The mathematics of juries: The jury size and voting margins necessary for a fair trial. - Slate Magazine

The mathematics of juries: The jury size and voting margins necessary for a fair trial. - Slate Magazine: "The Marquis de Condorcet, a French philosopher and mathematician, was perhaps the first person to subject juries to mathematical analysis. In 1785, he proved a theorem that could be succinctly summarized, ‘More is better.’ Assuming that all the members of a jury have a better than 50 percent chance of determining the true innocence or guilt of the accused—a big assumption but a common one in mathematical studies of juries—larger juries are more likely to decide correctly than smaller ones."

Windows: It's over

Windows: It's over | ZDNet: "Most people in our recent debate over the future of Windows 8 thought that the operating system could be saved. I'm sure many people in 1491 thought that the Earth was flat, too.

If Windows 8 continues the way it has been, it will be the end of Windows. The very day the debate came to an end, this headline appeared: IDC: Global PC shipments plunge in worst drop in a generation. Sure, a lot of that was due to the growth of tablets and smartphones and the rise of the cloud, but Windows 8 gets to take a lot of the blame too. After all, the debate wasn't whether or not Windows 8 was any good. It's not. The debate was over whether it could be saved. "

FP Journe: Horological High - Billionaire

FP Journe: Horological High - Billionaire: "Although he only established his eponymous brand in 1999, François-Paul Journe’s watches fulfil all the criteria demanded by the world’s most discerning horolophiles."

Something Electronic This Way Comes: Ray Bradbury eBooks Announced! - SF Signal

Something Electronic This Way Comes: Ray Bradbury eBooks Announced! - SF Signal: "At what temperature do eBooks burn? The pyro-curious can now find out when William Morrow begins releasing Ray Bradbury’s back catalog in eBook format this month."

The Mathematics of Averting the Next Big Network Failure | Wired Science | Wired.com

The Mathematics of Averting the Next Big Network Failure | Wired Science | Wired.com: "Gene Stanley never walks down stairs without holding the handrail. For a fit 71-year-old, he is deathly afraid of breaking his hip. In the elderly, such breaks can trigger fatal complications, and Stanley, a professor of physics at Boston University, thinks he knows why.

‘Everything depends on everything else,’ he said.

Three years ago, Stanley and his colleagues discovered the mathematics behind what he calls ‘the extreme fragility of interdependency.’ In a system of interconnected networks like the economy, city infrastructure or the human body, their model indicates that a small outage in one network can cascade through the entire system, touching off a sudden, catastrophic failure."

Should business be allowed to patent mathematics?

Should business be allowed to patent mathematics? - opinion - 18 March 2013 - New Scientist: "AT SOME point in their career every mathematician comes up against the question, is mathematics invented or discovered? The query makes some cranky. The answer doesn't directly affect their work, after all, and the discussion often leads nowhere useful. Spending time debating the ultimate nature of mathematics takes away from actually doing it."

Tolkien's books analyzed - LotrProject

Tolkien's books analyzed - LotrProject: "AN INTERACTIVE ANALYSIS OF TOLKIEN'S WORKS the Silmarillion, the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings --- Being passionate about both Tolkien and data visualization creating an interactive analysis of Tolkien's books seemed like a wonderful idea. To the left you will be able to explore character mentions and keyword frequency as well as sentiment analysis of the Silmarillion, the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. Information on editions of the books and methods used can be found in the about section."