Slumdogs can help themselves out of the mire

How politicians poisoned statistics - FT.com
by Tim Harford

▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/2e43b3e8-01c7-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2e62.html?siteedition=intl#axzz465hy8PL1

Excellent article signalé par Alberto Cairo ici :
▻http://www.thefunctionalart.com/2016/04/visualization-against-statistical.html

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In January 2015, a few months before the British general election, a proud newspaper resigned itself to the view that little good could come from the use of statistics by politicians. An editorial in the Guardian argued that in a campaign that would be “the most fact-blitzed in history”, numerical claims would settle no arguments and persuade no voters. Not only were numbers useless for winning power, it added, they were useless for wielding it, too. Numbers could tell us little. “The project of replacing a clash of ideas with a policy calculus was always dubious,” concluded the newspaper. “Anyone still hankering for it should admit their number’s up.”

–—
Lire aussi à propos de Florence Nightingale ;

Nightingale’s ’Coxcombs’ | Understanding Uncertainty
▻http://understandinguncertainty.org/coxcombs

Through her work as a nurse in the Crimean War, was a pioneer in establishing the importance of sanitation in hospitals. She meticulously gathered data on relating death tolls in hospitals to cleanliness, and, because of her novel methods of communicating this data, she was also a pioneer in applied statistics. We explore the work of Nightingale, and in particular focus on her use of certain graphs which, following misreading of her work, are now commonly known as ’coxcombs’.

#qtatistique #visualisation #cartographie #sémiologie

The long and dangerous road to slavery

Traffickers are luring Nigerian women to Italy and entrapping more and more in the sex trade

http://i.imgur.com/ujh0qXB.jpg http://im.ft-static.com/content/images/11ece4da-992b-11e5-95c7-d47aa298f769.img#.jpg

#trafic_de_femmes #migrations #Nigeria #Italie #parcours_migratoire #itinéraire_migratoire #visualisation #cartographie #prostitution #traite_d'êtres_humains

Trevor Paglen : What lies beneath - FT.com

▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/beaf9936-a8ff-11e5-9700-2b669a5aeb83.html

Retrouver Paglen est toujours un plaisir (à réécouter ses entretiens sur . Je suis déjà abonné à The Economist et The Guardian, je crois que je vais aussi m’abonner au FT. J’ai honte pour Le Monde et Libé mais tant pis.

The chances are that after coming into contact with Trevor Paglen’s work, the world — or at least the sky and the sea — will never look quite the same again. Artists and scientists from Ptolemy and Aristotle to Leonardo, Copernicus and Galileo, to the researchers at Nasa and Cern, have been observing the heavens and the tides through the centuries and their findings have progressively changed our understanding of the world. But rather than distant planets or the surface of the moon, Paglen’s field of interest lies closer to home. He is gathering material evidence of the systems of advanced technology that we all use every day but that — obscured by euphemisms such as “internet” and “cyberspace”, or deliberately coded and concealed by the intelligence services — we rarely see or understand. He wants to make visible the workings of the modern-day surveillance system by putting the evidence under the microscope — in this case, the powerful telescopic lens of his camera.

#trevor_paglen #carto_experiment #résistance

Cloned cows create a new beef over climate change - FT.com

▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/caebefb6-9378-11e5-bd82-c1fb87bef7af.html?ftcamp=social/free_to_read/cloned_cows_comment/twitter/awareness/editorial&segid=0100320

UN estimates global meat industry belches out 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions
Devon and Angus cows graze in a field at the Mulloon Creek Natural Farm in Bungendore, Australia. Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg
©Bloomberg
I

It has become something of a family ritual: school successes, new jobs and other milestones are toasted in a splendid local tavern above plates of steak and chips. These outings feel especially indulgent given that we are trying to consume less red meat for both health and environmental reasons.

