As for the course, I'd love to advise but I really don't feel qualified as I don't know much about it, your background or what you want to achieve from it. I've generally found msoft resources to be excellent in the past though.

Generally where are you at? Do you have a good knowledge of the stats but not much programming or are you relatively new to both?

Things like BMA or survival analysis barely exist in python.

I have a great R stats book that I'll post when I get home (can't remember the name off the top of my head)

Edit: to be clear I wouldn't recommend that pipeline! Most of my professional work has been in the above so I'm just more comfortable with it

At the end of the day motivation is the most important thing though. It seems likely that R will better fit your current interests and hence make you more likely to continue the journey so I'd go that way

The article also blurs Western values with "American foreign policy". Engaging with powers we don't see eye to eye with in non-military ways should be seen as expressing western values.

There's an interesting question around the fact that the UK has an opt out of the Euro.

If guelo's argument that Google not being in China fostered more tech companies in China is correct, then removing an initially dominant foreign company with big first mover advantage and economies of scale can actually increase competition in the market.

That said, once the home grown companies are sufficiently mature to compete on a level playing field with already established companies I agree the protectionism should be withdrawn again