August 30, 2013

Visual Analytics: Responding to the Challenge

link


Visual Analytics: Responding to the Challenge

Research and development (R&D) in visual analytics helps address these
challenges.

Visual analytics is the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive
visual interfaces. People use visual analytics tools and techniques to
synthesize information and derive insight from massive, dynamic, ambiguous,
and often conflicting data; detect the expected and discover the unexpected; provide
timely, defensible, and understandable assessments; and communicate
assessment effectively for action.

Visual analytics is a multidisciplinary field that includes the following focus areas:

• Analytical reasoning techniques that enable users to obtain deep insights
that directly support assessment, planning, and decision making
• Visual representations and interaction techniques that take advantage of
the human eye’s broad bandwidth pathway into the mind to allow users to
see, explore, and understand large amounts of information at once
• Data representations and transformations that convert all types of conflicting
and dynamic data in ways that support visualization and analysis
• Techniques to support production, presentation, and dissemination of the
results of an analysis to communicate information in the appropriate context
to a variety of audiences.

Recommendation:
Build upon theoretical foundations of reasoning, sense-making, cognition,
and perception to create visually enabled tools to support collaborative
analytic reasoning about complex and dynamic problems.

Recommendation:
Conduct research to address the challenges and seize the opportunities
posed by the scale of the analytic problem. The issues of scale are manifested
in many ways, including the complexity and urgency of the analytical
task, the massive volume of diverse and dynamic data involved in the analysis,
and challenges of collaborating among groups of people involved in
analysis, prevention, and response efforts.

Recommendation:
Create a science of visual representations based on cognitive and perceptual
principles that can be deployed through engineered, reusable components.
Visual representation principles must address all types of data, address scale
and information complexity, enable knowledge discovery through information
synthesis, and facilitate analytical reasoning.

Recommendation:
Develop a new suite of visual paradigms that support the analytical reasoning
process.
These visualizations must:
• Facilitate understanding of massive and continually growing collections of
data of multiple types
• Provide frameworks for analysis of spatial and temporal data
• Support understanding of uncertain, incomplete, and often misleading
information
• Provide user- and task-adaptable, guided representations that enable full
situation awareness while supporting development of detailed actions
• Support multiple levels of data and information abstraction
• Facilitate knowledge discovery through information synthesis, which is
the integration of data based on their meaning rather than the original
data type.

Recommendation:
Develop a new science of interactions that supports the analytical reasoning
process. This interaction science must provide a taxonomy of interaction
techniques ranging from the low-level interactions to more complex interaction
techniques and must address the challenge to scale across different
types of display environments and tasks.

Recommendation:
Develop both theory and practice for transforming data into new scalable
representations that faithfully represent the content of the underlying data.

Recommendation:
Create methods to synthesize information of different types and from different
sources into a unified data representation so that analysts, first
responders, and border personnel may focus on the meaning of the data.

Recommendation:
Develop methods and principles for representing data quality, reliability, and
certainty measures throughout the data transformation and analysis process.

Recommendation:
Develop methodology and tools that enable the capture of the analytic
assessment, decision recommendations, and first responder actions into
information packages. These packages must be tailored for each intended
receiver and situation and permit expansion to show supporting evidence
as needed.

Recommendation:
Develop technologies that enable analysts to communicate what they know
through the use of appropriate visual metaphor and accepted principles of
reasoning and graphic representation. Create techniques that enable effective
use of limited, mobile forms of technologies to support situation
assessment by first responders. Support the need for effective public alerts
with the production of a basic handbook for common methods for communicating
risks.

Recommendation:
Create visual analytics data structures, intermediate representations, and
outputs that support seamless integration of tools so that data requests and
acquisition, visual analysis, note-taking, presentation composition, and dissemination
all take place within a cohesive environment that supports
around-the-clock operation and provides robust privacy and security control.

Recommendation:
Develop an infrastructure to facilitate evaluation of new visual analytics
technologies.

Recommendation:
Create and use a common security and privacy infrastructure, with support
for incorporating privacy-supporting technologies, such as data minimization
and data anonymization.

August 20, 2013

Good for them

I think I would decline as well.

I wouldn't walk across the street to visit an entitlement reformer.

August 15, 2013

Reading between the lines, the government is preparing for doomsday.

They know something is up.

