Joe Chou

@incidentalfindings.org

716 Followers 809 Following

Data geek, coder, hacker, ex-student pilot, foodie, Disney fan, neonatologist (MD), PediTools developer, ex-molecular biologist (PhD), snarky nonconformist, and annoying dad (+spouse)

Former pediatrician here (now just newborns) — congratulations and thank you.

When you feel sore and achy afterwards, remember that it’s because IT’S WORKING! Your body’s immune system is going “what the heck is this stuff?!? I’m going to learn to kick the sh*t out of it if I ever run into it again.”

Whenever I got my shots and I DIDN’T feel sort of crummy the couple of days afterwards, I was worried the shots weren’t working :)

Basket of around 30 whistles 3D printed and packaged up with info cards with phone number to report ICE activity and what to report, ready for distribution.

Microscope to examine a suspicious piece of bread

Picture of 3 styles of 3D-printed whistles along with images of the front and back of a card to include with the whistles.

📢 Community Support 🚨
• Whistles: 3 short (threat nearby); 3 long (active operation)
Call LUCE hotline 5a - 9p (617) 370-5023: SALUTE-VP
• Size: How many agents present?
• Actions: What are they doing (e.g., arresting, questioning)?
• Location: Where are they and where are they going?
• Uniform: What are they wearing?
• Time: When did the event start?
• Equipment & Weapons: What gear or weapons are visible?
• Vehicle: License plates, vehicle make, model, color
• Photo / Video: If possible to do safely; do NOT obstruct

“We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

- Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_(1971_video_game)

Night Driver (arcade version)

Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH)
Guidance on Recommended Reference Materials for Pediatric Immunization Schedules
January 2026

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) is issuing this notification to inform clinicians of a change in recommended reference materials for pediatric immunization schedules.

DPH has a longstanding and ongoing commitment to promoting evidence-based immunization practices that protect communities from vaccine preventable illnesses. Following a review of recent changes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pediatric immunization schedule, DPH now recommends that clinicians in Massachusetts use the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Recommended Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule as the primary reference for the routine immunization of infants, children, and adolescents.

DPH recognizes the importance of clear, consistent, and evidence-based guidance to facilitate safe and effective vaccination practices. AAP is a national professional organization representing pediatric physicians, and its immunization schedule is developed by pediatric experts and updated regularly to reflect current evidence and clinical best practices for immunizing children and adolescents. The AAP immunization schedule aligns with science-backed pediatric standards of care and provides detailed guidance that supports clinical decision-making in pediatric settings.

Clinicians should continue to follow all applicable state requirements, including the immunization requirements for school and camp entry (aligned with AAP recommendations), and reporting obligations, including documentation of administered immunizations in the Massachusetts Immunization Information System (MIIS).

DPH will continue to monitor national immunization policy updates and will communicate any additional guidance as needed.

Thank you for your continued commitment to protecting the health of Massachusetts children and families. …

What do you get when you cross Cookie Monster with Cthulhu?

An Eldritch horror image of Cookie Monster with tentacles coming out of his mouth, holding the cursed tome of the Necronom-nom-nomicon.

3D printed small, angry hippo

Transparent water reservoir for coffee maker which says .XAM which confused me

Icarus falling

Screenshot from the pre-alpha public release of Kitten Space Agency

Aurora borealis despite suburban light pollution

A stand of redwoods (I think?) in the botanical gardens of Tilden Park, Berkeley CA

Graphic titled “Education works best when all the parts are working” with 3 cogs labeled Teachers, Parents, and Students.

Unfortunately, the 3 cogs are placed in a way that they are all locked up and can’t turn.

Picture of 4 orange sphere-like objects, initially appearing to be 4 pumpkins, but… 1 is a basketball.

Crowd of people at No Kings rally in Boston, MA

Disney+ subscription cancellation notification.

“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is. The only function of a school is to make self-education easier; failing that, it does nothing.”

Isaac Asimov (1975). “Science Past, Science Future”

For all intensive purposes, we need to nip this deep-seeded issue in the butt so we can hone in on our next-gen synergy stack and give stakeholders piece of mind, irregardless of the mute points raised in yesterday’s pow-wow, which, supposably, peaked a lot of interest — Viola! The paradigm shift we've been axing for!

Published LMS parameters to create Noonan Syndrome growth curves have severe issues, with the male BMI curve at the 97th percentile approaching infinity (and then imaginary numbers) at around 17.5 years of age.

