.

Importantly, EpiCollect was developed as a free software using Google’s open-source Android operating system. Anyone interested in using the software is encouraged to contact David Aanensen in the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London.  The EpiCollect website also provides three sample epidemological datasets and a facility to geocode your own spatial data.

If my feet could have nightmares, they would pretty much look like the Crocs store in Pittsburgh International Airport.

Of the 6.022 x 10^23 reasons that I love my mom, one of them is not her ability to perform complex arial maneuvers.  I award her no points, and may God had mercy on my soul.

It took 38 years for Starbucks to unleash their full-bodied, flavorful instant coffee known as “Via.” It took only one well-documented loss in OscarFest 2003 to steal my likeness for their VIA marketing bulletin.

“Drug Free is the Key” for the Defense Department during Red Ribbon Week, which runs from Oct 25-31, 2009. The week is meant to higlight the Department’s effort to raise public awareness and mobilize communities to combat tobacco, alcohol and drug use among military personnel, civilians and families.

I had the opportunity to help spread the word by contributing to The Sara Bellum Blog,  part of a larger effort by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to provide information to teenagers on the science of addiction.  Now, in addition to facts on how drugs can affect one’s body and resources for teachers, you can also find my article, “Are You Good To Go?,” and a cartoonishly enormous picture of my head. Thanks to Dr. Bioephemera for her help in setting up the collaboration.

Click here to read the article.  I think you will be compelled to rate it 5 stars. (seriously, do it)