#climat #co2 #méthane

Perplexing failure of Europe’s centre-left - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/40c1903a-5dee-11e5-9846-de406ccb37f2.html#ixzz3mPAMd2xG

Would centre-left parties do better if they shifted back to the left? The election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the British Labour party may herald such a shift. But Britain is not bound to the eurozone consensus. It takes only a change in government to change policy, whereas in the eurozone it would take a treaty change — or more likely a revolution. It is far from clear that today’s centre-left parties will emerge as the agents of change. I suspect not.

#social-démocratie #gauche

The rise of female entrepreneurs in Lebanon
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/13fb2d64-efd4-11e4-ab73-00144feab7de.html

Très long article sur les femmes et, essentiellement, les startups au Liban. (Pas encore lu.)

Saudi Arabia burns through foreign reserves - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/01948d2c-ef49-11e4-a6d2-00144feab7de.html?ftcamp=crm/email/2015430/nbe/WorldNews/product#axzz3Z3zwPLBu

The central bank’s foreign reserves have dropped by $36bn, or 5 per cent, over the past two months, as newly crowned King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud dips into Riyadh’s rainy-day fund and increases domestic borrowing to fund public sector salaries and large development projects.

The latest data show Saudi’s foreign reserves dropped by $16bn to $708bn in March, driven by public sector bonuses paid by King Salman after he assumed power in January. This follows a fall of $20bn in February. Saudi Arabia has spent $47bn of foreign reserves since October.

#Confessions of a white Oxbridge male
Simon Kuper
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/82ce89ec-5967-11e4-9546-00144feab7de.html#axzz3HTWMLu00

I feel very little sense of achievement. I didn’t get here on merit. I was born to be a minor establishment functionary

(...)

My #caste produces the #opinions that most British people are expected to swallow. However, the one topic we seldom discuss honestly is our own rule. So let me try to describe how it looks from up here.

(...)

Perry quotes the American writer John Scalzi, who “thought that being a straight white male was like playing the computer game called Life with the difficulty setting on ‘Easy’”.

(...)

Our basic ideology is: trust in the system. (...)

Our caste is always changing, just enough to make sure that everything stays the same. Lately we’ve learnt to lament the suffering of the disadvantaged. (I’m told that even younger members of the kleptocratic Angolan #elite have mastered this rhetoric.) Indeed, many of the most stirring attacks on inequality and sexism are now produced by Oxbridge males – but then we produce most attacks on most things in Britain.

Pentagon confronts militant dilemma in Africa

From Nigeria to Somalia, US military presence on the continent is a creeping reality. US troops may be thin on the ground, with the Pentagon preferring to rely on training and financial support to allied forces, but special forces are now operating at any given moment.

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#Afrique #investissements_militaires #USA #armée #industrie_militaire #Etats-Unis #visualisation #carte

‘Capital in the Twenty-First Century’, by Thomas Piketty

An economic, social and political history of the evolution of income and wealth

▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/0c6e9302-c3e2-11e3-a8e0-00144feabdc0.html

#economie

A slippery ladder: 2.8bn people on the brink - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/e8f40868-c093-11e3-a74d-00144feabdc0.html#b04g18t20w14

There is no doubt the world is less poor than it once was or that decades of rapid growth have created millions of consumers around the developing world. In 1990 an estimated 1.9bn people, or more than a third of the world’s population, survived on less than $1.25 a day, according to the World Bank. By 2010 that figure had fallen to 1.2bn, less than a fifth of the people on earth.

(...)

But put in a global context, the number of solidly middle-class people remains small, while the fragile middle has grown exponentially.

A Financial Times analysis of more than 30 years of World Bank data from 122 countries in the developing world illustrates this change in fortunes. As poverty has fallen, the number of people clustered in a narrow band above the poverty line has grown. But only a relatively small number of people tend to make it beyond that. The result is that four in 10 of the word’s people now live in its fragile middle.

