Biweekly links for 08/28/2009

• 25 Years Later, First Registered Domain Name Changes Hands
  • The first .com was apparently registered in 1985; it just changed hands for the first time ever.
• Mathematics and the internet (pdf)
  • Terry Tao’s talk about how online tools are changing mathematics.
• What We Can Learn From Craigslist
• How XML Threatens Big Data : Dataspora Blog
  • Excellent thoughtful article on data bureaucracy and the limitations of XML.
• The impact factor’s Matthew effect: a natural experiment in bibliometrics
  • “Using an original method for controlling the intrinsic value of papers–identical duplicate papers published in different journals with different impact factors–this paper shows that the journal in which papers are published have a strong influence on their citation rates, as duplicate papers published in high impact journals obtain, on average, twice as much citations as their identical counterparts published in journals with lower impact factors. The intrinsic value of a paper is thus not the only reason a given paper gets cited or not; there is a specific Matthew effect attached to journals and this gives to paper published there an added value over and above their intrinsic quality. “
• The importance of failure
  • “This is a point that I don’t often hear made when people talk about failure; the moral behind a failure-related story is usually about preventing it, or dealing with the aftermath, but not about the fact that sometimes things go bad despite your best efforts, and all the careful risk management and contingency planning won’t keep you from going down in flames. This is important, because it forces every person to establish a risk threshold that they are willing to accept in every one of their life efforts. “
• US Top All-Time Donors 1989-2008
  • Surprising list of top donors in US politics.
• High-Speed Robot Hand
  • Incredible video of a robot which can throw a ball, pick up a grain of rice, spin a pen, and many other things, all with incredible speed.

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