Most folks who know me, know I'm a bit of a Star Wars geek. I've analyzed the original trilogy scripts and documented my findings in a paper called Star Wars and the Art of Data Science. I'm always looking for excuses to get my hands into Star Wars data, and
How many of you have read The Cuckoo’s Calling by the previously unknown author Robert Galbraith? The answer is not many, until it came out that Robert Galbraith was none other than blockbuster best-selling author JK Rowling. Sales then skyrocketed. Rowling recently published some of the rejection letters she received as
There’s no such thing as a free app. “What?” I hear you say, “but I download free apps all the time!” So then why do organisations spend considerable time and effort creating free apps? Often their goal is to collect data and turn it into money. Consider this example. There’s
The timeline on the latest season of Netflix’s series House of Cards has finally caught up with the real world, and the current plot line regarding President Frank Underwood’s underhanded dealings to win the Democratic nomination has many parallels with the current US primary election coverage saturating TV and print
The Barnett Shale in North Texas hit a historic mark on April 25: Its rig count fell to zero. Two hundred rigs once harvested the 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in this massive basin, stretching beneath 17 Texas counties. Today, nothing. This dramatic silence in North America’s second-largest
As American football teams prepare to select new team members later today, fans and pundits can only guess how the draft will turn out. Will your favorite professional team make good picks? And will your favorite college players go to good teams? With high stakes and billions of possible outcomes,
The expletive leapt from the lips of the orthopedic surgeon as he entered my hospital room. He was swathed in a green gown, purple gloves, and a white surgical mask – for his protection, not mine. He was clearly upset. “What, exactly, does $#@! mean?” I asked. “It means you’re
Small causes can have large effects; or how a discovery in the Barnett Shale can spike some interest in the rest of the world and change the face of the industry. This article is co-written by Sylvie Jacquet-Faucillon, Senior Analytics Presales Consultant, SAS France; and David Dozoul, Senior Adviser
It's a common problem in any industry: getting a large number of similar requests for information. But with limited resources and an already overburdened staff, how do you handle it? At El Paso Community College, analysts from the Institutional Research (IR) team enlisted the help of IT to create a data
Over the years I have written many blogs about insurance fraud including those on anti-money laundering, data quality in fraud, anti-fraud technology, life insurance fraud and even ghost broking. It’s clear that insurance fraud comes in many shapes and sizes and as losses continue to grow, detecting and preventing fraud
