by david allan van nostrand | Jun 15, 2020 | Artificial Intelligence, Big Data
Neither would millions of people until Lee Lantz came along. A seafood merchant, he found a mild and flaky fish that tasted great. Its name, Patgonian Toothfish, was as unappetizing as its looks. He couldn’t change its appearance, so he made up a new name. He called...
by david allan van nostrand | Oct 8, 2018 | Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Customer Satisfaction, Organizational Behavior
After a long day of flying and hours of the weary traveler’s shuffle-stop-shuffle-stop through immigration, baggage, and customs, I arrived at the airport rental car line as hot and tired as the dozen or so people waiting in line ahead of me. There were sixteen...
by david allan van nostrand | Jul 23, 2018 | Big Data, Items in the News, Unintended Consequences
Since the earliest days of television, Nielsen has ruled the TV audience-measuring roost. Using a combination of set meters, code readers, and personal diaries, they have collected Americans’ viewing habits and sold the data to networks and advertisers. But they’re in...
by david allan van nostrand | May 7, 2018 | Big Data, Items in the News, Voodoo Statistics
It depends. Phil Rogers, a Chicago news reporter, recently sent samples from home test kits to several online DNA sequencing services. One told him his ancestors were from Ireland and Scotland. Another said Portugal. Others said Scandinavia, Peru, and Afghanistan. How...
by david allan van nostrand | Apr 23, 2018 | Big Data, Items in the News
Stephen Chen writes in The South China Post that the world’s largest cockroach farm is using Big Data and Artificial Intelligence to breed 6 billion adult cockroaches a year. They are the raw materials of the production process for a cockroach-based “healing potion”...
by david allan van nostrand | Dec 4, 2017 | Big Data, Research, Technology
U.S. President Ronald Reagan liked to define “mixed emotions” as the feelings a man has as he watches his mother-in-law drive over the cliff in his new Cadillac. Another example involves how driverless vehicles will be programmed to react in emergencies. One is to act...