(...)

extending the gains is becoming harder now that the great emerging-market growth spurt of the past 30 years appears to many to be coming to an end. As growth slows, the rise of an emerging-market middle class may look less inevitable. In a paper presented last week, World Bank economists warned that “developing-country growth could be 2-2.5 percentage points weaker than it was during the pre-crisis boom period”.
. . .
According to Kaushik Basu, chief economist of the World Bank, even if the developing world delivered the above-average growth that it did in the past 20 years it is unlikely that the bank would meet its goal of effectively eliminating extreme poverty by 2030.

More worrying is the possibility that a prolonged period of slow growth would erode the gains of recent decades. How vulnerable would those who have risen out of poverty be to sliding back into it?

“That’s a very good question,” Mr Basu says. “And I think they are still very vulnerable.”

http://ig.ft.com/features/2014-04-13_fragile_middle/global.svg http://ig.ft.com/features/2014-04-13_fragile_middle/key.svg

▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/e8f40868-c093-11e3-a74d-00144feabdc0.html#b04g18t20w14

#pauvreté “#classe_moyenne” #développement

Big data : faisons-nous une grosse erreur ? - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/21a6e7d8-b479-11e3-a09a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2xT12g24c

Pour l’éditorialiste Tim Harford, le succès de Google Flu Trends, le système de prévision de la grippe de Google fondé sur les requêtes des internautes sur le moteur de recherche est devenu l’emblème des Big Data en montrant que l’analyse des données produit des résultats précis, que chaque point peut-être capturé (rendant l’échantillonnage statistique obsolète), que la corrélation suffit et que les modèles statistiques et scientifiques ne sont pas nécessaires. Pourtant, estime Harford, les Big données ne vont cesser de nous décevoir si nous ignorons quelques leçons de statistiques simples. Plus vous avez de données, plus les problèmes sont importants... Et Google Flu en devenant moins précis avec le temps l’a bien montré, car si on ne sait pas ce qu’il y a derrière une corrélation, vous n’avez aucune idée (...)

#algorithme #Bigdata

“How to save the US”, by Simon Kuper

▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/2b9a41a0-a3fc-11e3-88b0-00144feab7de.html

“The solution to America’s problems is obvious – it should model itself on its military...”

In two recent columns I explained how to save France and the UK. Now that’s done, it’s time to save America. The solution is obvious. The US needs to model itself on its most sanctified institution: the military. I speak from experience. In 2007 and 2008 I spent time on a US military base in a southern state, giving seminars to officers. Being a typical pinko anti-war European, I’d expected to hate the place. Instead I found it idyllic, intellectual and safe. Pottering about the base, I saw several things that the US could learn from its military:

1. Build socialism.

2. Ban guns.

3. Believe in science.

[...]

Les pionniers des données nous regardent travailler - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d56004b0-9581-11e3-9fd6-00144feab7de.html#axzz2ti7epgF9

Le Financial Times revient sur Evolv, une société pionnière dans l’analyse des données des employés. Pour les centres d’appels et les banques qui utilisent ces conseils, les effets semblent immédiats. Bank of America a mis en place des pauses collectives permettant d’augmenter de 23% la performance et faisant chuter le stress de ses employés de 19%, après avoir constaté que les travailleurs les plus productifs étaient ceux qui prenaient des pauses ensemble, leur permettant de se défouler et de partager des conseils pour mieux gérer les clients difficiles. Tags : internetactu2net fing internetactu #digiwork #travail (...)

#management

Comment devrions-nous analyser nos vies ? - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/57fd1a96-7e46-11e3-b409-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2qlLqtBaJ

Gillian Tett pour le Financial Times, revient sur l’expérience menée par Sandly Pentland au centre d’appel de la Bank of America, consistant à équiper les 80 employés de dispositifs biométriques pour suivre tous leurs mouvements et toutes leurs conversations pendant 6 semaines. Les résultats ont montré que les travailleurs étaient très isolés les uns des autres afin que le centre d’appel tourne en continue. Bank of America a alors changé son processus, permettant au personnel de prendre des pauses de manière non structuré. Presque immédiatement, il y a eut une amélioration spectaculaire des performances... explique Pentland dans son nouveau livre, "Physique sociale. L’échange entre employés a été plus bénéfique que leur surveillance. Pour Gillian Tett, l’outillage de notre sociabilité risque de (...)

