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A surprising degree of uncertainty surrounds one seemingly simple point of fact about the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS): When did the ACS begin? Some statements cast the ACS as a very new survey— largely through comparison with the 2010 decennial census, in which the ACS replaced the “long-form” questionnaire administered in previous decades to a sample of respondents. Others claim a longer lifetime for the concepts and questions of the ACS, alternately describing the ACS as dating back to the first decennial census in 1790, which started the precedent of asking for more detail than a simple headcount; to 1940 and the first major use of statistical sampling for some content in a decennial census; or to 1960, the first census in which a full-fledged long-form questionnaire was administered.

As the 2000 census approached, a notion originally advanced in the early 1940s as a possible replacement for the census began to gain traction, albeit as a replacement for the long-form sample rather than the entire census.To secure approval for the full-scale ACS, the ACS was made an integral part of plans for the 2010 decennial census—the basic bargain being that shifting the historical long-form content to the ACS would free the main 2010 census to be conducted as a “short-form only” count. In this spirit, the content and questions of the ACS were closely patterned after the long-form sample questionnaire used in the 2000 census. As years have passed, new questions have gradually been added to the survey.The charge of the workshop
emphasizes the benefits of the ACS and its title retained the wording used at the
project’s inception—literally expressing “burdens” as a parenthetical.

The workshop itself was held on the afternoon of June 14 and the full day of June 15, 2012, at the National Academies’ Keck Center in Washington, DC. The workshop drew roughly 80 attendees across both days, with the first afternoon’s proceedings drawing a particularly strong crowd. Benefits, Burdens, and Prospects of the American Community Survey: Summary of a Workshop explains the happenings of the workshop.

[Read the full report]

Topics: Behavioral and Social Sciences

3D printing is over 20 years old, but it feels like we’re just finally starting to truly unlock the potential of the technology. The continued march of technology is relentless, however, and some inventors are already thinking about what comes next.

The next big thing may very well be 4D printing, a new technology from Skylar Tibbits, an architect, designer and computer scientist. The core concept behind this new technology is self assembly.

It may sound strange and far out, but it’s actually quite simple. 4D printing is being billed as a process where synthetic objects can change and adapt themselves to the environment. In a recent TED interview, Tibbits compared the process of 4D printing to the process of natural adaptation:

Natural systems obviously have this built in — the ability to have a desire. Plants, for example, generally have the desire to grow towards light and they generate energy from the translation of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide to oxygen, and so on. This is extremely difficult to build into synthetic systems — the ability to “want” or need something and know how to change itself in order to acquire it, or the ability to generate its own energy source. If we combine the processes that natural systems offer intrinsically (genetic instructions, energy production, error correction) with those artificial or synthetic (programmability for design and scaffold, structure, mechanisms) we can potentially have extremely large-scale quasi-biological and quasi-synthetic architectural organisms.

The concept of 4D printing is still pretty abstract, however, so here’s some videos of the process in action to give you an idea of how this works:

4D Printing: Cube Self-Folding Strand from Skylar Tibbits on Vimeo.

4D Printing: MIT Self-Folding Strand from Skylar Tibbits on Vimeo.

It should be stated that 4D printing won’t be the end of 3D printing. In fact, both go hand in hand as 3D printers are helping to create the materials used in 4D printing. It’s not like one is going to replace the other, but rather they help each other reach new heights in innovation.

[h/t: Objet Blog]

Google appears to be taking another step toward emphasizing brands in search results. As pointed out by Gordon Campbell a few days ago, and then again today by Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable, Google is placing brand names at the beginning of titles for links in search results.

One example both point to is for York Fitness.

As Campbell points out, “Google has presented us with the page title ‘York Fitness: Gym Equipment & Machines | Weights | Boxing’ but the page title that York Fitness has set is ‘Gym Equipment & Machines | Weights | Boxing Equipment | York Fitness’ and truth be told, Google’s version of the page title looks far better.”

They appear to be doing the same thing on a variety of pages.

While it didn’t speak about the brand-specific method of retitling pages, Google has talked about its process for retitling pages in the past.

Google Webmaster Trends Analyst Pierre Far wrote on the Google Webmaster Central Blog over a year ago, “Page titles are an important part of our search results: they’re the first line of each result and they’re the actual links our searchers click to reach websites. Our advice to webmasters has always been to write unique, descriptive page titles (and meta descriptions for the snippets) to describe to searchers what the page is about.”

