Design & Analytics' Blog

This is the story of a foreign language data mashup, and how thinking about study-time as an asset with returns can make your language-learning more efficient---in theory.

I am not a linguist, a computational linguist, or a language teacher, but I travel internationally a fair amount and have had reason to half-study a few languages.  In the course of that, I've compared many different approaches and methods as an interested learner.  I've found that with simple audio tapes (like the FSI or Pimsleur) and 6 months of self-study, it's possible for a native English speaker to get to B1 or B2 conversational level in a European language---which isn't much: you can then order coffee and comment on newspaper headlines with some ease.  It takes diligence, but is doable.  However, beyond about that level, you begin to plateau.  At that point, you've learned the grammar, you've mastered the common words, you are confident that you can get around.  Before this, every single word, every single grammatical structure had comparatively large "returns" in the sense that each additional word or rudimentary grammar element came up all the time, and improved remarkably your ability to understand.

The problem is...

I'm optimistic about the efficiency gains coming from direct P2P entering the finance market, and with some skeptical reservation believe that this is where finance is heading generally---disintermediation can be a beautiful thing for market efficiency and participatory transparency.  As a survey: sites like Lendingclub and Prosper have gone far already in establishing the market for P2P credit.  Kiva and Grameen have done impressive things for P2P donation and microcredit models, and Kickstarter has been exceptional in artistic donation services.  Rather than waiting for banking institutions to evaluate the profitability of their ideas or causes, individuals are gaining increasing access to funding the opportunities they support, on terms they define themselves. 

Searching for this report, I found more meta-coverage than links to the source.  Below is the full text of the document itself, and the decision rendered by S&P in the downgrade, titled "Research Update: United States of America Long-Term Rating Lowered To 'AA+' On Political Risks And Rising Debt Burden; Outlook Negative."  Reposted directly from S&P.

I was pleased to see this posted in the Alumni Notes of my Alma Mater recently---Justin Joque, a Data Librarian at the University of Michigan, put together a Data "Auralization" of the Dow from 1928 to 2011.  He uses tick data to create two audio bands, one with closing price, and one with trade volume.  Here's the Vimeo Link: