The Home for Wayward Statisticians

Check out this thumbsucker who's got a mad on about quantification.  Maybe he needs to get off his qualitative butt and quantify this.  Dork.

Tips from Language Log and the Instapundit.

Spiked editor Brendan O'Neill gives the neo-Malthusians a swift kick.  As P. J. O'Rourke says about population controllers: "Just enough of me, too much of YOU."
Tip from Edward John Craig at Planet Gore.

More media dumbassery:

Megan McArdle comments on the recent Sarah Palin-inspired head explosions in the media:

...I find the whole schtick about how the media is just a bunch of elitist hooligans who are out to get her really grating.

That's why I really wish the media wouldn't act like, well, a bunch of elitist hooligans who are out to get her.  I've coined a new phrase to cover the situation: Palinoia.  It's when you think people are out to get you, and then they do their best to justify your erroneous belief.

I don't think using this old Runner's World cover photo for Newsweek was too bright either.  Every celebrity scumbag and tinpot dictator in the world has made the covers of Time or Newsweek, but you need to be one tough cookie to make Runner's World.

Tip from the Instapundit.

Any statistician worth his salt knows not to publish work done with dirty data.  Looks like the Obama administration is being run by amateurs.

Tip from the Corner.

Update (18 November).  Who knows, man, who really knows.

UPDATE (24 November). Another gang of KnowItAlls shows their ass with dirty data, convoluted code, snarky emails, and a total unawareness of anything resembling a version control system.  I wouldn't trust these folks with a grocery list, let alone international policy on climate change.  Iowahawk justifiably mocks them.

What a cute little fellow:

 
Tip from Jonah Goldberg at The Corner.

Well done, buddy.

Igon Value.  Delicious.

A Geek Law.

Tip from (of course) the Geek Press.

Geek power!  Nathan gives a step-by-step tutorial on creating a web-based thematic map using nothing but free software.  Windows users can get the (free) Python interpreter here. 

Here's a good example of compare and contrast.

...you know that we used to make fun of “Dubya” nearly every day…parroting the same comedic bits we heard in our Democrat circles, where Bush is still, to this day, lampooned as a chimp, a bumbling idiot, and a poor, clumsy public speaker.
...
Well, we told you before how much the current president, Dr. Utopia, made us realize just how wrong we were about Bush.  We shudder to think what Dr. Utopia would have done post-9/11.  He would have not gone there with a bullhorn and struck that right tone.  More likely than not, he would have been his usual fey, apologetic self and waxed professorially about how evil America is and how justified Muslims are for attacking us, with a sidebar on how good the attacks were because they would humble us.

Go read the whole thing.
Tip from James Hudnall.

...explained as only the Onion can.

Tip from Mark Blumenthal at Pollster.com.

Tur-bacon-ducken.


Tip from the Instapundit.

Ten statistical giants who've given psychologists all the rope they need to hang themselves.

Tip from Andrew Gelman.

The graphics gurus at the New York Times break down unemployment by race, sex, age, and education.  Check it out.


Tip from the indefatigable Nathan at Flowing Data.

Victor Davis Hanson lays out the disconnect between what we saw at Ft Hood and what we're being told:

At some point, if both these organized plots (see the most recent in Boston) and isolated acts of lone gunmen and homicidal drivers continue, and if the prevailing theme continues to be fears of American intolerance and unfairness to Muslims after 9/11, I think the public will resent the disconnect between what they are told to think and what they believe, on the basis of some evidence.

Update (9 November).  Iowahawk writes the appropriate headlines for the major media outlets.  Of course, he saves the best for last.

Update (11 November).  Armed Liberal talks the most sense of anyone I've read yet.

This is beyond cool:  where all the ships are.


Tip from the Instapundit.

Nikolai Getman spent 8 years in a Soviet Gulag.  After his release, he secretly painted a collection based on his experience. The Heritage Foundation is currently exhibiting his works in their offices, but you can see it here.  You might also want to check out the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation.


Tip from NRO. Plus some web-searching.

Tips from Flowing Data and Andrew Gelman.

Seemingly out of the blue, Iowahawk gives a hands-on explanation of the "computer polls" for the BCS rankings.  Now you--and your Excel spreadsheet--can do it at home.

The thrill is gone:


Tip from Michelle Malkin.

The latest trope from the eco-thumbsuckers is to get us to cut down on hot showers.  These folks act like we destroy the water by using it, instead of reusing it.  Wise up, cargo-culters!  You can't burn up water!

Tip from the Instapundit.

Mind maps have always been around, somewhere in the background.  I've been using Cmap Tools on and off, and I've finally knuckled down and started using it as a course organizer and lecture guide.  If you're still shopping around, check out this map.

Tip from the Geek Press.

The Religion of Peace needs to work on it's marketing messages.  "Freedom can go to hell?"  Yours first, please. 


Homework assignment:  interpret the quality of lettering on the signs.

Tip from James Hudnall.