Focused Distraction (quick links)

December 16, 2009

The 15 latest military research projects, from quantum cryptography to super light IED resistant armor http://is.gd/B6Ly
‘Reality Mining’ – how we can use our electronic footprints to forecast human behaviour from pandemics to financial markets http://bit.ly/XeRUS and http://bit.ly/XL2PA
Modeling human crowd dynamics – how one New Zealand startup is taking lessons from Orcs and Elves http://bit.ly/6GEufY
Stats 101: [...]

Read the full article →

Mexico’s little drug ‘problem’

December 16, 2009

Mexico’s drug “problem”: with 9,500 deaths since December 2006 and over 5,300 killed last year alone – maybe it’s now time to start thinking of it less as a ‘drug’ problem and more as a war that hasn’t officially been started yet. We are currently conducting research to compare the statistical patterns of the drug [...]

Read the full article →

Modeling credit card debt patterns

December 16, 2009

Use your credit card in a bar and you’re statistically four times more likely to miss payments over the next 12 months than if you used the same card to pay for the dentist. Of course this is an example of correlation and not causation. But in the world of credit card data crunching and [...]

Read the full article →

Quantum Physics and Poker

November 25, 2009

Advances in processing power, game theory and network analysis have enabled computers to beat humans in almost every board game…..except poker. But quantum physics may take this one advantage away from the human species.
At first glance it would seem that quantum physics and poker are unlikely bedfellows? But look a little closer and it makes [...]

Read the full article →