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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsUW class on how to spot fake data goes viral within hours
When it came to picking a title for the course they will teach this spring, University of Washington professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West decided to abandon academic stodginess and get edgy.
Their new course title? Calling Bullshit in the Age of Big Data.
Bergstrom and West figured using a minor profanity was a surefire way to draw attention to the course. And sure enough within hours of unveiling a wickedly funny webpage they created for the proposed class, and announcing it via Twitter, the BS course went viral.
The webpage went live at midnight, and we woke up the next morning and it was over the whole planet, West said. Ive never seen anything like it
the response has been insane emails, questions, comments.
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/education/uw-class-on-how-to-spot-fake-data-goes-viral-within-hours/
madokie
(51,076 posts)its nice to see the people are waking up from their 30 plus year of slumber
frazzled
(18,402 posts)I'm saving the syllabus and reading list, and might dig in a bit myself. My math/statistics skills are really rusty, though, so I'm not entirely sure how far I'd get.
Brother Buzz
(36,463 posts)Hell, their disclaimer, alone, was worth the trip: