In Ireland dwells an organization that emphatically, insistently describes itself as being random. They offer this description [presented here only in part]: RANDOM.ORG is a true random number service that generates randomness via atmospheric noise. This page explains how RANDOM.ORG came about back in 1997 and how it has progressed through different stages to the […]
Tag: Randomness
Robust goodness from random promotions
There’s new, corroborating research that organizations become more efficient when they promote people randomly. The University of Catania team that won the 2010 Ig Nobel Prize in management for the original, mathematical work, has published a new study: “Efficient Promotion Strategies in Hierarchical Organizations,” Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, Cesare Garofalo, arXiv:1102.2837v2. “the efficiency of an […]
Math: Advantage of selecting politicians randomly
The Italian research team that received an Ig Nobel Prize in 2010 for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random has extended its work (as well as gained some team members). Their new study is: “Accidental Politicians: How Randomly Selected Legislators Can Improve Parliament Efficiency“, A. Pluchino, C. […]
Dead cat bounce: stock metaphors
In struggling to make sense of the stock market, people reach and stretch for metaphors. Sometimes they even contort, dislocate, and mangle. In 1995, Geoff P Smith of the University of Hong Kong made a grand unified effort to gather and classify those metaphors. Smith congealed the metaphors and his thoughts into a monograph called […]