A giant meteor headed towards earth?
Climate change approaching much faster than we are led to believe?
Post peak production of critical resources required for survival?
Water Shortages?

With Al Qaeda nearly decimated and half a world away, why the huge expansion in domestic militarism? Why the need for blanket surveillance? Why is the Patriot act seemingly set in stone as opposed to a temporary act? Why are the wealthiest people hoarding cash abroad as if ready to make a quick getaway?

I'll tell you why.

They know chaos is coming. They know millions of thirsty, hot, hungry people within our borders will become increasingly unruly. They know we have crossed a threshold and there is no turning back.

The doomsday preppers have caught a whiff. The folks that believe in "every man for himself" have caught a whiff. These are the folks that have already given up on "saving" our nation. Now they are just trying to save themselves. What is truly frightening is that it appears that the actions of the Federal government indicate that they have given up as well.

As our general well being erodes, as our collective confidence diminishes with time, I expect an increasing demand for survival food, survival equipment, and survival weapons. It will be the next great, marketed product line. As with the physical property of saturation, there is a point of super saturation where none more can be contained. At that point of fear super saturation, all hell will break loose. The time when we all know that our world has become hell. We caught a glimpse of a complete social breakdown with hapless government in the aftermath of Katrina. Parlay that vision from coast to coast.

This is what the government is preparing for. The "terrorists" are actually future desperate, chaotic Americans fighting for mere survival.

How else can you explain the unprecedented actions of our federal government?

August 7, 2013

Take a break from politics and enjoy

A recent tour of Canada. So proud of these kids.

&sns=em

August 7, 2013

The firebombing of Japan

August 5, 2013

I will not vote for Hillary.

And I have not seen a single argument in this thread to convince me otherwise.

The arguments are:

Republicans are scary
I can get banned from DU
I am living in fantasy

To be honest, such arguments build resolve. I will not be extorted with GOP fear into backing a corporate schmoozer.

I will work against Hillary.

August 3, 2013

An inquiry to fellow Washington State residents

Have you noticed any perceivable difference in the state since the voters have passed the new marijuana law?


My experience:

No perceivable difference good or bad. Where I live, you wouldn't even know that the law had passed. I don't see any difference in the parks, at the store, driving, going to the movies. I don't see bands of glossy eyed folks walking down the street. I have yet to smell the odor on people while going to public places. I see no unusual or irrational behavior. I don't read newspaper articles about pot induced "incidents".

It is like it never even happened, yet, I talk to folks that say they smoke it, typically at night, in the privacy of their backyard.

Honestly, for me, you wouldn't even know that such a law was passed.

What is your experience?

July 31, 2013

Reverse "Poutrage", Reverse extortion, Putting the screws to the Corporate wing

Instead of being extorted by the Corporate wing via the tired threat of potential GOP control, I shall instead, extort through threat of abstention or third party, demanding an alternative to the "Third Way", and using my own threat of potential GOP control.

In either case the failed ransom is GOP control.

There will be several candidates that throw their hat in the ring. Let us see who the party infrastructure throws their weight behind.

I prefer using my terms when playing "chicken". I am behind the wheel, ready to drive directly at you. I will not turn away first. I look forward to your "poutrage" when the "unthinkable" happens. Not only will I refuse to vote for more of the same, I will put in great effort to defeat more of the same. We are past the "team sport" stage. The nation is on the ropes and it can't take any more.

You may post "I will alert the media". I shall, instead, gather a following.

I will work diligently in this endeavor. I will be relentless.

July 29, 2013

Has your company done this?

It is a first where I work. The company I work for is about as far removed from wholesale/retail marketing as you can get. We clean up nuclear waste through a contract with the Department of Energy.

All of the employees were distributed catalogs, similar to the old fashioned Sears catalog, with the company logo at the top. What was somewhat surprising, was the seemingly high prices. For example, $29.95 for a polo shirt. The catalog was in a format that led you to believe that the company was indeed Sears. Certainly far removed from a third party, intermediate "feel". The company logo was apparent in page after page.

It immediately gave me that "company store" impression. Are they serious? They have a multi million dollar contract with DOE and some guy in their chain of command thought they could make a few thousand bucks off of retail sales to the employees?

So how common is this?

July 28, 2013

"Remarkable progress"

Are you kidding me?

At what?

Turning the Democratic party into Reagan's platform?