Weekend Links: Is Real-Life Moneyball Overrated?

Is the concept behind Moneyball all it's cracked up to be? Made Man makes a claim for the 10 reasons real-life Moneyball is overrated.
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Start on your New Year's Resolution early and starting learning a new language (or brush up on that second language you took in college) with these 100 Open Languages Courses from some top universities!
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There are dilapidated parts of most towns, but entire cities that have been abandoned? Here are 5 modern cities to suffer this ghost town fate. (Not included: every SimCity2000 town I attempted to make!)
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Check out some of these wonderful and weird culinary gadgets (would you want to use any of these?)
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Somewhere, in a galaxy far, far away … a radio telescopes has captured the best-ever snapshot of black hole jets.
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Forget a Life Coach, just turn to Lifehacker for 10 Solutions to Real Life’s Most Annoying Problems.
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An update on the Robot Revolution: The Atlantic makes a case for how and why cloud-powered facial recognition is terrifying.
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Lastly, but certainly not least - from Bob, an untold story of inspiration and resilience: "While the towers burned and collapsed on 9/11, a half million people were evacuated from Lower Manhattan by a civilian flotilla of ferries, tug boats and other vessels—the largest boatlift in history."
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A big thanks to everyone who sent in links this week - keep it up! Send your submissions to FlossyLinks@gmail.com! And don't forget to follow me on Twitter (@FlossyAlli) for stray oddities throughout the week.