November 18, 2013
Stat of the Week Competition: November 16 – 22 2013
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 November 22 2013.
- Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
- The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of November 16 – 22 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.
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 »
Statistic: US govt debt is inversely correlated with US economic growth, with the assertion that the former inhibits the latter.
story: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-10-17/most-dangerous-line-uttered-during-debt-ceiling-debate
graph: http://stawealth.com/images/stories/1dailyxchange/Debt-vs-GDP-101713.PNG
Source: ZeroHedge.com via NZOSS 14-Nov-2013
Date: 17-Oct-2013
OK, so this isn’t NZ media, but I thought it looked interesting anyway.
And it was referenced on the NZOSS mailing list (in relation to the latter-day “fall of the Roman Empire” — aka the US economic hegemony, and its arm-twisting over “IP” in the TTPA negotiations).
The cited article shows how US govt debt is inversely correlated with US economic growth, and asserts that the former causes the latter.
However a closer inspection of their graph (and ignoring their overlaid trend lines) shows that the changes in govt debt generally follow rather than precede changes in economic growth.
11 years ago
Statistic: IT man bucks the trend
Source: New Zealand Herald
Date: 19 November 2013
I’m a bit concerned over the IT man’s comments on this research. He doesn’t seem to understand the difference between a tendency and a law.
The research found that “people born weighing less than 1.5kg tend to be shorter, achieve fewer educational qualifications and are more likely to rely on welfare by the time they reach their 20s.”
“I disagree with the study’s findings,” the IT man says because he “doesn’t fit the research.”
A sample size of one does not disprove a study that reports a trend.
It seems that both the IT man and the Herald don’t get this.
11 years ago
…I think that this is more about my journalist colleagues looking for a bit of colour and a photo – we are trained from day one to put a human face to any story about stats or social trends – but in this case the journo hasn’t stopped and thought about the fact that a sample of one does not make a trend, and that the ‘case study’ here rather undermines the premise of the story. If a human face was needed, Professor Brian Darlow would be good, and also a short (anonymous) case study out of one of the transcripts with the LBW people interviewed – these things can usually be arranged. The horse’s mouth is far more interesting than someone whose experience doesn’t match the substance of the story.
11 years ago