“We use many signals to decide which title to show to users, primarily the <title> tag if the webmaster specified one,” he continued. “But for some pages, a single title might not be the best one to show for all queries, and so we have algorithms that generate alternative titles to make it easier for our users to recognize relevant pages. Our testing has shown that these alternative titles are generally more relevant to the query and can substantially improve the clickthrough rate to the result, helping both our searchers and webmasters. About half of the time, this is the reason we show an alternative title.”

“Other times, alternative titles are displayed for pages that have no title or a non-descriptive title specified by the webmaster in the HTML,” he said. “For example, a title using simply the word “Home” is not really indicative of what the page is about. Another common issue we see is when a webmaster uses the same title on almost all of a website’s pages, sometimes exactly duplicating it and sometimes using only minor variations. Lastly, we also try to replace unnecessarily long or hard-to-read titles with more concise and descriptive alternatives.”

As far as brands go, brands are associated with trust and identity. We all know how important Google considers identity these days. A brand is the identity of a company or a product. Google seems to be be making sure content is clearly associated with the brand that puts it out.

Despite the announcement of the PlayStation 4, Naughty Dog is still putting the finishing touches on what is likely to be one of the last big exclusives for the PlayStation 4.

The Last of Us is now a little over three months away from its delayed June 14 release date, and but the game’s marketing campaign is rolling ahead with developer diaries that give gamers a glimpse into what the developers were thinking while designing and implementing the game. First on the list of things they were thinking: the “zombies” aren’t zombies.

In the first The Last of Us dev diary, titled “Hush,” Naughty dog talks about its inspirations for the “infected,” including parasitic fungi that take over ants. The art design for the infected evidently came from research done on real skin infections and fungal infections, which explains their disgusting appearance. The developers go on to comment about the sound design for the infected and a bit about their life cycle.

A Colt data center module being moved into its home at the Verne Global data center in Iceland. Verne has ordered additional modules for an expansion of its data center near Reykjavik. (Photo:Colt)

There will be soon be more modular data centers loaded onto ships and heading for Iceland. Data center developer Verne Global has selected Colt’s ftec modular data centre for an expansion of its facility in Keflavik, Iceland. The modules will be fabricated at Colt’s manufacturing facility in northern England, and then shipped to Iceland in May and assembled onsite and ready to go live in the third quarter of 2013.

The Verne Global facility, built in a former NATO command center, takes advantage of Iceland’s vast supply of renewable energy (hydroelectric and geothermal), along with a cool climate that allows the use of air-side free cooling for the entire year. Colt customized its modular data center hall design, equipping it with cooling modules that allow Verne to cool servers using air from outside the data center. In winter months, the system gives Verne the option of mixing the chilly outside air with exhaust heat from servers.

Existing tenants at Verne Global include automaker BMW and managed hosting provider Datapipe. The company says demand remains strong, prompting the need for the additional modules.

“As cloud, mobile and big data applications drive organixations to look for cutting edge solutions for their data storage needs, interest in our Icelandic facility continues to gain momentum and we find ourselves needing to expand our current footprint,” said Jeff Monroe, CEO for Verne Global. “Our partnership with Colt allows for flexible and rapid expansion of our business with a superior product that meets our specific requirements.”

Focus on Flexible Design, Phased Growth

Colt’s ftec design, introduced in November, is the latest version of the UK company’s modular data center. It uses a standardized, reusable design that can deliver excellent energy efficiency. Colt introduced its modular offering in 2010, offering more than 120 design variations and the ability to deliver modules to either a Colt facility or customer-owned site. With ftec – with the “f” emphasizing the flexibility of the product – Colt has introduced features to further reduce risk and deploy capacity efficiently, particularly when the data center is in low load.

“By putting flexibility right at the heart of our data centres both in the design phase and throughout the life cycle, we achieve market-leading cost savings for customers in terms of energy efficiency and an unrivaled time to market of less than four months,” said Guy Ruddock, Vice President of Design and Delivery for Colt. “In the case of Verne Global’s campus, we’ve specifically customized our design to fully harness Iceland’s fresh air cooling which is available 365 days a year. This, coupled with the unique 100 percent renewable, dual sourced power supplying the data centre hall, provides industry leading efficiency and reliability.”

The initial phase of the Verne Global, deployment involved moving a 5,000 square foot data center nearly 1,000 miles across the ocean? Colt loaded 13 of its factory-built modules onto a container ship, which sailed them from northern England to Reykjavik. This video provides an overview of the logistics involved in this unusual deployment.

