Non-Violence, a sculpture by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd in Malmö, Sweden. Image: Francois Polito, via Wikimedia Commons.
Today on the radio, I heard an announcer say, “Chicago has a higher murder rate than New York and Los Angeles combined.” The compassionate human being in me cringed, and the statistical pedant in me also cringed. [...]
Posts tagged statistics
A Higher Murder Rate than New York an...
Non-Violence, a sculpture by Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd in Malmö, Sweden. Image: Francois Polito, via Wikimedia Commons.
Today on the radio, I heard an announcer say, “Chicago has a higher murder rate than New York and Los Angeles combined.” The compassionate human being in me cringed, and the statistical pedant in me also cringed. [...]
Bad Statistics: Ignore or Call Out?
3-D pie charts are usually misleading. Image: Smallman12q, via Wikimedia Commons.
Andrew Gelman has been wondering how much time he should spend criticizing crappy research, and so am I. He wrote the post after a discussion with Jeff Leek of Simply Statistics about replication and criticism. Harsh criticism of preliminary studies could discou [...]
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Flip Coi...
What are the odds?
A production of Tom Stoppard’s Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead inspired two blog posts about coin flips and probability.
As they keep flipping coins and Rosencrantz’s purse continues to grow, Guildenstern concludes that there are several possible explanations for the extremely unlikely run of heads:
“One: I’m wi [...]
Significantly Statistical Blogs
Image: xkcd.
It’s almost Halloween, so I thought it was appropriate to write about something scary: statistics! (That was a joke, statisticians.) As a mathematician, I can get by in statistics, but I am not a native speaker. As someone who writes about math and science for a non-specialist audience, I think that statistics and an accura [...]
Mathematicians Predict What’s i...
It’s all about the Washingtons. And that smiley face button. Image: flickr user xJason.Rogersx
When I go to Europe, my pockets rapidly fill up with change. In addition to language barriers that prevent me from quickly understanding how much I owe, I have trouble dealing with the unfamiliar coin denominations. The best way to make 75 cen [...]
On Pregnancy and Probability
I have never been pregnant, but from what I understand, it is full of bizarre cravings, frequent bathroom breaks, and a smorgasbord of medical scans and tests. This last part is what concerns Kate Owens. She is a visiting assistant professor in the math department at the College of Charleston, and she is also pregnant with her second child. [...]
March Madness Math: Are the “Dr...
This post has become painful for me following Baylor’s premature elimination from the women’s tournament, but I present it here anyway.
The opening tip of the 2012 NCAA women’s basketball championship game, played April 3, 2012. My Baylor Lady Bears, led by #42 Brittney Griner and #0 Odyssey Sims, defeated Notre Dame 80-61. [...]
How Should We Write About Statistics ...
On January 31, I’m moderating a ScienceOnline session called “Public Statistics.” Our goals include sharing resources for journalists who want to do a better job writing about statistics and identifying problems in statistics communication.
A member of the order Lepidoptera enjoys my favorite green space in Chicago, Garfield [...]
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