• Blog
  • About
  • Archives
  • Contact
  • Search

  • Archives

    • October 2008
    • September 2008
    • August 2008
    • July 2008
    • June 2008
    • May 2008
    • April 2008
    • March 2008
    • February 2008
    • January 2008
  • Categories

    • Housekeeping
    • Uncategorized
    • Worth Considering
    • Worth Discussing
    • Worth Distraction
    • Worth Knowing
    • Worth Reading
    • Worth Seeing

Link Banana

A Vaguely Intelligent Linkblog

Archive for the ‘statistics’ tag

Suicide Stats #

September 15th, 2008 | In Worth Seeing 

Though you may find it depressing, this BuzzFeed post has amassed a very impressive collection of interesting charts about suicide (mostly in the United States).

Doppler Speed #

August 12th, 2008 | In Worth Seeing 

The National Weather Service think they may have found a driver going 130 miles per hour around Chicago. Using a weather doppler. Who knew? As Gizmodo explains, It works something like this:

Sometimes, when a warm layer of air rolls in up above the surface, the beam from the Doppler radar can be deflected towards the ground—picking up traffic and other objects much like a police radar gun. The weather service alluded to the fact that the “speeder” could have been nothing more than noise, but it still makes you wonder how long it will be before they figure out how to bust motorists from space.

Mistaken Fear #

June 10th, 2008 | In Worth Considering 

Psychology Today has a great article about the errors in reasoning that (vestigial) fear causes us to make. The ten:

    • Risk and emotion are inseparable.
    • Fear skews risk analysis in predictable ways.
    • We underestimate threats that creep up on us.
    • We prefer that which (we think) we can control.
    • We substitute one risk for another.
    • Using your cortex isn’t always smart.
    • The “risk thermostat” varies widely.
    • Risk arguments cannot be divorced from values.
    • “Natural” risks are easier to accept.
    • Worrying about risk is itself risky.

      (via Lone Gunman)

      Olympic Medals #

      June 3rd, 2008 | In Worth Seeing 

      In a simple chart, The Economist makes the interesting point that though the United States, Russia, and China fought fairly evenly for the most medals in 2004 — and most other games — it’s actually countries like The Bahamas, Australia, and Cuba that did the best per capita.

      Urban Index #

      May 16th, 2008 | In Worth Knowing 

      Grist compiled some interesting numbers recently. For example:

      Less than 1: Percent of the earth’s surface covered by cities (1)
      75: Percent of global energy consumed by cities (2)
      80: Percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions contributed by cities (1)

      (via GOOD Blog)

      An Innovative Baby Portrait #

      April 9th, 2008 | In Worth Considering 

      Jason Kottke’s rather a fan:

      Charles Joseph Minard may get all the accolades for his graphic of Napolean’s march to Moscow, but for me, the above chart is the most beautiful ever created. When I look at it, I see Ollie. The graph is a portrait of him, as sure as this photo is.

      Apples and Oranges #

      April 1st, 2008 | In Worth Distraction 

      On April first, The Economist decided to teach it’s readers a special lesson about the power of unexpected parallels in statistics. Truly surprising.

      Also of note, Mahalo Daily managed to land an interview with Steve Jobs.

      American Tastes Change in Downturn #

      March 12th, 2008 | In Worth Considering 

      Though I’m wary of most new organization playing with economics or statistics, this Reuters story qualifies for being both modestly interesting and completely plausible:

      At U.S. warehouse club stores, a growing number of shoppers are giving up steak for cheaper chicken. Coffee sales are soaring at McDonald’s, while higher-priced Starbucks slows. Restaurants are serving fewer customers because more people are eating at home.

      Stung by the housing slump, tightening credit terms, and rising inflation, U.S. households are finding ways to cut back, putting a damper on the consumer spending that is the driving force behind the economy.

      Cleaner Than We Were #

      February 18th, 2008 | In Worth Seeing 

      The American has compiled some interesting data about the way we live today. What if found especially interesting, however, is this: in 1950 29% reported bathing once a day, 63% said less than that. In 1999, 75% reported bathing once a day, and on 21% said “less frequently.”

      Broken Numbers Game #

      January 17th, 2008 | In Worth Knowing 

      The New Yorker’s James Surowiecki argues that conflicting (and imprecise) headline numbers that come in America’s official job creation and unemployment numbers leads to both confusion and unexpected market moves. From this, some valuable wisdom comes:

      As many studies have shown, people don’t have an intuitive understanding of things like margins of error and random sampling; they prefer to focus on a single number, even if it’s falsely precise, and so end up overemphasizing the report’s headline number.Investors are also subject to the so-called “salience bias”—high-profile information is weighted heavily even if it’s flawed. That’s why market moves in response to government reports are often surprisingly big—especially when, as now, they seem to substantiate investors’ worst fears. At this point, the market is locked in a hard-to-break feedback loop: the fact that traders act as if the jobs report were definitive makes it so. A little information can be a dangerous thing.

      (via brijit)


      Via BuzzFeed

      A david (b) hayes Production

      Link Banana is powered by WordPress

      THEME: Carter's Line by Ikiru Design

      Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS)