Thinking About Education Reform
While reading a deeply interesting post on education reform, I came across this video, which was the third or fourth link to it I had seen in a day: A lot of things really stand out in the video for… Continue Reading
Lying With Statistics
Know The Odds
At a booze-enhanced social gathering a couple weeks ago, I met a woman who had been convicted of some kind of Federal drug offense. She was pleasant enough to talk to but when she found out I was a lawyer,… Continue Reading
ASTN Fantasy Projections On The Only Player Who Matters
[Intro Music.] HOST: Welcome back to the All Sports Talk Network, for this week’s Fantasy Bulletin. Today, we’re talking Favre. Which is kind of like the last eighteen hours of our programming yesterday, only we’ve got some actual statistics generated… Continue Reading
This Legend Looks To Have Some Reality
One of the “facts” being thrown around in the swirling debate about immigration is the phenomenon of “anchor babies.” The legend is that an illegal immigrant will come to the U.S. and have a baby here. Because that baby is… Continue Reading
But I Don’t Think Of Myself As Liberal!
And here I was today beginning to question the limits of my intelligence. Not so fast. TL!
Weekend Weirdness, Volume X
To begin this tenth edition of Weekend Weirdness, I give you tens. Tens of weird commercials. Ten half minutes of a guy in a chicken suit playing “What is Love?” from Ring Mod on Vimeo. Okay, “ten half minutes” is… Continue Reading
Odd Sourcing by ABC News
First, and perhaps most importantly, it’s good work by ABC News to find all the massive B.S. that you can read about at Recovery.gov — relatively large amounts of money spent in congressional districts that do not exist, jobs saved… Continue Reading
Glenn Beck Spews A Densely-Packed Set Of Hysterical Lies
Why has America fallen into such desperate and horrible straits? Oh, yeah, that’s right, it’s the atheists’ fault. Or, as Doug Mataconis puts it, “Yea, it has nothing to do with all those religious people who’ve, you know, actually been… Continue Reading
Jerks Lose: An Informal Statistical Musing
When a result deviates strongly from a statistical prediction of that result, one ought to step back and consider at least three possibilities to explain the apparently anomalous result: 1) sampling bias, 2) evaluation bias, and 3) incorrect prediction. I… Continue Reading
Decline Of Religion In America Much Overhyped
Religious and atheist blogs and websites will have much to twitter about today as the results of the new American Religious Identification Survey is released. This is a telephone survey of a sample size somewhere around fifty-five thousand people, which… Continue Reading