Dany Adams
It’s just multiplication, have no fear
(A true story, with some added sarcasm, to illustrate that using equations is safer in the long run than trying to avoid using equations) My lab has a new centrifuge that I recently needed to use for the first time. Like most centrifuges, you can set the rotations per minute (RPM) and the number [...]
Graphing Advice
How to Make Truly Terrible Graphs: A Tutorial by David Streiner Part 4: Where’s the Y? In previous blogs, I described how to make terrible graphs using some of the features of leading graphing packages, such as pie charts and 3-D graphs. But, this is unfair to users of other programs that do not [...]
Graphing advice
How to Make Truly Terrible Graphs: A Tutorial David L. Streiner, special guest contributor and co-author of excellent statistics texts Part 3 – 3D or not 3D In the two last blogs, we learned the first steps in making truly terrible graphs: by confusing the role of a visual with that of a table, and by [...]
Michaelis-Menten grapher
http://www.physiologyweb.com/calculators/michaelis_menten_equation_interactive_graph.html Physiology.web often has very useful calculators and explanations. Their interactive Michaelis Menten equation grapher is a very nice way to explore what can be a difficult concept to grasp.
Effect and substance, not p
There is an excellent resource by Paul Ellis at: http://effectsizefaq.com where I just clicked on http://effectsizefaq.com/2010/05/30/how-do-researchers-confuse-statistical-with-substantive-significance/ This page talks about the problem with p-level being the be-all and end-all of way too many scientific studies. You might be aware that there is discussion about this in the scientific literature. (I think statisticians deserve prizes for [...]
Graphing advice
How to Make Truly Terrible Graphs: A Tutorial David L. Streiner, special guest contributor and co-author of excellent statistics texts Part 2: Pie in the Sky To really screw up visual presentations, use a pie chart. Even better, use two or more of them. In my last blog, we learned the first step in making [...]
Fabulous correlations
Who would have thought that you can predict the number of drivers killed in collisions by monitoring US crude oil imports from Norway. Actually, shockingly, this one of those correlation vs causation things. Check out the excellent collection kept by Tyler Vigen at: Spurious correlations (thanks to Dr. David Streiner for alerting us to [...]
Statisticians 10? Where are you getting your statistics?
A recent article, curiously enough in the Styles section of the New York Times, had the title: Statisticians 10, Poets 0. The article was about the growing number of numbers reported to “us” (an undefined population, but apparently we all use apps and watch cable TV). Poets 0 refers to the paucity of poetry. With [...]
Graphing advice
How to Make Truly Terrible Graphs: A Tutorial David L. Streiner, special guest contributor and co-author of excellent statistics texts Part 1 – Introduction In 1968, when I was writing up my doctoral thesis, I needed to make some graphs showing how the different groups changed over time under various conditions. There were no [...]
Birth of the Blog