Kanye West has never been one to be afraid of burning bridges, and it seems his latest onstage rant is aimed at making sure he has no friends left in the biz at all.

The soon-to-be-father got some things off his chest during a solo show in London last weekend, calling out Taylor Swift and Justin Timberlake and taking apparent shots at his BFF’s wife, Beyonce. After slamming Swift again for winning that infamous MTV award over Beyonce, he went after Timberlake’s latest project–despite the fact that Jay-Z is collaborating with him on it.

“I got love for Hov, but I ain’t f—in’ with that ‘Suit & Tie,’” he said, referring to Timberlake’s new single.

He also ranted sarcastically about corporate endorsements with celebraties, and while he didn’t name names, he didn’t exactly make it difficult to guess who he was talking about. Beyonce, who just inked a $50 million deal with Pepsi to appear in their ads in exchange for cash to fund her creative endeavors, seemed to be the target.

“Can I sell your drink for you please? So you can help me put on a better show,” he said. “Please corporations? Can you please support me, Please? Me, Kanye West? I swear I’m a nice n—a now. I swear I’ll put the pink polo back on. I swear to you. Please? Just for three million dollars. I need it so bad. I need a new pool in my back yard. So I’ll tell all my fans your s— is cool. And if they believe in me they should also believe in you . . . Did we you the check yet? Did the corporation send the check yet? What’s my public rating right now? Are people liking me again? Enough to get some money from the corporations? Are they liking me now? They forgot about the whole Beyonce thing right? Ok cool. Is it okay now?”

Maybe the stress of being a dad is getting to him?

First, we learned that you could just throw a screaming goat into Taylor Swift’s “I Knew You Were Trouble” and everything would work out just fine. Now, we learn that you don’t even have to use a living creature to produce the same effect.

[via reddit]

A woman wearing traditional tribal beads in Turkana, Kenya. Picture: Joyce Njuguna/DFID Kenya

What comes to mind when you think of Kenya? Lions and elephants on the plains of the Maasai Mara, the world’s best marathon runners, innovation in mobile phone technology? Or tribal hatred, political crisis, and running battles in desperate slums?

Kenyans go to the polls on Monday 4th March. It’s their first general election since the tragic post-election violence in December 2007, in which over 1,000 people died and more than 600,000 became homeless. I’ve lived in Nairobi since January 2009, enjoying the safaris and running the odd marathon (slowly) – while leading DFID’s contribution towards helping Kenyans out of poverty. I’ve never blogged before, but have a sense I’m about to live through a minor moment of African history. So over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing some personal thoughts on why people choosing their own leaders is so important in emerging African economies like Kenya, and why foreign aid donors should help Kenyans to make democracy work. It’s hard to predict how the next few weeks will turn out. But I think it will be interesting.

Back in early 2008, while the post-election violence was raging across Kenya, I was living and working in New York. My wife Lucy was newly pregnant. We watched with dismay from afar as the country we’d just agreed to move to started going up in smoke. We visited later that year (Lucy by now heavily pregnant – with twins), and found an uneasy political truce, but a typically Kenyan determination to get on with life – and making a living. And when we moved here in early 2009 with our three month old babies, we arrived in a country where much of daily life was normal.

In the last four years, our babies have grown into feisty young kids who call Kenya home. And Kenya has evolved too, reforming several of the institutions which failed in 2007-8 – notably the election commission, the judiciary, and the police (though there’s more to be done). DFID has supported all that, and the passage of a new constitution in August 2010 – one of the most progressive in Africa, and indeed the world. I was an election observer on the historic day Kenyans voted in a referendum by a 2:1 margin for that constitution. I’ll never forget the dogged thoroughness of the Presiding Officer supervising the vote count in the polling station where I observed, a chilly village primary school classroom north of Nairobi. Lit by gas lamp as day melted quickly into night, he was determined to get this absolutely right – and for everyone to know he had got it absolutely right. Three weeks later, Kenyans proudly promulgated their new constitution, in a euphoric spirit of celebration and optimism.

An election commission official counts votes at the Kajiado by-election in September 2012. Photo: Alistair Fernie

In the two and a half years since, Kenyan politics have got more complicated. Some of that euphoria has faded. The International Criminal Court cases against the alleged instigators of the 2007-8 violence have divided the country. Old tribal rivalries have resurfaced. Guns and money are swirling around the country in dangerous combination. Nearly 500 people were killed in political violence in 2012 alone. The polls are too close to call, and the stakes are very high for some candidates and their supporters who cannot contemplate losing.

