23AndMe Lets You Learn About Your DNA

23andMe, founded by the wife of one of the Google guys, is basically a comprehensive personal DNA test.  There are other services that do this, but this is expected to be the most comprehensive (I believe).  If your curious what type of information you will get from it, Mark Fletcher (the founder of GoDaddy) describes his results here.  The process isn't cheap, $1,000, and it brings up the question of how much do you really want to know about your future (are you going to live life shattered if you know you have a high likelihood to become sick later on in a certain way), but it's the information could be really interesting.  Some of the sample questions that might be answered are:

• Do your genes help you sprint faster?
• How well can you taste bitter foods?
• Do you share maternal ancestry with outlaw Jesse James?
• Are you more similar to Mayans or Basques?

Technorati Tags: dna,23andme,mark fletcher,genome,dna test

A Google Video Wired NextFest Infrared X-ray story

So almost 3 months ago I posted a few videos I took from the Wired NextFest in New York City. In that time, it received somewhere around 75 views, over the entire duration.

Randomly I looked at my Google Video stats and noticed that in the last few days, almost 73,000 people have watched the Infrared X-ray video I posted from Wired! I didn't really believe it, but then checking on the page shows that there's not only views, but over 50 ratings and 10 comments, discussing the legitimacy of the video, potential harms of the machine, etc.

I took a look over at Technorati to see how was linking to the video, and 18 sites now have links to it. It looks like first someone at Spoozer Magazine picked it up, and then someone at Ubergizmo posted on it, which has over 1,100 blogs repeatedly linking to it and therefore suggests strong readership.

All in all, I'm surprised and impressed at how quickly a viral video can spread in two days, from 75 to 73,000 people.

Technorati Tags: googlevideo, sharing, technorati, wired, nextfest, viral