Tag: fun

Trump, Blair, Shaggy: It wasn’t me

by
Trump, Blair, Shaggy: It wasn't me 1

This morning, I came across an outrageously funny a moderately amusing video involving Shaggy’s early 2000s classic, some seriously revamped lyrics, and the man himself (btw, is this blond-hairing an act of cultural appropriation?). Cheap laughs, and the almost heart-warming idea that the FBI could end this, and everything would go back to normal. And…

Statistical Songs Roundup

by

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, youtube has a whole channel devoted…

Joint Sessions 2013: Some Pictures and a Dalek

by

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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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.

What Kind of Detective are you, method-wise?

by

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?

Random Fun Fact of the Day: Machine Learning and Statistics

by

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.