July 29, 2013

Stat of the Week Competition: July 27 – August 2 2013

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Each week, we would like to invite readers of Stats Chat to submit nominations for our Stat of the Week competition and be in with the chance to win an iTunes voucher.

Here’s how it works:

  • Anyone may add a comment on this post to nominate their Stat of the Week candidate before midday Friday August 2 2013.
  • Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
  • The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of July 27 – August 2 2013 inclusive.
  • Quote the statistic, when and where it was published and tell us why it should be our Stat of the Week.

Next Monday at midday we’ll announce the winner of this week’s Stat of the Week competition, and start a new one.

The fine print:

  • Judging will be conducted by the blog moderator in liaison with staff at the Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland.
  • The judges’ decision will be final.
  • The judges can decide not to award a prize if they do not believe a suitable statistic has been posted in the preceeding week.
  • Only the first nomination of any individual example of a statistic used in the NZ media will qualify for the competition.
  • Individual posts on Stats Chat are just the opinions of their authors, who can criticise anyone who they feel deserves it, but the Stat of the Week award involves the Department of Statistics more officially. For that reason, we will not award Stat of the Week for a statistic coming from anyone at the University of Auckland outside the Statistics department. You can still nominate and discuss them, but the nomination won’t be eligible for the prize.
  • Employees (other than student employees) of the Statistics department at the University of Auckland are not eligible to win.
  • The person posting the winning entry will receive a $20 iTunes voucher.
  • The blog moderator will contact the winner via their notified email address and advise the details of the $20 iTunes voucher to that same email address.
  • The competition will commence Monday 8 August 2011 and continue until cancellation is notified on the blog.
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Rachel Cunliffe is the co-director of CensusAtSchool and currently consults for the Department of Statistics. Her interests include statistical literacy, social media and blogging. See all posts by Rachel Cunliffe »

Nominations

  • avatar
    Simon Connell

    Statistic: Critic “infographic” on OUSA (Otago University Students Association” services survey
    Source: Critic Magazine
    Date: 29-7-13

    This graphic obfuscates the results it’s supposed to be showing:
    The questions are in slanted text, making the questions themselves, as well as the average score, hard to read.
    The bars showing the scores for different questions aren’t aligned horizontally, making it very difficult to make any kind of meaningful visual comparison of the scores, either within one question or across questions.

    11 years ago

  • avatar
    Brendon Blue

    Statistic: A man charged with raping a woman during a kidnap has pleaded not guilty but the Crown says DNA evidence shows the man was “10,000,000,000,000,000 times likely” to be responsible for the crime.
    Source: NZ Herald
    Date: 31 July 2013

    10 quadrillion times is a lot of times likely.

    11 years ago