Hidden Mickey at Aulani, on room door

Night-time view of Aulani, Disney resort on Oahu, HI

Geocache container, under a rock (after leaves cleared from over it)

View from a restaurant at a small airport out onto the observation area and ramp

Two completely unrelated articles with thumbnail images that are quite discordant

Nice view from the air with lakes in the foreground and the Atlantic ocean in the background

3 pages of tabular data of short-field takeoff distances, at different weights, temperatures, pressure altitudes, and field conditions. Not very easy to glean insight.

SkyVector.com map of flight category visualization (limited number of reporting stations) over the conterminous United States.

Samuel Finley Breese Morse
American (Charlestown, Mass. 1791-1872 New York)
Gallery of the Louvre, 1831-33
Oil on canvas
Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection,
TL42458.4
Between 1831 and 1832, artist, educator, and inventor Samuel F.B. Morse, along with a close circle of family and friends living in Paris, regularly visited the Louvre to copy works of art. The practice of copying venerated paintings to align eye, hand, and mind in intellectual and kinetic response has been part of academic training of artists for centuries. For Morse's circle, observing persons of varying nationalities and social classes engaging in aesthetic discussions and experiences together was as educational as perfecting formal techniques of composition.
For this audacious ars pictura, or painting about painting, Morse represents 38 European works he believed offered instructive examples for an American audience. Though they were spread throughout the Louvre in Morse's time, he presents them here as hanging together in the iconic Salon Carré, the gallery associated with the annual Salon.
This painting is on loan from the Terra Foundation for American Art, as part of its Terra Collection-in-Residence initiative. From 2023 to 2027, the Harvard Art Museums are participating in the initiative, which involves loans of significant works of art and related programming.
Scan for a key to the paintings and persons depicted; courtesy of the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Seattle Art Museum:

A picture of materials needed for old-school navigation log preparation for flight planning, including an E6B circular slide rule computer, plotter (like a protractor), paper sectional charts, performance charts, and a paper navigation log.

https://hmd.org.uk/resource/first-they-came-by-pastor-martin-niemoller/

Download a copy of First They Came by Pastor Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

AWC prognostic surface chart, with error — unable to load prog charts, and missing time selector normally found at bottom of page

From Wikipedia, re: Capt Ratcliffe

Surprysed Capt[eyn]e Ratliefe alyve who he caused to be bownd unto a tree naked w[i]th a fyer before, and by woemen his fleshe was skraped from his bones w[i]th Mussell shelles and before his face throwne into the fyer. And so for wantt of Circumspection miserably p[er]ished.

Screen shot of the first page of a (satirical) article. From the PubMed abtract:

BMJ. 2013 Dec 12:347:f7255. doi: 10.1136/bmj.f7255.
Were James Bond's drinks shaken because of alcohol induced tremor?

Graham Johnson 1 , Indra Neil Guha, Patrick Davies
PMID: 24336307 PMCID: PMC3898163 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.f7255

Abstract

Objective: To quantify James Bond's consumption of alcohol as detailed in the series of novels by Ian Fleming.

Design: Retrospective literature review.

Setting: The study authors' homes, in a comfy chair.

Participants: Commander James Bond, 007; Mr Ian Lancaster Fleming.

Main outcome measures: Weekly alcohol consumption by Commander Bond.

Methods: All 14 James Bond books were read by two of the authors. Contemporaneous notes were taken detailing every alcoholic drink taken. Predefined alcohol unit levels were used to calculate consumption. Days when Bond was unable to consume alcohol (such as through incarceration) were noted.

Results: After exclusion of days when Bond was unable to drink, his weekly alcohol consumption was 92 units a week, over four times the recommended amount. His maximum daily consumption was 49.8 units. He had only 12.5 alcohol free days out of 87.5 days on which he was able to drink.

Conclusions: James Bond's level of alcohol intake puts him at high risk of multiple alcohol related diseases and an early death. The level of functioning as displayed in the books is inconsistent with the physical, mental, and indeed sexual functioning expected from someone drinking this much alcohol. We advise an immediate referral for further assessment and treatment, a reduction in alcohol consumption to safe levels, and suspect that the famous catchphrase "shaken, not stirred" could be because of alcohol induced tremor affecting his hands.

