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  • 1.  Understanding Data (according to The Economist)

    Posted 08-08-2020 17:02
    In the latest issue of The Economist (August 1st), in the section Books and Arts (Page 67) there is a book report about a book with a somewhat unorthodox title (Calling B*llSh*t: The Art of Scepticism in a Data-Driven World) by Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West (Random House; $30). Authors seem to be faculty at the University of Washington. The Economist report talks about examples where data is mishandled big-time, discussing the differences between correlation and causation, etc. I have not read the book (only the report). But it reminded me of "How to lie with statistics", which I used to assign as student reading, the first day of class. Since we are always looking for data sets, I thought this info would be of interest.

    Keep safe/jorge.

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    Jorge L. Romeu
    Emeritus SUNY Faculty
    Adjunct Professor, Syracuse U.
    https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jorge_Romeu
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  • 2.  RE: Understanding Data (according to The Economist)

    Posted 08-10-2020 08:06
    Speaking of reviews of the book, Eric-Jan Wagenmakers writes the following in Nature (doi: 10.1038/d41586-020-02280-x): "Informative and never boring, this labour of love lays bare a cornucopia of selection biases, misleading data visualizations, machine-learning mishaps and more. ... Yet there are missed opportunities. ... All that said, this book will train readers to be statistically savvy ... ." He describes the authors: "Bergstrom is an evolutionary biologist, West a data scientist. In 2007, they founded the Eigenfactor Project to map the influence of journals, papers and authors. A decade later, they developed a course in spotting quantitative chicanery. ... Calling [BS] is a version of that course ... ."

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    David Kaye
    Distinguished Professor Emeritus
    The Pennsylvania State University
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Understanding Data (according to The Economist)

    Posted 08-10-2020 12:38
    I learned about Carl Bergstrom when he was interviewed by Chris Hayes on his podcast "Why Is This Happening?" a few months ago. Bergstrom is a Twitter star, and I've enjoyed following his takes on the COVID-19 pandemic since then. I ordered the book when it was released, and hope to have my copy soon.

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    Steven Snapinn
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    Original Message


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