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.

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).

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

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

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. 

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.

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.

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

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

(cross posted from daily Kos)

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