jump to navigation

Visual proof that God loves you and wants you to be free of traffic tickets April 24, 2009

Posted by Niels in : Personal , 4 comments

I took a break from the sex data this week to play around with religion instead. It turns out that religious people get fewer traffic tickets than nonbelievers (See data visualization here.) But you can’t half-ass it - the correlation only holds for people who believe the Bible is the literal word of God. People who think it’s just the inspired word of God get just as many tickets as people who think the Bible is a merely a collection of ancient fables and legends.

Yes, the post confuses correlation and causality a bit. Isn’t it fun?

(And of course, if you enjoy the post and would like to Digg/Reddit/Twitter/Facebook it, it’s always appreciated…)

Your thoughts?

Losing your job might get you laid April 18, 2009

Posted by Niels in : Work , add a comment

It’s days like today that I feel fortunate to have my job. I spent the last week combing through data from the General Social Survey, an survey of over 50,000 people’s opinions on social issues. Including sex, of course. And I found some interesting stuff, all summarized in my recent blog post at Tableau. Turns out that more money = less sex.

Now that your taxes are done, we thought we’d explore the sexier side of financial insolvency. Those of you excited about a little more recreational activity in your bedrooms should keep reading. It turns out all these financial disasters may have a bit of a silver lining.

Check out Tableau’s blog for the sexiest data visualization you’ll ever see. And if you like it, I of course encourage you to Digg/Reddit/Twitter/Stumble/Facebook/etc it…

Your thoughts?

Six years after graduation, I get a job March 29, 2009

Posted by Niels in : Personal , add a comment

Last Wednesday, nearly six years after graduating from Rice, I signed the paperwork for my very first full-time employee position. It’s been a good run, with a solid mix of grad school, self-employment, unemployment, and contracting positions, but with the economy going to hell in a handbasket, I feel like now is a good time to be gainfully employed.

I’m now the Web Analytics Manager at Tableau Software, where I’ve been working as a full-time contractor for the past four months. My work focuses mainly on driving lead generation through the website - testing and optimizing the website experience, as well as increasing traffic through search engine optimization. I’m excited about a few of the projects I have on the horizon, though it’s frustrating that I can’t be as open about my work as I was when I was just working for myself.

In other news, though, I’m thrilled to have great health insurance again, for the first time since leaving graduate school, which means that it’s time to start looking around for a Brazilian jiu jitsu gym again…

Your thoughts?

Baconfest and neuroplasticity February 28, 2009

Posted by Niels in : Personal , 1 comment so far

1. Baconfest 2009 was spectacular and bacon ice cream is delicious. God bless the Vita-Mix.

2. Reading an interesting book on neuroplasticity. Craig points out this means I may be able to cure my own faceblindness. More on this soon…

Your thoughts?

Catching up January 17, 2009

Posted by Niels in : Personal , 3 comments

With my new full-time job (which I’m loving, by the way) it’s getting harder and harder to keep up with this blog. I plan to make more of an effort, though I do feel somewhat stifled by a need to present a more “professional” image. Though the devil’s advocate in me might point out that’s it’s too late for that.

I’ve been trying to use this blog mostly as a journal for myself, something to look back on in thirty years and remember what my life was like now. To that end, here are some things from the past few weeks that I want to remember:

Like I said, just notes to myself. Sorry, I’ll try to make the next post more interesting…

Your thoughts?