Evolutions Beauty and Problems

An anecdote about the power of natural selection as a design process, and a follow up on the processes inability to ensure perfect design.
Also, on ROC and AUC measures in classification.

The Traveling Salesman Problem: A Computational Study

A new book on TSP, "The Traveling Salesman Problem: A Computational Study" (2006), and a review on the OR blog. Google books (no preview), on Amazon (with searchable content).

Creepy robot

Possibly the creepiest robot I have ever seen. Those Japanese sure know how to weird everybody out. Another case of great science, terrible marketing!