One Step Closer To Minority Report: We Know Where Crime Will Happen
from the time-to-go-somewhere-else dept
Earlier this year, we had a story that claimed some police had used some data mining software to predict a mugging, though the details on the story were incredibly vague -- leading to plenty of questions about just how legitimate the story really was. However, police are clearly interested in this Minority Report-style software. Police in Richmond, Virginia, are now getting their very own data mining solution to help them predict crime, though it's less about predicting single instances of crime, but noting general patterns and suggesting where police might want to go. It's not a bad idea to use the data in this way, but you always get concerned that when people become too reliant on the data, mistakes tend to happen.
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Even more jobs for statisticians
Anybody willing to take the prerequisite courses can go to grad school for stats -- you don't have to have a math degree. The programs are in various names like statistics, biostatistics, actuarian sciences, industrial optimization, survey methodology, etc.
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Re: Even more jobs for statisticians
Data and a little geocoding can reveal all types of trends.
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Re: Even more jobs for statisticians
Those programmers have to have some statistical knowledge (or at least a stats text book handy), but the average user doesn't.
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Re: Even more jobs for statisticians
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Everything has some form of pattern.
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No Subject Given
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Thanks for the afternoon chuckle.
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The Usual Suspects
S: He’s a villain, sir.
O: A villain ...
S: And a jailbird.
O: (exploding) I know he’s a jailbird, Savage. He’s down in the cells now. We are holding him on a charge of possession of curly black hair and thick lips.
S: Well, ... well, well, well there you are, sir.
O: You arrested him, savage!
S: (stupidly pleased) Thank you, sir.
O: Savage, would I be correct in assuming that Mr Cudoogo is a coloured gentleman?
S: Well, I can’t say I’ve ever noticed, sir.
Constable Savage script
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