New Scientist Google Flu Trends gets it wrong three years running Google may be a master at data wrangling, but one of its products has been making bogus data-driven predictions. A study of Google’s much-hyped flu tracker has consistently overestimated flu cases in the US for years. It’s a failure that highlights the danger of relying on big data technologies. Google Flu Trends, which launched in 2008, monitors […]
Equal opportunity bullying Carole Oglesby remembers emotional abuse from her college softball years. In one case, the WomenSport International vice president recalled, the female coach benched Oglesby, a top athlete and team starter, because of some personal beef. Bad luck for her parents, who had driven from Los Angeles to Phoenix to watch their daughter play in the […]
Prostitution isn’t as profitable as you think A comprehensive study commissioned by the Justice Department looks at the economics of selling sex. Though prostitution has the potential to be lucrative, most sex workers rarely reap the benefits of their revenue, according to a new report on the economics of sex work. The study commissioned by the Justice Department looked at the underground […]
Al Jazeera The struggle for Central Asia: Russia vs China It has become increasingly clear in the past few years that Russia has no intention to relax its grip over the former Soviet bloc. Ukraine has recently become a good case in point. Although Moscow is clearly preoccupied with keeping its western borders and geopolitical interests safe, it has not forgotten about the East. Russian […]
In-depth report details economics of sex trade A street prostitute in Dallas may make as little as $5 per sex act. But pimps can take in $33,000 a week in Atlanta, where the sex business brings in an estimated $290 million per year. It is not nearly as lucrative in Denver, where prostitution and other elements of an underground trade are worth […]
Mother Jones You’re drinking the wrong kind of milk When my in-laws moved from India to the United States some 35 years ago, they couldn’t believe the low cost and abundance of our milk—until they developed digestive problems. They’ll now tell you the same thing I’ve heard a lot of immigrants say: American milk will make you sick. It turns out that they could […]
Al Jazeera Gulen, Erdogan and democracy in Turkey Turkey has recently been shaken up by the tumultuous altercation between the globally active Muslim community-movement, the Gulen movement (GM) and the pro-Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP) in power for over a decade. Both Western and local audiences have been stunned by the intensity of the clash, which peaked in the last couple of […]
Boston Herald Experts: Despite loss of 4,500 jobs, Massachusetts outlook good Massachusetts lost 4,500 jobs in January after the state last year saw the largest increase in jobs since 2000, but experts and state officials said last month’s losses are not a predictor of the entire year. “I don’t think that reflects any indication that the economy is slowing at all,” said Alan Clayton-Matthews, an economist […]
Is gratitude a tool for patience? Recovering alcoholics who find their way into the rooms of AA are told to expect dramatic changes in attitude and outlook. Their feelings of uselessness and self-pity will disappear, they are told, as will their interest in selfish things. They will become more intuitive about life, and experience serenity and peace. Their haunting fears will […]
Those with jobs are more secure even as hopes dwindle for long-term unemployed Yet another recession-triggered split in the consumer sector is becoming more evident: Higher job security among those with a job versus dwindling hope for the long-run unemployed. The growing gap is recasting the consumer sector and raises questions on how it will support economic growth. Recent reports show workers are feeling fewer job jitters. The […]
Ozy What feelings really look like How do people feel? “At first, the question seemed flaky,” said Orlagh O’Brien. But for the quiet, withdrawn graphic designer, it was an earnest search for connection. She wondered whether others also felt emotions as physical sensations — anger as a tightness in the gut, happiness as a warm tingle. “We think we’re trapped with […]
The Christian Science Monitor Public transportation makes a comeback but not in Boston Americans took more trips on public transportation in 2013 than in any other year in more than five decades, according to the American Public Transportation Association’s annual report, released Monday. That’s 10.7 billion trips on buses, trains, and subways – the highest number since 1956, back when Americans were heavy users of big-city transit because […]