Can we avoid an antibiotic apocalypse? - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/8be857b4-5d3d-11e3-81bd-00144feabdc0.html

Davies calculates that about 25,000 people a year are already dying from drug-resistant bacteria in Europe – and the toll is similar in the US. “That is almost the same number as die in road traffic accidents,” she points out.

The only thing more startling than this is just how little response it has sparked among governments and voters. The figures that Davies is citing are hardly a dark secret: data are routinely being published on health websites. And Davies could hardly be described as a maverick – she has written her book while sitting in Whitehall, at the very heart of British government.

#résistance_aux_antibiotiques

Do you believe in sharing ? - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/afc5377e-1026-11e3-a258-00144feabdc0.html

Elinor Ostrom et Garrett Hardin, un article intéressant, avec une perspective libérale

It was only when Lin saw Hardin lecture that she realised that she had been studying the tragedy of the commons all along. It was 1968, the year that the famous article was published. Garrett Hardin was 53, in the early stages of a career as a campaigning public intellectual that would last the rest of his life. Lin was 35, now Ostrom: she had married Vincent Ostrom, a respected political scientist closer to Hardin’s age, and together they had moved to Indiana University. Watching Hardin lecture galvanised her. But that wasn’t because she was convinced he was right. It was because she was convinced that he was wrong.

#biens_communs #économie qui devrait intéresser @hlc

"Je cite souvent Spinoza : « il n’y a pas de force intrinsèque de l’idée vraie. » C’est une des phrases les plus tristes de toute l’histoire de la pensée. Cela signifie que la vérité est très faible, sans force. Par conséquent, nous qui travaillons à produire de la vérité, qui croyons tacitement qu’il est important de produire de la vérité, qui croyons tacitement qu’il est important de diffuser la vérité puisque nous enseignons, nous parlons, nous écrivons, etc. est-ce que, pour être en accord avec nous-mêmes, pour ne pas être trop contradictoires et trop désespérés, nous ne devons pas essayer de réfléchir sur la nécessité de nous unir pour donner collectivement un peu de force sociale à la vérité ?"

[ Bourdieu , Dévoiler et divulguer le refoulé ]

#Bourdieu
#Spinoza
#Vérité
#Lutte

There was #gentrification - now comes plutocratisation: our great, global cities are turning into vast gated citadels where the elite reproduces itself.
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/a096d1d0-d2ec-11e2-aac2-00144feab7de.html#axzz2WSyQOXWl #Paris #London

Lunch with the FT: Noam Chomsky - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/afc74988-8c96-11e2-aed2-00144feabdc0.html

Some of Chomsky’s critics have accused him of going easy on the faults of autocrats so long as they are enemies of the US (...) “Suppose I criticise Iran. What impact does that have? The only impact it has is in fortifying those who want to carry out policies I don’t agree with, like bombing.” He argues that any criticisms about, say, Chávez, will invariably get into the mainstream media, whereas those he makes about the US will go unreported. This unfair treatment is the dissident’s lot, according to Chomsky. Intellectuals like to think of themselves as iconoclasts, he says. “But you take a look through history and it’s the exact opposite. The respected intellectuals are those who conform and serve power interests.”

(...) Today he still concentrates his ire on the US on the grounds that it has the most power and he is an American citizen. This makes sense, I say, but doesn’t his position in another community, the anti-war left, mean he also has a duty to call out wrongdoing by its figureheads?

“Maybe some, small percentage should be concerned with that community. But nowhere near the [percentage concerned with the] responsibility for [American] state power and mass media.”

...

Professor Noam Chomsky will be delivering the 2013 Edward W Said London Lecture, programmed by AM Qattan Foundation/The Mosaic Rooms, on March 18 at 7pm; www.mosaicrooms.org