May 21, 2015

Briefly

  • Sometimes people with an axe to grind are right. In this case the people who cast aspersions on the leading data-based research opposing same-sex parenting. The closer they look at the data, the less convincing it is. (NY Magazine, new research paper) “The reanalysis illustrates the importance of methodological decisions in research”
  • A study of spreadsheets in their natural habitat: blog post, paper by Felienne Harmans
  • Facetted barcharts and fluctuation diagrams, from Di Cook. The data describes the responses of couples on questions about their sex life.
  • Looking at scientists giving advice on politically controversial topics: a case study of badger culling in the UK by Helen Briggs. “The badgers moved the goalposts”
  • From the New Zealand conference ‘Going Public,’ on the same topic, a post by Dr SM Morgan , who works on health literacy. “Find something complementary to say about a scientific colleague’s scicomm efforts and imagine saying it out loud to their face.”
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Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »