Author's posts

Statistics 101: Part 1 Introduction

re-posted, with edits, from daily Kos

Yesterday I posted a diary on statistical graphics which drew some notice.  I offered to re-post the whole series from dailyKos, and a couple people said I should, so I  will.

This series will not be for the statistical experts, it will be for those who want to be able to understand some basic statistics, without a lot of heavy-duty math.  I’ll try to emphasize aspects I think will be of interest to Kossacks, including how to tell when someone is misleading you with statistics. I welcome comments, suggestions, and thoughts both from people who are reading this as an intro to statistics and from the more statistically literate.

In today’s diary, I will discuss measures of central tendency.  See you after the fold.

Statististical graphics: The good, the bad, and the ugly

re-posted from dailyKos….. I figured I might as well post about what I know about. 

Statistical graphics, properly used, let us envision great quantities of information and to have insights into relationships among variables that would be difficult, if not impossible, to get from words and formulas alone.  Improperly used, however, they obfuscate or even distort the truth, or waste paper on data that could be better summarized in a table or in text.

Below the fold, I’ll give some principles of graphical design and some types of graphics.  Rather than try to import lots of graphics images, I will try to provide links to various graphs. 

I then want to invite you, the readers, to put a graph in a comment; it could be a graph you like, a graph you dislike, a graph you don’t understand, or whatever, and then we can discuss each graphic.

You can look at a talk I gave at Yale University, here (pdf file)
My Yale talk

(I admit it.  Part of my reason for doing it this way is that I am a bit lazy.  But I also think it’s a good way to guarantee that the discussion is useful).

How to fix education and eliminate drug use

For decades now, we’ve had a war on drugs. And, we’ve had a variety of programs to address the educational problems of this country – the latest is a complete mess called No Child Left Behind.  Perhaps we’ve been going about it all wrong….. perhaps I have a better idea….. perhaps it’s below the fold

How voters decide: A book review with lessons for campaigns

cross posted from Daily Kos

This diary is based on my reading of the book How Voters Decide:Information Processing during Election Campaigns by Richard R. Lau and David P. Redlawsk.  But it’s not a traditional review: I will get that part out of the way quickly.  Nor is it a summary: My skills are not up to summarizing 250 pages of fairly dense text into a diary that anyone would want to read.

Rather, I attempt to take the lessons they teach about how voters decide and how they process information and translate them from scholarly political science into practical tools. 

In an attempt to keep the diary to a reasonable length, I have not tried to make it too organized, but kept it almost as a list of what might be extra-long bullet points.  I hope it is, nonetheless, comprehensible.

It’s below the fold

Oh snap!

After the civility fandango, I figure it’s time for something light.  Something fun.  So…. what could be more fun than some really snappy put downs?

Just to show that I can admire a brilliant snap. 

On civility

I can’t post in Armando’s diary, for some reason.  It keeps rejecting my comments.  Since I am the one who wrote the comment that led to his diary, I figure I might as well say something.

Armando misread my comment. He also ventured that I would find his diary uncivil.  I did not.  He did none of the things I regard as uncivil.  He argued with me.  That’s fine.  I will argue back.  I *like* argument.  I like *civil* argument.

On pain and politics: A personal story

reposted from Daily  Kos, where it was, in part, a reaction to a wonderful diary by Rena.

  I commented that I would add my own diary, about my story and my politics.  I do so here with three aims and hopes: 1) That others may learn about my own particular issues and about learning disabilities in general; 2) As a catharsis for myself and 3) To reflect on the connections between pain and politics.

We’re not gonna take it

To the tune of Twisted Sister’s We’re not gonna take it

The four rules

In Samuel Shem’s wonderfully satiric look at medical education, he follows some students on the final leg of that education: Internship.

Most of the older doctors are what you might expect, although Shem draws them all as neurotic and funny, in very dark ways.  But one really has the truth in mind, and is intent on teaching the youngsters what life is really like.  He tells them the four rules of medicine. 

They are below the fold

My 9/11 diary

(cross posted from daily Kos)

It’s the anniversary. I was there, in the building.  More below.

What is it like to be learning disabled?

(reposted from Daily Kos)
Being learning disabled sucks.  But it doesn’t completely suck.  It’s not like I’m a Republican or something.

Being LD defines me, but it doesn’t completely define me.  I’m LD.  I’m also a liberal, a Jew, an atheist.  A man, a husband, a father.  An American.  A New Yorker.  Most of all, like all of you, a human.  Humans are complex.

So, below the fold, I talk about what it’s like to be me, what it’s like to be LD, and, most specifically, what it’s like to be LD me.  I don’t talk much about my politics, my religion, my ideas, and so on.  But don’t get the idea that LD is the most important thing in my life – it isn’t.  It’s just the most important thing in this diary.

And don’t get the idea that every LD person feels the way I do about being LD.  They don’t.  Some feel the way I do; some are angrier.  Some are less angry.  And LDs differ a lot.  I’ve got nonverbal learning disability, and even we NLDers vary.  A lot.  We say

  When you’ve seen one person with NLD, you’ve seen one person with NLD

enough preamble!  Follow me below the fold

25 best things ever said

(re-posted from dailyKos)

Given some of the other diaries up today, I thought this would be a nice addition.  Add your own favorites in the comments

They aren’t in order, but I’ve saved my favorite for the end

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