MetaFilter posts tagged with statistics

The sharks are just jealous of our ice cream

Tehanu — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 10:50:23 -0800

BBC News is running a weekly ongoing series of articles that describe and illustrate common misconceptions (and manipulations) of statistics using examples from the news and ads.
Lesson 1: surveys. Lesson 2: counting. Lesson 3: percentage. Lesson 4: averages. Lesson 5: causation.

Our Phony Economy.

chunking express — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:57:13 -0800

Our Phony Economy. From the conclusion:

The purpose of an economy is to meet human needs in such a way that life becomes in some respect richer and better in the process. It is not simply to produce a lot of stuff. Stuff is a means, not an end. Yet current modes of economic measurement focus almost entirely on means. For example, an automobile is productive if it produces transportation. But today we look only at the cars produced per hour worked. More cars can mean more traffic and therefore a transportation system that is less productive. The medical system is the same. The aim should be healthy people, not the sale of more medical services and drugs. Now, however, we assess the economic contribution of the medical system on the basis of treatments rather than results. Economists see nothing wrong with this. They see no problem that the medical system is expected to produce 30 to 40 percent of new jobs over the next thirty years. “We have to spend our money on something,” shrugged a Stanford economist to the New York Times. This is more insanity. Next we will be hearing about “disease-led recovery.” To stimulate the economy we will have to encourage people to be sick so that the economy can be well.

Government spending and tax levels

russilwvong — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:18:50 -0800

Want to know how government spending and taxation levels have gone up or down over the last 20 years, and how they compare with other countries? The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has a handy set of tables (Excel, HTML-ized by Google): total spending, total revenues, fiscal surplus or deficit (Norway's surplus is 17% of GDP). Part of the statistical tables for the semi-annual OECD Outlook.

Are US Inflation and Employment Underestimated?

salvia — Mon, 05 May 2008 07:55:16 -0800

"Hard Numbers: The Economy is Worse than You Know" [full article for Harper's subscribers, a different abridged version] discusses how the Consumer Price Index and other US economic statistics have been manipulated over time. Among other things, the article claims, these changes make Social Security checks 70% lower than they would otherwise be. According to Barry Ritholtz of the Big Picture blog, "the longstanding official myth that [US] inflation is modest and contained is starting to be recognized for the fraud that it is." He believes that these bad statistics give false answers to even bigger questions, like "are we in a recession?" A New York Times graphic shows what's in this basket of consumer prices, which prices are going up, and which are not. To learn more about what's not counted, visit Shadow Government Statistics, which tracks (for subscribers) what inflation would be under earlier formulas. (Previously.)

If it ain't a mess, it'll do till the mess gets here

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:53:14 -0800

Statistics compiled by State Senator Eliot Shapleigh in the state's annual ranking, entitled "Texas on the Brink" report dreary news in just about all categories used to characterize standards of living, from education to health to enfranchisement. Statistics were compiled from the Census Bureau, the CDC, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency and a number of bipartisan foundations.

US Presidential Greatness as a Function of Experience

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 06:25:50 -0800

Is an Experienced President a Good President?

Put away your asterisks

mrgrimm — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 11:16:55 -0800

Steroids, "Other Drugs," and Baseball: a Voice of Scepticism on the Impact of Steroids on Major League Baseball. Eric Walker suggests a "juiced" ball made much more of an effect than PEDs.

95% of gaijin demand 70% more pie charts

soma lkzx — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:11:21 -0800

Election poll fatigue? Diversify your daily dose of stats with What Japan Thinks. Check out Japan's favorite emoticons, thoughts on drinking vinegar, and of course awwcats. And if you still really need something about the primaries, Hillary Clinton is the 4th-best-looking world politician.

Convicted by Statistics?

Jakey — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 07:57:24 -0800

Dutch nurse Lucia De Berk has had her case reopened 5 years after her conviction for multiple counts of murdering her patients. Ben Goldacre's much linked Bad Science has an excellent summary and collection of links reviewing the history of the case, suggesting that the conviction was based upon poor statistics and weak circumstantial evidence. "In the three years before Lucia worked on the ward in question, there were 7 deaths. In the three years that Lucia did work on that ward, there were 6 deaths. It seems odd that the death rate should go down on a ward at the precise moment that a serial killer “on a killing spree“ arrives on the scene." Nature notes a parallel with the unfortunate case of Sally Clark, convicted largely by the erroneous statistical analysis of the now-discredited Sir Roy Meadow previously.

US Census Bureau's DataWeb

Gyan — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 07:03:28 -0800

TheDataWeb - a network of online data libraries on topics including census data, economic data, health data, income and unemployment data, population data, labor data, cancer data, crime and transportation data, family dynamics, vital statistics data