Truth Claim of the Day

The work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics.

Please, discuss. The context is found in the comments here, in a quote from Michael Crichton.

Truth Claim of the Day

"The list is the origin of culture. It's part of the history of art and literature. What does culture want? To make infinity comprehensible. It also wants to create order -- not always, but often. And how, as a human being, does one face infinity? How does one attempt to grasp the incomprehensible? Through lists, through catalogs, through collections in museums and through encyclopedias and dictionaries.
"The list doesn't destroy culture; it creates it."

Please, discuss. The context is found here. Via Marginal Revolution.

Tip: Don't Do This (video)

I'd like to start out by saying I think the Bugatti Veyron is the coolest car in existence. I saw a program once in which a Veyron raced a helicopter from Italy to London... and won!

With that in mind, I would like to encourage you readers, if you ever happen to be driving one, not to do what this guy did (WARNING: some language in video):



I think this calls for a new series on this blog: Full of Fail.

How to Deceive with Statistics

Nightly News Slight-of-Hand Edition

If your goal is to get people nervous about something specific like Swine Flu, one of the most effective ways to do it is to talk about how scientists have been attempting to identify how many people have been affected by it, then start quoting some statistics about how many people have been affected by any and all diseases:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Now, even if the statistics are actually reporting about those suffering from flu-like symptoms, they're still palming the actual swine flu card and playing something different. Boo, NBC Nightly News. Boo.

In other news, sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I've been trying to help out with my daughter more. I've also been developing my dissertation and doing some curriculum development for a couple distance learning courses. So that hasn't left much time for blogging. The curriculum development is almost done now, so I'm hoping to be back to a more regular schedule soon. I've got a few more posts scheduled for the next couple of weeks, so hopefully that will last until I can put things up more regularly.

How to Deceive with Statistics

Really Obviously Lying edition

Dear Ivy League Schools,

It makes sense that you want to fudge on the proportion of full-time faculty in order to improve your rankings. It also makes sense that you don't want to pay huge fines for reporting false numbers to the government.

What doesn't make sense is expecting that you can successfully satisfy both of these desires. Perhaps none of your administration has taken introductory economics, so let me give you taste: Human beings face constraints. We have many desires, but cannot satisfy all of them. This is what creates the thing we call choice. Your choice was look good to US New & World Report or look honest to US Department of Education. If you try to do both, you'll accomplish neither.

If you're going to report conflicting numbers, make sure at least one set is not publicly available.