But millions of Kenyans remain determined to get these elections absolutely right – or at least good enough. They want peace. They want any disputes over the results to be fought out in the courts, not the streets. And they want the stability that will allow them to get a job, plant and harvest their crops, and send their kids to school safely. Most of them also want the international community’s friendship and support, and for Kenya’s reputation as a stable country to be restored. Our job is to help the Kenyan institutions running the elections make them as credible and peaceful as possible. We don’t interfere in the politics. Who Kenyans elect is entirely up to them.

British diplomats usually stay for a maximum of four years in a country. I’ve made a commitment to see through these elections (twice postponed), so will sneak to four and a half years. The safaris and the running are certainly an incentive to stay longer. But what really makes this country wonderful is the Kenyan people – their friendliness, their humour, their energy and innovation, their determination to get on. And whatever the next few weeks bring, I’m proud to be bringing UK aid to help the Kenyan people ensure these elections are as peaceful and successful as the 2010 referendum, so the terrible events of 2007-8 are never repeated.

Watch out for my next blog, explaining how DFID is helping with Monday’s elections, and why the stability successful elections can bring should help reduce poverty.

It was around this time last year that Assassin’s Creed III marketing materials began to leak onto the internet, so it’s no surprise that the past week has been filled with leaks for the next yearly installment of the free-climbing, hidden blade-wielding action game. A poster showing the title Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag teased that the game would involve pirates. Later, a map of the Caribbean in 1715 posted online, comprised mostly of Cuba, teased the game’s location and time period.

Today, Ubisoft has released box art for the game, unofficially announcing the next Assassin’s Creed installment. The image of the new assassin character on the box art clearly shows him carrying a cutlass and several flintlock pistols. If these accoutrements, the ship battle taking place in the background, and the name Black Flag aren’t quite enough to cement the game’s pirate theme, there is literally a black flag bearing an assassin’s symbol-themed jolly roger image just behind the character. Current rumors has it that this new assassin will be the grandfather of Assassin’s Creed III protagonist Connor.

One other item of note is that the PlayStation 3 version of the box art contains text indicating that the PlayStation 3 version of the game will include an extra hour of exclusive content. Sony and Ubisoft teamed up for a similar deal on Assassin’s Creed III, and PlayStation 3 owners were treated to a few missions involving Benedict Arnold’s betrayal of West Point.

You’ve seen those new iPad ads, right? The ones with the rapid-fire words and the yelling? If you’re unfamiliar, go here and familiarize yourself.

And then watch Conan’s much more accurate version of said ad.

[TeamCoco]

An updated Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or ECPA, was a good idea proposed at the wrong time. The amendment would have protected our privacy in online communications, but its proposal at the end of the last Congress ensured its demise. With a new Congress comes a new chance to pass it, and some lawmakers are taking that chance.

The Hill reports that House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte has laid out his priorities for 2013, and the ECPA amendment is near the top. He said that Committee will “look at modernizing the decades-old Electronic Communications Privacy Act to reflect our current digital economy.”

The amendment’s original sponsor in the Senate, Patrick Leahy, is also reportedly on board with trying to pass the bill again. He and Goodlatte will presumably work together to get something passed this time around.

Do you think the ECPA can pass the House and Senate this year? Should it be a priority? Let us know in the comments.

So, why is an updated ECPA important again? The original bill was drafted and passed into law in 1986. It’s intent was to protect electronic communications from government surveillance, but it was written with the technology of the late 80s in mind. Email and other electronic communications have evolved and greatly expanded since then. Some lawmakers and privacy proponents think the bill needs a rewrite to address changes in how we communicate online.

The current ECPA requires law enforcement to simply obtain a subpoena before going through your email. Beyond that, the only limitation is that they can go through emails that have been opened, or those that are more than 180 days old. It’s kind of ridiculous to think that this was acceptable in the late 80s when there were maybe only a few thousand email messages being sent among a handful of people, but it’s unacceptable when there are billions of email messages being sent out everyday.

That’s why many lawmakers feel that the ECPA needs to be updated, and Goodlatte isn’t the only one in the House working on a solution. California Rep. Zoe Lofgren has been working on her own version of the bill called ECPA 2.0 Act of 2012, but it was killed with the last Congress. Lofgren will probably reintroduce the bill in this year’s Congress, however, and Goodlatte would be wise to back it. It features a number of protections that any person who communicates over the Internet would appreciate: