Getting to play one of the nastiest little girls to ever make people want to hurl things at their televisions wasn’t just fun, it was therapy for Alison Arngrim, who channeled the anger and hurt she felt at being physically and sexually abused into playing Nellie Oleson, the villainous rival to Laura Ingalls in the … Read more

For the last three years, I.B.M. scientists have been developing what they expect will be the world’s most advanced “question answering” machine, able to understand a question posed in everyday human elocution ­”natural language,” as computer scientists call it – and respond with a precise, factual answer. In other words, it must do more than … Read more

Emanuel Derman, a former managing director and head of the Quantitative Strategies Group at Goldman Sachs & Co, is a professor in Columbia University’s Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department, as well as a partner at Prisma Capital Partners. He is the author of My Life As A Quant. Dr. Derman, who spent 17 years … Read more

This is Matt Joyce’s notice to the DHS that they are fired. Dear Dept of Homeland Security (and associated agencies), As a citizen of the United States, I am entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And you as a federally funded arm of … something… you are charged with the protection of … Read more