However, "the proportion of Europeans who bought something online in the past year increased from 20% to 40% between 2004 and 2010," according to the European Commission. Britain’s Centre for Retail Research also "predicts that Europe’s online market will grow by 16% this year." This is partly attributed to bargain hunting during hard times, as well as greater "familiarity with the internet … soothing old fears about how trustworthy e-commerce is."

Brick-and-mortar retail meanwhile remains mired "in a mess of restrictive practices and cultural oddities … You may have to visit six or seven shops to fill your shopping bag — and one or two inevitably will be closed." Its supermarkets "are often built in the middle of nowhere … from Soviet-era blueprints" with "staff who go out of their way to demonstrate that they hate you." A rise of e-commerce would certainly displace workers (Euoropean retailers employ some 17.4 million people) and shutter boulangeries, but the Commission projects a $267 billion gain — 1.7% of GDP — in "consumer welfare."

At not-for-profits, the difference typically comes from some combination of taxpayer dollars and alumni donations. Sports programs meanwhile play "no small role in college branding and consumer appeal." The result is too little focus "on what students are learning in the classroom … Money and effort instead, go to moving up the prestige ladder," primarily by rejecting greater numbers of applicants. Andrew compares this to nightclubs gaining status because their "system of bouncers and velvet ropes leaves a critical mass of people on the outside, noses pressed to the glass."

For-profit schools, however, "are not looking to turn away students. Their professors are engaged exclusively in teaching, not research. No one has tenure, so incompetence means dismissal." They can "track ‘learning outcomes’ because much (though not all) of their education is online." This mode of learning does have its limitations, but that, says Andrew, is for the customer to decide. Some for-profit schools have also been known to push "unaffordable loans on students" or recruit unqualified customers. Andrew argues that the free market will remedy bad business practices, while "private not-for-profits can remain in business no matter how badly they behave."

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The sources include not only “web traffic and social network comments” but also “software and sensors that monitor shipments, suppliers and customers.” The result, says Harvard’s Gary King, is “a revolution” that “will sweep through academia, business and government.” Justin Grimmer of Stanford is using Big Data (i.e., blog posts, speeches, press releases and news articles) to look “for insights into how political ideas spread.” Walmart and Kohl’s use Big Data (i.e., sales, pricing, demographic and weather) to “determine the timing of price markdowns.”

Perhaps most famously, Google and Facebook are using Big Data to target ads. M.I.T.’s Erik Brynjolfsson conducted a study of “179 large companies and found that those adopting ‘data-driven decision making’ achieved productivity gains that were 5 to 6 percent higher than other factors could explain.” The downside, some say, is that “Big Data also supplies more raw material for statistical shenanigans and biased fact-finding excursions.” But Andrew Gelman of Columbia sees only upside: “There is this idea that numbers and statistics are interesting and fun,” he says. “It’s cool now.”

Rayid’s job is to analyze a “torrent of data and predict voting patterns, allowing the Obama campaign to target its spending more accurately and cost-effectively.” Such data links “names and addresses of voters … with everything from magazine subscriptions and home ownership to hunting licenses and credit scores.” As in 2008, the campaign will also “use online experiments to work out which messages are most effective.”

Last time around, for example, the Obama campaign found that a “learn more” button was more effective than “sign up now” in terms of getting voters to submit their email addresses. This time, however, social-media is more crowded, and candidates “can expect less free, word-of-mouth advertising on it.” Then again, Facebook now offers “paid advertisements by zipcode, as well as by political affiliation, age and interests.” The president, meanwhile, perhaps seeking novel, lower-cost channels, recently signed up for Instagram, “a “slightly hip photo-sharing network.”

"Look at Chipotle, look at Subway," says Amar. "What they did was create an assembly line, where you could watch other people’s food being made and direct the making of their own food." Not coincidentally, his restaurant is located "between a strip mall Starbucks and a Jamba Juice, at the back door of a Chipotle Grill." Amar says he sees these chains — not traditional curry houses with steam tables and lunch specials — as his main competition. Sanjay Kansagra, proprietor of two Cambridge, Mass. restaurants called Chutney’s, is on a similar track.

"We realize that some of this food can be intimidating to non-Indian consumers," he says. "So we put them in control of their meal." Both Amar and Sanjay are willing to compromise a certain authenticity to gain acceptance — not that most Americans would know the difference. At Merzi in DC, liberties include "tandisserie" chicken ("tandoori-seasoned chicken cooked rotisserie style") and Veda in Toronto serves "curritos," a curried burrito-style wrap. But Krishnendu Ray of NYU says this is not a matter of these restauranteurs dumbing down. "They’ve learned American fast food," he says, "and they’ve made it their own."

So, when Yannick opens Terroir Parisien, an informal bistro, his star attraction will be the chien chaud. "I have adapted the ‘dog’ to the true ambience of Paris," he says. "There is nothing more Parisian than tete de veau." Translation: head of veal. Oui: Yannick’s hot dog is "a slender nine-inch sausage made from edible bits of a cooked calf head" — minus any brains, eyes or fat. It is "wrapped in a casing and boiled in a stock of carrots, leeks, onions and cloves" and served "in a crusty multigrain baguette" with a gribiche sauce.

For Yannick, offal has been a way of life. As a chef’s apprentice, his "last stop was always the butcher selling organ meats," who would serve up "big messy sandwiches filled with bits of cheek, skin, fat, gristle, tongue and brains" topped with gribiche sauce. Yannick carries on the tradition even at the luxurious Meurice with a first-course tete de veau. When Terroir Parsien opens in March, the chien chaud will sell for about $12, but of course the question is whether any American would eat it. Yannick harbors no doubts: "This is something you should try once in your life," he says.