Screenshot of first 2 pages of article:

BMJ. 1999 Dec;319(7225):1600-2. doi: 10.1136/bmj.319.7225.1600.
Shaken, not stirred: bioanalytical study of the antioxidant activities of martinis

C C Trevithick 1 , M M Chartrand, J Wahlman, F Rahman, M Hirst, J R Trevithick
PMID: 10600955 PMCID: PMC28303 DOI: 10.1136/bmj.319.7225.1600

Background: Moderate consumption of alcoholic drinks seems to reduce the risks of developing cardiovascular disease, stroke, and cataracts, perhaps through antioxidant actions of their alcohol, flavonoid, or polyphenol contents. "Shaken, not stirred" routinely identifies the way the famous secret agent James Bond requires his martinis.

Objectives: As Mr Bond is not afflicted by cataracts or cardiovascular disease, an investigation was conducted to determine whether the mode of preparing martinis has an influence on their antioxidant capacity.

Design: Stirred and shaken martinis were assayed for their ability to quench luminescence by a luminescent procedure in which hydrogen peroxide reacts with luminol bound to albumin. Student's t test was used for statistical analysis.

Results: Shaken martinis were more effective in deactivating hydrogen peroxide than the stirred variety, and both were more effective than gin or vermouth alone (0.072% of peroxide control for shaken martini, 0.157% for stirred v 58.3% for gin and 1.90% for vermouth). The reason for this is not clear, but it may well not involve the facile oxidation of reactive martini components: control martinis through which either oxygen or nitrogen was bubbled did not differ in their ability to deactivate hydrogen peroxide (0.061% v 0. 057%) and did not differ from the shaken martini. Moreover, preliminary experiments indicate that martinis are less well endowed with polyphenols than Sauvignon white wine or Scotch whisky (0.056 mmol/l (catechin equivalents) shaken, 0.060 mmol/l stirred v 0.592 mmol/l wine, 0.575 mmol/l whisky).

Conclusions: 007's profound state of health may be…

Clear bag of peanuts, labeled peanuts, with warning that it contains peanuts.

NOUS41 KWBC 202015
PNSWSHI
Public Information Statement 25-17
National Weather Service Headquarters Silver Spring MD
415 PM EDT Thu March 20, 2025
To:
Subscribers:
-NOAA Weather Wire Service
-Emergency Manager Weather Information Network
-NOAAPORT
Other NWS Partners and Employees
From:
Mike Hopkins, Director
Surface and Upper Air Division
Office of Observations
Subject: Suspension of Radiosonde Observations at Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, Effective March 20, 2025.
Effective immediately, and until further notice, the National Weather Service (NWS) is temporarily suspending weather balloon observations at Omaha, NE and Rapid City, SD, due to a lack of Weather Forecast Office (WFO)
staffing.
Offices will perform special
observations as needed.
The stations have the following NWS Upper Air site identifier and World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Upper Air site number:
UPPER AIR SITE
Omaha, NE
Rapid City, SD
WMO ID
72558
72662
NWS ID
KOAX
KUNR
The NWS launches weather balloons twice daily from 100 upper air sites throughout the United States, Caribbean, and the Pacific Basin.
Radiosondes are instruments attached to weather balloons that send back a wide range of upper atmospheric data to support weather forecasts, including temperature, de point, relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed, and wind direction.
Radiosondes are one of many technologies
that collect earth observation data for weather modeling and forecasting.
Data is also collected from instruments aboard commercial aircraft, surface observing stations, satellites, radars, and buoys.
If you or your organization have any questions about these changes, please contact:
Susan Buchanan
Director of Public Affairs
National Weather Service
Phone: 202-834-5235
E-mail: susan.buchanan@noaa.gov
National Public Information Statements are online at:
https://www.weather.gov/notification/

Push, the interactive, talking trash receptacle from Walt Disney World Tomorrowland back in 2013, spinning around to upbeat music.

The mathematical constant pi — Greek letter superimposed over the first few hundred digits

A collection of odd and grumpy faces, sculpted out of ... toilet paper roll cardboard tubes...

A colorful crochet caterpillar in the style of the children’s book “The very hungry caterpillar” by Eric Carle

To all of the misguided twits who ignored every red flag, caved to your worst selves, and bought into all of the most obvious of Trump's insane lies:

Everything that happens from here on out. The family members you lose, the suffering, the confiscation of your freedoms at the whim of your dictator.
Its all on you. You can no longer falsely blame dems, antifa, Igbt, or immigrants for everything that you've set into motion with your prejudice and cowardice. You made your filthy bed, and now you're going to lie in it, sick, poor, and stupid.

