From Blood Is One: 

Miles Davis really was one of the best musicians we've ever seen in our popular culture. Right before he passed away, when he surely was not in the best physical state, Miles produced this song "The Doo-Bop Song" - a song that miraculously took the best of his talent and made it flow in to the new, growing genre of hip-hop. Remember what came before.

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This one was originally published at Blood Is One. Again, I am a bit weary of posting some of this at Dagblog. I am very curious as to some of your thoughts but also afraid of them?  Madchild's music is hardcore, raw rap - pretty unapologetic.  [Read more]

I gave in!  [Read more]

Auto manufacturers and religious institutions commit the same blunder. Sometimes, their innovative solutions run far ahead of the public’s endorsement and fall out-of-favor with consumers.

In 1957, Ford Motor Company launched an advertising blitz for the goofy-looking Edsel. Consumers were turned off by what Ford featured above the car’s front bumper—an oval vertical grill. Customers quipped it looked like a horse collar. [Read more]

This article originally got published a few weeks ago at Practice of Madness. It's more in line with the material usually published here. Give it a full read - it's a collaboration with a very close friend. Apologies if it's difficult to read here - Jennifer's page is very interactive. If you have trouble, go ahead and read her website from the source: [Read more]

All I can say is, if James Van Der Beek and Krysten Ritter's (of don't trust the B in apartment 23) agents are not shopping them as possiblities to play Edward Snowden and Laura Poitras in the eventual movie to be made about this NSA story, then James Van Der Beek and Krysten Ritter have the dumbest agents in the history of Hollywood.

My prediction is that Van Der Beek's career will be revitalized by the (eventual) film in the same way that John Travolta's was revitalized by Pulp Fiction, and that he will cause a minor poopstorm by proclaiming "Thank God for government overreach!" during his Golden Globe acceptance speech. [Read more]

In the wild (i.e., when we're not talking about contrived examples), data mining involves significant amounts of statistics. There are two common quotes that come to mind when talking about statistics:

There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. (Popularized by Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens, who attributed it to Benjamin Disraeli, but with uncertain provenance.)

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The old saying is that “figures will not lie,” but a new saying is “liars will figure.” It is our duty, as practical statisticians, to prevent the liar from figuring; in other words, to prevent him from perverting the truth, in the interest of some theory he wishes to establish. (Carroll D. Wright, a prominent statistician employed by the U.S. government in 1889)

This article is a try at new stuff for my website and for me as a writer - let alone for my contributions to Dagblog. I'm limiting myself here - I'm pretty sure I could actually write a book about Star Wars if I let myself loose. Let me know what you think and thanks, Mike, for encouraging me to do this.

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BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

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In response to the New York Times' “The $2.7 Trillion Medical Bill” (“Paying Till It Hurts” series, front page, June 2,)

Kenneth Prager, a professor of clinical medicine at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, wrote the following short Letter to the Editor, which was published June 3 along with several others: [Read more]