(You might want to read Part 1 first.)

When last we left off, we'd built a model using shirt colors to predict boy-ness / girl-ness.

Our second attempt will involve the shirt images themselves (sort of). For our purposes, computer images are made up of pixels, each of whose color ...

In light of recent revelations, here's an updated version of Drew Conway's Data Science Venn Diagram:

Now that Madeline is two, it seems appropriate to declare myself a success as a parent. Which means it's now appropriate for those of you with kids (as well as those of you thinking about having or abducting kids) to ask me, "Joel, what's your secret?" Which means ...

So far parenthood isn't all that different from non-parenthood. I still eat at the same five restaurants and drink myself to sleep at night and occasionally get peed on. I just now have a car seat wedged into an upside-down highchair, am less discriminating about my liquor choices, and ...

If there's one thing we've learned from the song "Ebony and Ivory," it's that people are the same wherever we go. Alas, the educational establishment has been reluctant to embrace this truism, insisting on people-are-the-same-wherever-we-go-denying practices like tracking and electives, and (grudgingly) allowing charter schools a limited ...

Yesterday the Facebook News Feed was moderately functional for a change, which is how I discovered the existence of the Coffee Party, which had been Facebook-fanned by several of my Facebook friends and/or stalkers and/or stalkees.

Given that I drink approximately 10 cups of coffee a day, you ...

I very rarely go to the movies. Sure, I saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince out of a misguided hope that they'd depart from the source material and have Harry snog Luna, but for the most part I'd rather stay home and watch Conan the Barbarian over ...

Inspired, perhaps, by Quentin Tarantino's multi-part epic Kill Bill, auteur Larry Lessig has begun work on the not-dissimilar Change Congress Chronicles.

Volume 1, "Congressman Campbell is a Friend of the Auto Industry," chronicles Congressman John Campbell, who is a friend of the auto industry.

The film quickly establishes the ...

Great news, Senior Citizens! President Obama wants to give you \$250!

Why? Probably so you'll vote for him again come 2012.

There's some sort of nominally non-tawdry reason, too.

You see, by law, Social Security payments increase each year in a manner pegged to inflation. When Rascal Scooters ...

Due to a combination of carelessness, disorganization, and ineptitude, I let my domain expire a couple of years ago.  For many dark months, it pointed at a page of useless ads that I can't imagine anyone being willing to click on.

Recently I checked and discovered that it was ...