Feb 172019
Apr 262013
Today is clearly a day for statistical songs (are there any other days?), so here are some links to get you started.
To kick of the stat song roundup, here are some … interesting insights into the culture that is biostatics, complete with some remarkably dreadful audio material.
Obviously, you tube has a whole channel devoted to statistical songs, featuring, inter alia, Michael Greenacre, of Correspondence Analysis fame. To the true connoisseur, it might appear a bit overproduced, but this little gem on Single Value Decomposition is very neat.
It had to be U – the SVD song
For the Structural Equation Modelling buffs, nothing compares to Alan Reifman’s annual reprise of “SEM – the Musical”.
But for the purists, there is only one thing, something that I have watched with awe (and slowly building shock) growing beyond all expectations. The conspiracy against Frequentism have their very own book of Bayesian praise, complete with LaTex source, now compromising 40-odd songs including some “previously lost classic songs”, including “Bayesians in the night” (two versions, actually).
Mar 132013
Put 600 Political Scientists into a blizzard, and before you know, they start tweeting about the snow, coffee, and the occasional presentation. Here is the updated I know that blogging is a wee bit monothematic at the moment, and frankly, I could not care less. So here are some pictures of Jasmin’s lair, which by now contains roughly 700 conference bags (to be stuffed from tomorrow), several dozen books, lots of other paperwork, the ECPR flag and a small British tea kettle, complete with UK plug and a set of adaptors. The latter items arrived today in that Dalek-like black box in the middle. Seriously. In other news, it was a beautiful bright and sunny day in Mainz (more webcams here). We hope the weather stays this fine. If not, there is always that workshop on climate change 2.0. Pat Thomson – drawing on work by Noel Gough – likens epistemological positions to crime-novel heroes. Turns out I’m a positivist (or post-positivist? why post-?) Sherlock, though I would rather be a Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe (guess their epistemological vantage point). They are way cooler, and I’d prefer the Bourbon over the morphine. What kind of detective are you? Every sentient and internet enabled being in the Western world has by now noticed that Amazon’s “customers who bought this item” algorithm is one of the most successful exercises in machine learning. Like various algorithms used by Google, it is oftentimes accurate as well as slightly frightening. A friend of mine (who is an engineer) told me that he bought an administrator’s guide to Cisco routers. Amazon concluded that he might also be interested in “Cooking for one”. I, on the other hand, recently browsed the excellent Cambridge “Dictionary of Statistics” and also had a look at “All of Statistics” (preposterous title, but an interesting book – incidentally, it tries to convey statistical basics to engineers interested in machine learning). Amazon suggested to round off my order with – drum roll – “Fifty Shades of Grey”. I’m sure my students would agree that there is an intimate link between these three titles. I could drone on about neo-Gramscian approaches to Social Media, but lets be frank: The English Disco Lovers’ attempt to displace the (so far) slightly better known English Defence League from google’s number one spot is part tongue-in-cheek, part plain silly. Then again, they post silly stuff and run competitions. If you take that as an endorsement, why not like them on Facebook, follow them on twitter, or blog/tumble about them? The polity project’s country code for Israel is … Continue reading »Mar 042013
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Dec 292012
Via Ben Stanley, the most reliable source of educative nonsense I can think of.Nov 262012Apr 282011