# Difference between revisions of "Chance News 94"

## Quotations

"...classic PPT statistical graphic: 13 logos, 10 numbers, 9 bubbles, 1 giant green arrow."

-- Edward Tufte, tweeting about the NSA's presentation on its controversial data-collection activities.

[quoted in: The real NSA scandal? The horrible slides. Washington Post, Wonkblog, 7 June 2013.]

Submitted by Bill Peterson

“6. (Mar's Law) Everything is linear if plotted log-log with a fat magic marker.”

Submitted by Margaret Cibes

According to Derek de Solla Price, "...in order to relieve the tedium of sitting for a portrait painter, on two different occasions he [Francis Galton] computed the number of brush strokes and found about 20,000 to the portrait; just the same number, he calculated, as the hand movements that went into the knitting of a pair of socks."

in: The Half-Life of Facts by Samuel Arbesman, p. 167

Submitted by Paul Alper

"Statistics is the science that lets you do twenty experiments a year and publish one false result in Nature."

-- John Maynard Smith (British evolutionary biologist), quoted in: The Half-Life of Facts, p. 154

Submitted by Paul Alper

## Forsooth

“The afternoon wave of [U.S. Open] starters began their first round Thursday in hot, sticky conditions and finished in cool, breezy weather on Friday. Luke Donald described the difference as ‘180 degrees’ ….”

“Mickelson Tied With Horschel for U.S. Open Lead”
by Karen Crouse, The New York Times, June 14, 2013

Submitted by Margaret Cibes at the suggestion of Jim Greenwood

"Doctors were on board and volunteered to help in 48 percent of cases; nurses and other health workers were available in another 28 percent. Only one-third of cases had to be handled by flight attendants alone."

in: 50-50 chance of a doctor on board a flight. Herald.Net, 30 May 2013

Submitted by Bill Peterson

"So for a company that thought there was a 60 percent chance that it would have to pay $1,000 on a claim, and a 40 percent chance it would have to pay$2,000, its required reserve would rise from $1,000, the most probable number, to$1,400 — the average of the probabilities."

in: New rules expected for insurance accounting may lead to erratic earnings, New York Times, 27 June 2013

Submitted by Bill Peterson

## Statistics Without Borders

Statistics Without Borders
(not to be confused with “Statisticians WithOut Borders), a consulting group)

Current or future statisticians may be interested in the all-volunteer organization Statistics Without Borders. SWB is an Outreach Group of the ASA consisting of over 400 volunteer statisticians who provide free statistical consulting to organizations and government agencies, particularly from developing nations. Its goal is to “promote the use of statistics to improve the health and well-being of all people.”

The April 2013 issue of Significance magazine contains an article, “Haiti after the earthquake,”[1] that describes one of their 2010 projects.

Submitted by Margaret Cibes

## Data about cell and landline phone usage

“Researchers Warn of ‘Bias’ in Landline-Only Phone Polls”
by Steven Shepard, National Journal, June 18, 2013

The CDC reports that landline phone surveys in 2012 were most likely to reach older, whiter Americans. The article gives a number of statistics about landline vs. cell phone usage among various demographic groups.

(The article also states that it is illegal for automatic dialers to call cell phones, which makes polling cell phone holders more expensive. I’m not sure how many companies observe this ban!)

One interesting fact, if true:

Calling the proper number of cell phones is not a guarantee of accuracy: Gallup, which called the most cell phones, was considered among the least accurate survey firms in its 2012 pre-election polls; PPP, which called none, was considered among the most accurate.

Submitted by Margaret Cibes

## Google's hiring methodology

Paul Alper sent a link to the following:

On GPAs and brainteasers: New insights from Google on recruiting and hiring, by Adam Bryant, LinkedIn.com

Paul flagged the following two passages as Forsooths:

The ability to hire well is random. “Years ago, we did a study to determine whether anyone at Google is particularly good at hiring,” Bock [Google’s senior vice president for people operations] said. “We looked at tens of thousands of interviews, and everyone who had done the interviews and what they scored the candidate, and how that person ultimately performed in their job. We found zero relationship. It’s a complete random mess, except for one guy who was highly predictive because he only interviewed people for a very specialized area, where he happened to be the world’s leading expert.”

GPAs don’t predict anything about who is going to be a successful employee. “One of the things we’ve seen from all our data crunching is that G.P.A.’s are worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test scores are worthless — no correlation at all except for brand-new college grads, where there’s a slight correlation,” Bock said. “Google famously used to ask everyone for a transcript and G.P.A.’s and test scores, but we don’t anymore, unless you’re just a few years out of school. We found that they don’t predict anything."

## Dialect maps

These dialect maps showing the variety of American English have set the internet on fire
by Alexis Kleinman , Huffington Post, 6 June 2013

A series of data maps depicting word usage and pronunciation differences across America has gone viral on the internet. The maps were produced by North Carolina State University graduate student Joshua Katz, based on survey research initiated by Cambridge University linguist Bert Vaux and his colleagues.

A great deal of information about the project and the mathematics involved can be found at Katz's poster for his project. The poster is entitled Beyond "Soda, Pop, or Coke". People with roots in the Boston area may be surprised that "Tonic" didn't make the list! The study also has the perennial favorite of us Easterners who have married someone from elsewhere:

How do you pronounce Mary/merry/marry?

In all, there are 122 sets of maps relating to regional differences in pronunciation and usage. Links are available here (the above maps are reproduced from Item 15).

Submitted by Paul Alper

## Are you scientifically literate?

Now you can find out. Physicist and author James Trefil of George Mason University devised a short quiz, which was published in the Toronto Star. There are 26 multiple-choice questions on biology, physics, and chemistry. Score 80% and you make the grade, according to Professor Trefil.

(I admit to apprehension about taking the test. But I can state, happily, my score met the standard for literacy – a reassuring result for a career scientist.)

Of course, multiple choice exams have their drawbacks. With four choices per question and no penalty for an incorrect answer, a know-nothing could expect a mark of 25% – still mired in ‘F’, but better than a goose egg.

For the indecisive and the unlearned, however, there are more strategic methods than sheer guessing in multiple choice tests. One ploy, when in doubt, is to choose answer (c). Examiners seem to find this letter a favourite, presumably to conceal the correct answer amongst the wrong ones. Another trick is to pick the longest answer, given that teachers tend to add details to make the correct answer entirely true.

Adhering to the “choose (c)” rule, I scored 42% on the quiz – significantly better than random (binomial test, P = 0.040, 1-tailed). Choosing the longest answer gave an even more impressive grade of 58% – clearly superior to random picks (P = 0.00039), but still short of true literacy. Alas, it appears there is no substitute to learning science to become scientifically literate.

Submitted by James Schaefer

## Twitter settles the argument about geeks versus nerds

On "Geek" Versus "Nerd" Burr Settles, June 2, 2013.

What's the difference between a geek and a nerd?

To many people, “geek” and “nerd” are synonyms, but in fact they are a little different. Consider the phrase “sports geek” — an occasional substitute for “jock” and perhaps the arch-rival of a “nerd” in high-school folklore. If “geek” and “nerd” are synonyms, then “sports geek” might be an oxymoron. (Furthermore, “sports nerd” either doesn’t compute or means something else.)

Dr. Settles reviews some perspectives on this, but then decides to examine this empirically.

To characterize the similarities and differences between “geek” and “nerd,” maybe we can find the other words that tend to keep them company, and see if these linguistic companions support my point of view?