Clarke’s First Law: When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
— Arthur C. Clarke
The post linked to below is actually about the safety of space shuttles, but I find another conclusion more interesting. In the news you often hear that flying is safer than all other forms of travel, and this is true on a per kilometer basis. But not on a per hour basis (passenger hours vs. [...]
One of my favourite pet topics is criticism of the current practice of statistical significance testing (which I found ridiculous from my first exposure to it). Here some reading on the feud: Is significance testing all bad? Technorati Tags: statistics
To analyze data and also to critically review studies made by other people, one needs a good grasp of some basic concepts of statistics (and probability, but that is for another day). Here is a nice post about error bars: Cognitive Daily: I’ll bet you don’t understand error bars (updated with answers) Technorati Tags: statistics
This is a nice thing to keep in mind (often forgotten): Statistical significance means only that the pattern of distribution and relationship between variables which is found in the data from a sample can be confidently generalized to the larger populattion from which the sample was randomly drawn. By itself, it does not ensure that [...]
Making sense of data requires visualization methods – here is an ingenious overview: A Periodic Table of Visualization Methods Technorati Tags: complexity, statistics
Here some more links devoted to rational thinking, which I found on the site mentioned in the previous post and which are simply excellent: Chance Welcome Page Fallacy Files Argument Mapping Tutorials Technorati Tags: bias, cognitive science, rationality, statistics
I can’t help but frequently link to the blog below, the entries are simply excellent. Although I should try to comment more in the future Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science: Truth is stranger than fiction Technorati Tags: statistics
Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science: The fallacy of the one-sided bet (for example, risk, God, torture, and lottery tickets) A good post from a great blog! Technorati Tags: bayes, statistics
The opinion that beauty in human faces is connected to symmetry is widely “known” but seems to be false: Overcoming Bias: Symmetry Is Not Pretty Technorati Tags: statistics
An interesting parallel between Bayes and Evolution: Social Science Statistics Blog: Bayesian inference and natural selection Technorati Tags: complexity, statistics