All for the sake of your desperate need to hurt people who never did anything to you. Your childish decision will not make us disappear, it will not magically give you cheap gas and groceries, and it most certainly is NOT going to bring about world peace or otherwise make anything "Great". All you have succeeded at doing was to hand the nation's most powerful seat to a career criminal who's only goals are to evade prison, force everyone to worship his worthless ass, and use our country as a piggybank to fund his coke parties.

Hope it was all worth it, you hateful fuckwits. Enjoy the ride.

Shiny App for Cessna 172S performance calculations. Can manually enter all data, or enter an airport ICAO ID to fetch METAR weather information.

Calculates pressure altitude, expected ISA standard temperature and difference, and density altitude.

Takeoff calculations take into account pressure / temp / head + tailwinds.

Climb calculations take into account starting and ending elevations to determine distance / fuel / time needed to reach goal elevation.

Cruise calculations take into account display %MCP power, KTAS, and GPH fuel consumption when hovering over selected RPM.
Landing calculations. Excessive %MCP is noted by red dots.

Landing calculations take into account temp, PAlt, and head/tailwinds.

Cute little hello kitty and the frog (kerokeropi?) characters juxtaposed in a post-apocalyptic mech warrior hell zone of Warhammer.

“In the grim future of Hello Kitty there is only war.”

Scary and complex-appearing cheat-sheet instructions for the Anduril 2 user interface (finite state machine) for interacting with enthusiast flashlights.
- Source: https://github.com/containerfan/anduril2-diagrams
- Anduril 2: https://github.com/ToyKeeper/anduril/blob/trunk/docs/anduril-manual.md

Screenshot of an R Shiny App to calculate cruise performance given input parameters of field elevation, field temperature, altimeter setting, planned (indicated) altitude. This data is used in a GAM model trained on the pilot operating handbook's cruise performance tables to calculate across a range of engine RPM predicted true airspeed, % of maximum power, and gallons per hour of fuel consumption, in an interactive plot.

Portion of the terminal area chart near KMDW with more complex interaction with Class B and C airspace

Converted tables of numbers for cruise performance into a grid of plots, relating engine RPM and pressure altitude, to KTAS / % MCP / GPH, for 3 temperature conditions.

Screenshot of computer code, but all variables are with emojis

Bug trap

$VS Code: Cmd-Shift-P Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts (JSON) keybindings.json // Place your key bindings in this file to override the defaults [ { "key": "alt+cmd+i", "command": "type", "when": "editorLangId == 'quarto' && julia.isActiveREPL", "args": { "text": "\n```{julia}\n\n```\n" } } ]$

A picture of an FAA VFR sectional map of the continental united states, this time with correct color-encoding, with overlaid spots of flight category (VFR / MVFR / IFR / LIFR) superimposed.

A beautiful colorful mosaic-surfaced sculpture of a lizard from Parc Guell in Barcelona, by Gaudi.

Picture of a bag of “Bit-O-Honey” candy and a cup of black coffee, taken at work

KMFR percentage of time with VFR conditions, by time of day and month of year.

Front page of dashboard app with information panel and 5 plots:

1) Select airport that I've pre-fetched data on (17 now, easy to add more). Data from ~25 years with 241k hourly data points. Runway info (used to calculate crosswinds)

2) Line plot showing by time of day and month % time of VFR conditions

3) Same as (2) but with a heat map

4) Plot of frequency of reported wind directions

5) Heat map of 75th percentile of crosswind on best runway, by time of day and month

6) Median temperature, by time of day and month

Line plot is via Plotly, so the plots are interactable (hover over lines, click lines to hide/show)

Excerpt from "Why we created Julia", J Bezanson, S Karpinski, VB Shah, A Edelman, from https://julialang.org/blog/2012/02/why-we-created-julia/

"We want a language that's open source, with a liberal license. We want the speed of C with the dynamism of Ruby. We want a language that's homoiconic, with true macros like Lisp, but with obvious, familiar mathematical notation like Matlab. We want something as usable for general programming as Python, as easy for statistics as R, as natural for string processing as Perl, as powerful for linear algebra as Matlab, as good at gluing programs together as the shell. Something that is dirt simple to learn, yet keeps the most serious hackers happy. We want it interactive and we want it compiled."