May 12, 2014
Stat of the Week Competition: May 10 – 16 2014
Each week, we would like to invite readers of Stats Chat to submit nominations for our Stat of the Week competition and be in with the chance to win an iTunes voucher.
Here’s how it works:
- Anyone may add a comment on this post to nominate their Stat of the Week candidate before midday Friday May 16 2014.
- Statistics can be bad, exemplary or fascinating.
- The statistic must be in the NZ media during the period of May 10 – 16 2014 inclusive.
- Quote the statistic, when and where it was published and tell us why it should be our Stat of the Week.
Next Monday at midday we’ll announce the winner of this week’s Stat of the Week competition, and start a new one.
The fine print:
- Judging will be conducted by the blog moderator in liaison with staff at the Department of Statistics, The University of Auckland.
- The judges’ decision will be final.
- The judges can decide not to award a prize if they do not believe a suitable statistic has been posted in the preceeding week.
- Only the first nomination of any individual example of a statistic used in the NZ media will qualify for the competition.
- Individual posts on Stats Chat are just the opinions of their authors, who can criticise anyone who they feel deserves it, but the Stat of the Week award involves the Department of Statistics more officially. For that reason, we will not award Stat of the Week for a statistic coming from anyone at the University of Auckland outside the Statistics department. You can still nominate and discuss them, but the nomination won’t be eligible for the prize.
- Employees (other than student employees) of the Statistics department at the University of Auckland are not eligible to win.
- The person posting the winning entry will receive a $20 iTunes voucher.
- The blog moderator will contact the winner via their notified email address and advise the details of the $20 iTunes voucher to that same email address.
- The competition will commence Monday 8 August 2011 and continue until cancellation is notified on the blog.
Rachel Cunliffe is the co-director of CensusAtSchool and currently consults for the Department of Statistics. Her interests include statistical literacy, social media and blogging. See all posts by Rachel Cunliffe »
Statistic: Nearly 100% of Rabbits, Rats and Mice die
Source: NZ herald
Date: Tuesday may 13th
While I don’t wish to get into an argument about the ethics of scientific research involving animals. (Having done a number of psych courses using pigeons and also looking back at some of the horrific experiments that used to be conducted.)
I do love a good info-graphic, they are often a very nice and efficient way of presenting lots of interesting data in an easily digestible way.
In this case despite having a very emotive presentation none of the statistics are cited so we have no idea where they came from and if they are true.
And then there is the beautiful statistic that “Nearly 100% of Rabbits, Rats and Mice die”. Which is (I hope) a understatement and that no-one has gone and created a species of immortal rodents.
10 years ago
Statistic: “Nearly two out of five Australians admitted, or at least claimed, to have had sex in the office, while only one in seven New Zealanders owned up to having an in-office fling.
Source: Dominon Post
Date: 14 May 2014
I’ve put in a link to the press release on scoop, because I can’t (yet) find the item online for the Dominion Post or Stuff. Perhaps that’s just as well.
The article on page 3 of the Dominion Post is based on a press release from a dating website “Elite Singles” which seems primarily aimed at self-publicity.
They “polled 115 single people in Australia in New Zealand”. This is a very small number, with no indication of how the sample was chosen. Then they go on to draw numerous statistical conclusions which would have little truth about them for the general population.
10 years ago
Statistic: More than 90 per cent of rental properties in a nationwide survey have failed a ”warrant of fitness” (WOF) check
Source: The Press
Date: 15 May 2014
The statistic doesn’t mean much without explaining how the sample was selected, which neither The Press or the NZ Herald did.
Reading the actual report (http://static.stuff.co.nz/files/Rental-Housing-WOF.pdf) the properties were selected by councils and the report notes “the sample of houses was not randomly selected, so while it can give a good indication of the perceived acceptability and utility of the Rental Housing WOF, it cannot be generalised to all the landlords and tenants in New Zealand”.
10 years ago
Statistic: Council staff said the national “legal high” market was estimated at $140 million a year before the ban and each shop was selling an average of $40,000 to $80,000 worth a week
Source: NZ Herald
Date: 15 May 2014
If this was right it’d suggest the number of outlets is between 34 and 67. In reality the number has fallen from around 4000 to just over 150 (http://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=11242242). So a) the figures are wrong, and b) in a situation where the number of outlets is falling so fast they would be meaningless even if accurate.
10 years ago