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Hasnain says:

"For every tech guy struggling to find love in San Francisco, there is one struggling harder to find novel ways to spend his money. The funds necessary to fly 16 girls cross-country so they can sleep four to a room is nothing compared to the sums that disappear when hotly anticipated start-ups go bust."

I really have no words for this article aside from "what the ..."

Posted on 2014-05-30T00:09:37+0000

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How to Tell Someone's Age When All You Know Is Her Name

Picture Mildred, Agnes, Ethel and Blanche. Perhaps you imagine the Golden Girls or your grandmother’s poker game. These are names for women of age, wisdom and distinction. The median living Mildred...

Click to view the original at fivethirtyeight.com

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Coating on Skydeck's Ledge Cracks Under Tourists

All four boxes of The Ledge, the 103rd floor tourist attraction atop Chicago's Willis Tower, were closed Thursday morning for what an official said was a routine inspection.

Click to view the original at nbcchicago.com

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Hasnain says:

So you have to get a vaccination four weeks before you leave Pakistan. What if you're only going to be there for a shorter period of time?

Sigh...

Posted on 2014-05-29T02:24:25+0000

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Google finally discloses its diversity record, and it's not good | PBS NewsHour

In an industry that has been famously guarded about its workplace diversity, Google on Wednesday disclosed its record when it comes to hiring women, African-Americans and Hispanics. The data reveals statistics that the company itself admits are too low and strikingly below other industry averages. W…

Click to view the original at pbs.org

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You shouldn’t use a spreadsheet for important work (I mean it)

I envy economists. Unlike computer scientists, they seem to be able to publish best-seller books with innovative research. One such book is Piketty’s Capital. The book is reminiscent of Marx’s capital in its scope. If you haven’t heard about the book yet, it has a simple message: the yield on capita…

Click to view the original at lemire.me

Hasnain says:

"It is said that Piketty used an enormous amount of data, for an economist. I think that economists will have to cope with very complex and abundant data. They will need to do ever more complicated analysis. I hope that they will learn to use better tools and techniques."

Posted on 2014-05-28T21:35:42+0000

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» School spyware in coursebooks

Recently, a number of schools have started using a program called CourseSmart, which uses e-book analytics to alert teachers if their students are studying the night before tests, rather than taking a long-haul approach to learning. In addition to test scores, the CourseSmart algorithm assigns each…

Click to view the original at serendipity.ruwenzori.net

Hasnain says:

"Recently, a number of schools have started using a program called CourseSmart, which uses e-book analytics to alert teachers if their students are studying the night before tests, rather than taking a long-haul approach to learning. In addition to test scores, the CourseSmart algorithm assigns each student an “engagement index” which can determine not just if a student is studying, but also if they’re studying properly. In theory, a person could receive a “satisfactory” C grade in a particular class, only to fail on “engagement""

What the...

Posted on 2014-05-26T17:33:42+0000

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Linux for Lettuce | VQR Online

[clock] 37-MINUTE READ PUBLISHED: May 14, 2014 Revolutionizing American agribusiness from the ground up, one seed at a time. From a distance, Jim Myers looks like an ordinary farmer. Most autumn mornings, he stands thigh-deep in a field of wet broccoli, beheading each plant with a single, sure swipe…

Click to view the original at vqronline.org

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Son finds his lost mother in a Stone Age tribe

When David Good was a kid, and his friends asked where his mother was, he’d always say the same thing: She died in a car crash. “I experimented with responses, and I found that the most effective,”...

Click to view the original at nypost.com

Hasnain says:

"By 14, David was drinking heavily. He thought that kids who wanted to party would always hang out with other kids who wanted to party — no chance of abandonment there. And the alcohol sanded down the anguish, if only temporarily."

Posted on 2014-05-26T02:05:40+0000