I’m number one, baby, so why try harder?

The other day Whirlpool Discussion Forums member “billabong” posted that ISP aaNet is running a promotion, and are using the flyer pictured below.  Readers will see that aaNet have sourced two customer satisfaction surveys (Whirlpool Australian Broadband Survey 2008 and Australian PC Authority Best ISP Award 2008), making it clear that aaNet finished number “1″ [...]

The poll as a political weapon

When applied correctly, statistics is an elegant tool that can help us put a random and uncertain world into context.  When abused, it can help dark and mysterious powers further their own nefarious agendas.  In its most brutal form, statistics can be used as a weapon to club the thick-witted over the head.
No game is [...]

Pornography, NewScientist and the Ecological Fallacy

Some time ago I came across an article in NewScientist: Porn in the USA: Conservatives are biggest consumers.
Americans may paint themselves in increasingly bright shades of red and blue, but new research finds one thing that varies little across the nation: the liking for online pornography.
A new nationwide study of anonymised credit-card receipts from a [...]

How to talk back to a statistic

In my previous blog entry I briefly reviewed Darrell Huff’s excellent book, How to Lie with Statistics.  In the closing chapter Huff summarises the lessons by explaining How to Talk Back to a Statistic.  Or, in Huff’s own words, “how to look a phoney statistic in the eye and face it down”.
Not all the statistical [...]

How to Lie with Statistics

Statistics is hard.  Let’s all go to the beach.
-Barbie
You know, I really enjoy being an information analyst.  Statistics has been a very rewarding career choice.  Over time I’ve learnt to swim through data like a fish dives through water.  In fact, remove me from statistics and I’d probably flap around gasping to breathe just like [...]