May 21, 2018
Briefly
- David Fisher in the Herald “Garrett appeared unaware both Edgeler and Lumley had since withdrawn their comments, having found they were based on bad data from the Ministry of Justice.“
- “Why Is It So Hard to Figure Out When the Bus Is Coming?” From Citylab. At least Auckland Transport doesn’t seem to have the problem of inaccurate maps that the story focuses on. Prediction is still hard, especially when it comes to the future.
- There was a story in the more-excitable media about alien influences on Earth species. Some species of lizards in New Guinea have toxic, bright-green blood, and they aren’t even each others closest relatives. That wasn’t the alien story, though. The alien story was about octopuses. Here’s the story the Herald republished, and here’s a more sensible one from Buzzfeed. Not only is there no evidence for it, there’s evidence against it. New Zealand has plenty of scientists who know enough evolutionary biology to say the story is crap; it wouldn’t have been hard to ask one of them.
- A tweet about toothpaste with an unusual ingredient that “increases the defenses of teeth and gums…cells are loaded with new life energy, the destroying effect of bacteria is hindered… it gently polishes the dental enamel and turns it white and shiny.” Fairly typical non-quite-therapeutic claims, but this toothpaste is from the early 20th century and the unusual ingredient is radium
- A Guardian story with a nice animated chart showing the uncertainty in global warming predictions.
- From Quartz, “Satellite images reveal which countries cheat on their economic statistics”
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 »
Wellington Regional Council asked an American company to revise the bus transport system in Wellington. However, I don’t think the Americans quite understood the topography (and weather) of Wellington.
When I asked the new system for the best route into town from my old home, it directed me to a bus stop that meant climbing up a zig zag with something like 192 steps (IIRC from counting when I was 10ish) – Google Earth tells me it’s a 30 metre rise.
To be fair it’s a pretty extreme case – the “crow’s flight” distance between my old home and the bus stop is 75 metres whereas Google Earth gives the walking distance (if it were flat) of over 500 metres.
7 years ago
“.. and here’s a more sensible one from Buzzfeed”
That’s a first if I ever heard it.
7 years ago