Alon Halevy, Peter Norvig, and Fernando Pereira, in the March/April issue of IEEE Intelligent Systems:

Invariably, simple models and a lot of data trump more elaborate models based on less data.

So, follow the data.

From the archive, Peter Norvig:

I think another focus is to understand how people interact with Google and interact with each other on the Web, in general. How do people operate in these social networks? Understanding that question can help us serve them better.

More Peter Norvig:

My belief is that PowerPoint doesn't kill meetings. People kill meetings. But using PowerPoint is like having a loaded AK-47 on the table: You can do very bad things with it.

Your daily dose of Simpsons:

Smithers: That's quite a nice model, sir.

Burns: Model?

Models!

When asked, "Who is the person you would most like to meet?", Veronica Varekova, the cover model for the 2004 swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, replied:

Charlie Rose.

Charlie, not a man to keep a beautiful woman waiting, promptly complied, inviting her to the show for an interview.

From the interview:

She looks like a graduate student!

The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data

A (long) profile of Freeman Dyson, uncloseted skeptic, in the Sunday NYT, written by Nicholas Dawidoff:

Science is not a matter of opinion; it is a question of data.

It's rather important not only to be not orthodox, but to be subversive.

... always preaching the virtues of boredom ...

The purpose of thinking about the future is not to predict it but to raise people's hopes.

The truths of science are so profoundly concealed that the only thing we can really be sure of is that much of what we expect to happen won't come to pass.

From last year, Freeman Dyson:

Environmentalism has replaced socialism as the leading secular religion. Environmentalism, as a religion of hope and respect for nature, is here to stay. This is a religion that we can all share, whether or not we believe that global warming is harmful.

Also:

I beseech you, in the words of Oliver Cromwell, to think it possible you may be mistaken.

Colin Powell:

Avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.

Richard Hamming:

If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work.

Dyson:

I've always enjoyed what I was doing quite independently of whether it was important or not.

Carolyn Johnson:

We are most human when we feel dull. Lolling around in a state of restlessness is one of life's greatest luxuries.

Michael Lopp:

You should pick a fight, because bright people often yell at each other.

The Civil Heretic

Simon Johnson, in the May 2009 issue of The Atlantic:

The conventional wisdom among the elite is still that the current slump “cannot be as bad as the Great Depression.” This view is wrong. What we face now could, in fact, be worse than the Great Depression—because the world is now so much more interconnected and because the banking sector is now so big. We face a synchronized downturn in almost all countries, a weakening of confidence among individuals and firms, and major problems for government finances. If our leadership wakes up to the potential consequences, we may yet see dramatic action on the banking system and a breaking of the old elite. Let us hope it is not then too late.

Peter Schiff:

I think things are going to get very bad.

Nouriel Roubini:

Things are going to be awful for everyday people.

Michael Lewis:

The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over.

Rebecca Brock:

People say to me, "Whatever it takes." I tell them, It's going to take everything.

From the archive:

My heart swells in my chest and while I laugh,
I feel fear, smell a faint stench of insanity.

The Quiet Coup

First world shantytowns.

While encampments and street living have always been a part of the landscape in big cities like Los Angeles and New York, these new tent cities have taken root — or grown from smaller enclaves of the homeless as more people lose jobs and housing — in such disparate places as Nashville, Olympia, Wash., and St. Petersburg, Fla.

The surging number of homeless people in Fresno, a city of 500,000 people, has been a surprise. City officials say they have three major encampments near downtown and smaller settlements along two highways. All told, as many as 2,000 people are homeless here, according to Gregory Barfield, the city’s homeless prevention and policy manager, who said that drug use, prostitution and violence were all too common in the encampments.

Daniel Kent, a clean-shaven 27-year-old from Oregon, has been living in Taco Flats for three months after running out of money on a planned hitchhiking trip to Florida. He did manage to earn $35 a day holding up a going-out-of-business sign for Mervyn’s until the department store actually went of out business.

Mr. Kent planned to attend a job fair soon, but said he did not completely mind living outdoors.

Coming to America:

First world shanty towns.

Cities Deal With a Surge in Shantytowns

The List.

YouTube - Banned from TV Family Guy Clip

Barack Obama:

"I don't want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry. I'm angry. What I want to do, though, is channel our anger in a constructive way."

While Mr. Obama never explicitly said how he believed that anger should be channeled, he essentially suggested that Americans should follow his lead: let off a little steam and move on.

Colin Powell, from years ago:

Get mad, then get over it.

The Shoveller:

We struck down evil with the mighty sword of teamwork and the hammer of not bickering.

Jules Winnfield:

The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be a shepherd.

As the Public Simmers, Obama Lets Off Steam

Douglas Bowman:

Without conviction, doubt creeps in. Instincts fail. “Is this the right move?” When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.

Mark C. Taylor, on Jacques Derrida:

Belief not tempered by doubt poses a mortal danger.

Darth Vader:

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Have you seen "Doubt"?

Father Brendan Flynn: You haven't the slightest proof of anything!
Sister Aloysius Beauvier: But I have my certainty!

Richard Hamming:

If you do not work on an important problem, it's unlikely you'll do important work.

Paul Graham:

It will always suck to work for large organizations, and the larger the organization, the more it will suck.

Goodbye Google

Henry Blodget:

If the "TARP bonus" bill the House passed today becomes law, any of the hundreds of thousands of people who work for Citigroup, Bank of America, AIG, and nine other major US corporations will have to fork over 90 cents of every bonus dollar that puts their household income over $250,000.

That's household income, not individual income. If you're married and filing singly, you'll have to surrender anything over $125,000. Indefinitely.

Paul Graham:

It will always suck to work for large organizations, and the larger the organization, the more it will suck.

Barry Ritholtz:

This current generation is pretty much fucked.

Now We Really ARE Screwed

Featuring exclusive unreleased tracks from Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails & Street Sweeper.

Coming to Lakewood Amphitheatre on 10 May.

NIN|JA 2009

Bruce Schneier:

Data is the pollution of the information age.

This is wholesale surveillance; not "follow that car," but "follow every car."

More is coming.

Will not wearing a life recorder be used as evidence that someone is up to no good?

Noam Cohen's friend:

Privacy is serious. It is serious the moment the data gets collected, not the moment it is released.

From last year's best-of:

So many things these days are made to look at later. Why not just have the experience and remember it?

Thomas Powers:

Is more what we really need?

Stewart Brand:

In some cultures you're supposed to be responsible out to the seventh generation -- that's about 200 years. But it goes right against self-interest.

The Pollution Of The Information Age