Stats Chat

Error and margin of error

Thomas Lumley — Sat, 25 May 2013 00:20:19 +0000

The British consumer magazine Which? ran a mystery-shopper investigation of UK pharmacies recently. One of the topics they covered was homeopathic products, and in 13 of the 20 pharmacies where they asked about homeopathic remedies they got advice that violated the Royal Pharmaceutical Society guidelines for pharmacists. An information sheet from the society says that [...]

Bar charts are boring: a redesign

Thomas Lumley — Fri, 24 May 2013 23:27:17 +0000

At eagerpies, a redesign of a ‘boring bar chart’ according to graphic design principles, with steps including “color exercises an undeniable psychological attraction… It captures and holds attention, multiplies the number of readers, assures better retention of the information and , in short, increases the scope of the message.” We can add further perspicacity to [...]

Fact checking is allowed

Thomas Lumley — Fri, 24 May 2013 07:21:56 +0000

Stats New Zealand crime statistics: criminal convictions in Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, African ethnicity are 4.4% of all convictions in the country as a whole, 13.7% in Auckland Population: for NZ as a whole, 10% Asian in 2006 (projected to rise to 13% in 2016). For Auckland, 24% in 2006. So, people of Asian [...]

There’s more people than there used to be

Thomas Lumley — Fri, 24 May 2013 02:49:34 +0000

James Curran drew my attention to this graph, from daily-infographic (original source not given, but appears to be Reddit) showing weather-related deaths in the US The decrease in lightning deaths is impressive, but it doesn’t look as though there is much decline in tornado deaths, and apparently an increase in flood deaths. Why isn’t forecasting helping [...]

Communicating with journalists

Thomas Lumley — Wed, 22 May 2013 21:40:03 +0000

Two useful pieces, worth reading even if you are neither a scientist nor a science journalist. Ed Yong writes about what he is looking for when he asks scientists for comments on a research paper. Note that a lot of this boils down to you telling me something interesting that I couldn’t have predicted. That’s [...]

NRL Predictions, Round 11

David Scott — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:19:35 +0000

Team Ratings for Round 11 Here are the team ratings prior to Round 11, along with the ratings at the start of the season. I have created a brief description of the method I use for predicting rugby games. Go to my Department home page to see this. Current Rating Rating at Season Start Difference [...]

Super 15 Predictions, Round 15

David Scott — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:15:50 +0000

Team Ratings for Round 15 This year the predictions have been slightly changed with the help of a student, Joshua Dale. The home ground advantage now is different when both teams are from the same country to when the teams are from different countries. The basic method is described on my Department home page. Here [...]

Genetic screening for breast cancer

Thomas Lumley — Tue, 21 May 2013 21:41:14 +0000

A round-up of some worthwhile links on Angelina Jolie and BRCA1 Angelina Jolie. My Medical Choice Hilda Bastian (evidence-based medicine specialist and cartoonist) Keeping Health Risks in Perspective When the Dramatic and Rare Goes Culturally Viral Melanie Tannenbaum (social psychology) Why It Matters That Jolie Wrote About Her Medical Choice David Gorski (surgical oncologist and curmudgeon) Angelina Jolie, [...]

Legal highs: testing and voting

Thomas Lumley — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:27:33 +0000

The SPCA and similar groups have put together a petition asking for a ban on testing `legal highs’ on animals. The petition shows that at least 2% of New Zealand voters support the ban, which doesn’t sound terribly impressive. The problem is that petition-gathering is hard, so it’s not really useful unless either you get [...]

How big an area was damaged by the Oklahoma tornado?

Rachel Cunliffe — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:59:14 +0000

One of the first things I want to understand when there’s a natural disaster is the scale of it. Since I don’t deal with square miles or square kilometres each day, I find it hard to comprehend what an estimate of 60 square miles of damage means. So, I used this tool to overlay 60 [...]