Crowd-funding and Scientific Research

In this article a novel take on research funding is presented.  I am not sure how it can be used and how prevalent it will become but it is worth thinking about it.  It is another example on how technology  changes traditional means of completing a variety of functionalities.

Big Urban Data

This is an article on the importance of (big) data analysis and mathematical modeling on improving the urban life.  A very interesting read!

An interesting book

I found this book to be a very interesting reading. It deals with some important aspects of statistical thinking illustrated through real world examples. Topics touched are the importance of variation (as compared to the average), the difference between causality and correlation, the group difference, the two types of statistical errors (false positives and false negatives) and the probabilistic way of thinking. I would strongly recommend it!

Divergent thinking

I found this video on changing the education paradigms extremely interesting, expressing many truths...

Is technolog driving down the cost of teaching undergraduates.

Interesting article from Washington Monthly. http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2008/0811.carey.html Any comments?