land O links

I forgot to publish this on Friday afternoon.  Here are a few links for your belated weekend reading:

• Mike Trick blogs about the new algorithm for Max Flow, which appears to use linear algebra.  The new algorithm has reduced the complexity of MaxFlow to (V+E)^4/3 (from (V+E)^3/2), the first improvement in a fundamental algorithm in 10 years.
• Andrew Gelman blogs about bad bar charts and bad figures in general.  Being able to clearly communicate quantitative information is one of the most important parts of what we do in operations research.  Consider this your public service announcement for the day.
• Divorce rates by profession indicate that engineers have low divorce rates
• Parents–and people in general–are really bad at assessing rare risks.  This New York Times article summarizes how bad risk assessment can lead to irrational parenting decisions.  Still, I find it hard to avoid making some of these mistakes.
• More on rare risks.  This nice article from the Council on Foreign Relations summarizes the likelihood of certain risks.Being killed by a deer is more likely than dying from a terrorism incident, for example.  But be warned: some of it is heart-breaking, such as the risks from World War II.
• The Economix blog at the New York times summarizes a day of the average college student as well as college professor salaries.  Life on campus is pretty sweet!