Life Insurance

I received in the mail my first solicitation to purchase life insurance. I have drawn two inferences from that piece of mail: (1) at least one person thinks that I have a life and that it is worth insuring; (2) it is time to start thinking about death.

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Longitude Forged
"Most people know something of the events in 1714 when the British government instituted a prize for the discovery of a successful way to find longitude at sea. . . . Dava Sobel gave new life to this episode in her bestselling book, Longitude: The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time (1995) . . . . All these versions place at their centre the heroic figure of John Harrison and his struggles to perfect a clock which would finally carry off the prize of £20,000. Meanwhile, an early rival who figures in the tale has gone down in history as another projector from Yorkshire, named Jeremy Thacker. Unfortunately Thacker never existed and his proposal now emerges as a hoax." From TLS.

Popular College Courses : NPR
There's at least one on every campus: a class so popular, a professor so inspiring that there's a waiting list to get in. As students head back to class after winter break, NPR surveys some of the hottest courses on the nation's campuses.

The Odds That Your Vote Will "Make a Difference"
"A new paper has calculated the probability that you — yes, you — will cast a deciding vote this election." From Economix.

Winston Churchill: Secret conversations reveal views on Stalin and Gandhi
While researching his new book, Andrew Roberts discovered extraordinary secret documents recording every Cabinet conversation of our wartime prime minister. From the Telegraph.

Visualization as an Introduction to Text Mining?
Visualization of texts. The second diagram is particularly fascinating. From Edwired by Mills Kelly.

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