How Stats Fool Juries
Oxford mathematician Peter Donnelly explores the common mistakes we make in interpreting statistics, and the devastating impact these errors can have on the outcome of criminal trials. Statistical uncertainty and randomness, he says, confound many of our assumptions about the world. He shares the case of a British woman wrongly convicted of murdering her two infants — a verdict reached, in part, by the misuse of statistics.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2352957888220315795
About Peter Donnelly:
Peter Donnelly applies statistical methods to real-world problems, ranging from DNA analysis (for criminal trials), to the treatment of genetic disorders. A mathematician who collaborates with biologists, he specializes in applying probability and statistics to the field of genetics, in hopes of shedding light on evolutionary history and the structure of the human genome
The Australian-born, Oxford-based mathematician is best known for his work in molecular evolution (tracing the roots of human existence to their earliest origins using the mutation rates of mitochondrial DNA). He studies genetic distributions in living populations to trace human evolutionary history — an approach that informs research in evolutionary biology, as well as medical treatment for genetic disorders. Donnelly is a key player in the International HapMap Project, an ongoing international effort to model human genetic variation and pinpoint the genes responsible for specific aspects of health and disease; its implications for disease prevention and treatment are vast.
He’s also a leading expert on DNA analysis and the use of forensic science in criminal trials; he’s an outspoken advocate for bringing sensible statistical analysis into the courtroom. Donnelly leads Oxford University’s Mathematical Genetics Group, which conducts research in genetic modeling, human evolutionary history, and forensic DNA profiling.
Tags: Business, Criminal Trials, Evolutionary Biology, Forensic Dna Profiling, Human Evolutionary History, Human Existence, Human Genetic Variation, International Hapmap Project, Mathematical, Mathematical Genetics Group, Misuse Of Statistics, Outspoken Advocate, Oxford University, Peter Donnelly, probability, Probability And Statistics, Statistical, Statistical Uncertainty, uncertaintyHow Does Technology Evolve?
Kevin Kelly uses evolutionary theory to discuss the purpose and value of technology. By asking, “What does technology want?” he shows that its movement toward ubiquity and complexity is much like the evolution of life. Using a discipline-hopping range of examples — from exotic flora to the Big Bang, from the Amish to Mozart — Kelly not only draws an encompassing picture of humans and machines evolving, but discovers, while he’s at it, a moral assignment for everyone in his audience.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8425199007900125688
About Kevin Kelly:
Perhaps there is no one better to contemplate the meaning of cultural change — bad? good? too slow? too bold? — than Kevin Kelly, whose life story reads like a treatise on the value of technology. Whether by renouncing all material things save his bicycle (which he then rode 3,000 miles), founding an organization (the All-Species Foundation) to catalog all life on earth, or by touting new gadgets in WIRED, Kelly hasn’t stopped exploring the phenomena of technical and biological creation.
In articles for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, among others, he has celebrated scientific breakthroughs, and at the Long Now Foundation, where he serves on the board, he champions projects that look 10,000 years into the future. Today Kelly is at work on a book that asks what appears to be his life’s core question: “How should I think about new technology when it comes along?
Tags: Breakthrough, Business, complexity, Evolution, Evolution Of Life, Evolve, Flora, Kevin Kelly, Moral Assignment, Mozart, Organization, Technology, Technology, UbiquityEveryday Inventions
Saul Griffith offers a glimpse into the future with this compelling overview of his works-in-progress and materials-in-progress. The award-winning inventor shares the inspiration (a droplet of water) behind his low-cost prescription lenses, produced by a machine the size of an inkjet printer. Other projects include Howtoons and Instructables (comics that show how to build things and understand things), “smart” rope that can tell how much it’s carrying, and a house-sized kite for towing boats.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2046799946785355313
About Saul Griffith:
Innovator and inventor Saul Griffith has a uniquely open approach to problem solving. Whether he’s devising a way to slash the cost of prescription eyeglasses or teaching science through cartoons, Griffith makes things and then shares his ideas with the world.
A proponent of open-source information, he established Instructables, an open website showing how to make an array of incredible objects. His think-tank design firm, Squid Labs, invents myriad new devices and materials — such as a “smart” rope that senses its load, or a machine for making low-cost eyeglass lenses through a process inspired by a water droplet. He’s fascinated with materials that assemble themselves, and with taking advantage of those properties to make things quickly and cheaply.
Tags: Business, Design, Innovation, Innovation, Open Approach, Open Source Information, Prescription Eyeglasses, Saul Griffith, ScienceSliced Bread-Marketing Delights
In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones. And early adopters, not the mainstream’s bell curve, are the new sweet spot of the market.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2409662364160206561
About Seth Godin:
“Seth Godin may be the ultimate entrepreneur for the Information Age,” Mary Kuntz wrote in Business Week nearly a decade ago. “Instead of widgets or car parts, he specializes in ideas — usually, but not always, his own.” In fact, he’s as focused on spreading ideas as he is on the ideas themselves.
After working as a software brand manager in the mid-1980s, Godin started Yoyodyne, one of the first Internet-based direct-marketing firms, with the notion that companies needed to rethink how they reached customers. His efforts caught the attention of Yahoo!, which bought the company in 1998 and kept Godin on as a vice president of permission marketing. Godin has produced several critically acclaimed and attention-grabbing books, including Permission Marketing, All Marketers Are Liars, and Purple Cow (which was distributed in a milk carton). In 2005, Godin founded Squidoo.com, a Web site where users can share links and information about an idea or topic important to them.
Tags: Business, Business, Direct Marketing, Google, Kuntz, Marketing, Mary Kuntz, Purple Cow, Selling, Seth Godin, Technology, WidgetsTechnology’s Long Tail
Chris Anderson, the editor of WIRED, explores the four key stages of any viable technology: setting the right price, gaining market share, displacing an established technology and, finally, becoming ubiquitous. To demonstrate this trajectory, Anderson explores the evolution of the DVD player as it passes through each of these four tipping points, then offers specific examples of current trends in technology — ranging from DNA sequencing to the hybrid — to illustrate each stage of the game.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1654572699909413534
About Chris Anderson:
Before Chris Anderson took over as editor of WIRED, he spent seven years at The Economist, where he worked as editor of both the technology and business sections. Anderson holds a degree in physics and has conducted research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and has done stints at the leading journals Nature and Science.
He’s perhaps most famous for coining the term “the long tail,” a whiteboard favorite that describes the business strategy of pursuing many little fish (versus a few big fish), as typified by both Amazon and Netflix. Anderson first introduced the term in an article written for WIRED in 2004; the book-length version, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, became a bestseller. He maintains a blog, The Long Tail, which he updates with impressive regularly.
Tags: Amazon, Bestseller, Business, Business, Chris Anderson, Evolution, Marketing, Netflix, Selling, Strategy, Technology, Technology, Viable Technology
