Monthly Archives: March 2011

Ten Tactics used in the War on Error

Scientists and other theory-driven data analysts focus on eliminating bias and maximizing accuracy so they can find trends and patterns in their data. That’s necessary for any type of data analysis. For statisticians, though, the real enemy in the battle … Continue reading

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It’s All Relative

It’s easy to quote someone out of context to impart a false impression. A movie critic might write a review saying, “This film is a delight compared to a colonoscopy” only to be quoted as saying, “This film is a … Continue reading

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Becoming Part of the Group

Imagine looking for patterns in a scatter plot of two variables. You see no linear trends, no curvilinear trends, and no cyclic or sinusoidal trends. Does that mean there are no associations between the variables? Maybe not. Most people think … Continue reading

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The Data Dozen

Data can take a variety of forms. Some are readily amenable to statistical analysis and some are better suited to other methods of analysis. When you’re trying to solve some problem or research question, though, you need to use whatever … Continue reading

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