April 24, 2016

Briefly

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  • An example of bad forms design. 73% of members of the “American Indepedent Party” in California didn’t realise they were members of a party. They won’t be able to vote in the Democratic primary, though unaffiliated voters will be able to.  This ‘73%’ is also an example of the denominator mattering: the errors are estimated at 73% of AIP members but only 12% of independents
  • Herald (Daily Mail) headline “Meditation can knock 7 years off age of your brain”. Text: “those who meditate may lead healthier lifestyles in general. It is also possible that some inherent difference in brain structure makes some people more likely to take up meditating. Those studied had practised various types of traditional meditation for an average of 20 years.“
  • Amazon has been distinctive for making the same prices available to rich and poor Americans. But the same-day free delivery service is becoming an exception. Bloomberg looks at why (with graphics) (via Harkanwal Singh)
  • Maps of electorate-level odds for the Australian election, with an interesting attempt to solve the problem of a continent made up mostly of empty space
  • A data proofreading app designed for data journalists (via Kristin Henry)
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Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »

Comments

  • avatar
    Richard Penny

    I find the Amazon item interesting as it may be an example of an algorithm using “found” data – my preferred term for what people call big data – to unconsciously embed a prejudice. In other words, courier drivers may not like to deliver to the missing neighbourhoods for various reasons so those areas have less deliveries. The algorithm assumes that this data reveals reality so decides it is not worth delivering to those areas.

    It is interesting that the simple graphics in the Bloomberg piece immediately show there is something odd going on e.g. in Boston. Of course I have to say that the “simple” graphics probably has a lot of work getting the data out and managed to get the picture. Perhaps that’s why this sort of follow up EDA is not often done in analytics.

    I’m pretty sure you have had blog postings on this subject in the past.

    9 years ago