How two scientists are using the New York Times archives to predict the future

"Researchers are creating software that analyzes 22 years of New York Times archives, Wikipedia and about 90 other web resources to predict future disease outbreaks, riots and deaths — and hopefully prevent them."

http://gigaom.com/2013/02/01/how-two-scientists-are-using-the-new-york-times-archives-to-predict-the-future/  / Researchers Microsoft Technion-Israel Institute of Technology creating software analyzes 22 years of New York Times archives Wikipedia other web resources predict future disease outbreaks, riots and deaths hopefully prevent them new research initiatives mine web data predict events Recorded Future analyzes news blogs social media help identify predictive signals industries, including financial services defense defence Researchers using Twitter Google track flu outbreaks “Mining the Web to Predict Future Events” Eric Horvitz Microsoft Research Kira Radinsky Technion-Israel Institute describe their work newly released paper news about natural disasters storms droughts could used predict cholera outbreaks Angola Following those weather events alerts about a downstream risk of cholera could have been issued nearly a year in advance epidemiologists look at some of the same relationships such studies are typically few in number employ heuristic assessments frequently retrospective analyses generating predictions predictive guiding near-term action outline the advantages that software has over humans in this area /