Google Reader Feed: My Shared Items
In the days after the US midterm elections cable news outlets, radio programs, political pundits, newspapers, and activists on both sides of the ideological spectrum have exerted a great deal of blood and sweat to explain the nationwide drubbing of the Democrats. Democrats are predictably covering their behinds—conceding voter anger, but cautioning that the country [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: politics, research methodology, theory | 2 Comments »
I recently finished Diego Gambetta’s Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate. For those looking for a more academic take on signaling (particularly from a sociological point of view) it’s a great find. As I previously mentioned, Gambetta uses the extreme case of cooperation amongst criminals to tease out more general dynamics of trust, signaling, and [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: applied signaling, book review, signaling | 1 Comment »
Here are the most viewed posts during October. Remember, you can follow Signal/Noise by RSS feed, email, or by liking the the Facebook page. As always, thanks for reading! Visualizing my Social Network Visualizing the 2011 US Budget “Statistics is the New Grammar” Leveraging Social Networks in the Workplace The True Size of Africa Has revenue sharing impacted [...]
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I’ve previously mentioned the Ulysses “Seen” project on this site. As it turns out, they’ve recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise some funds. For those that are interested in supporting this project (and getting some cool stuff in return) here’s your chance: With your support, Rob Berry can draw the comic full time over [...]
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Charles Seife’s Proofiness is an accessible and entertaining look at the many ways numbers can be used (more to the point, abused) in order to win an argument. Seife spends the early part of the book outlining his typology for numerical abuses. For instance, “disestimation” is the act of taking a number too literally, understating [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: book review, data, statistics | Leave a Comment »
For those that have not read it yet, The Atlantic recently featured an article profiling Dr. John Ioannidis who has made a career out of falsifying many of the findings of medical research that guides clinical practice. Ioannidis’ research should cause us all to appreciate the various bias we may bring to our own work: [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: falsification, research methodology | 3 Comments »
A few weeks ago I wrote an initial reaction to Matt Ridley’s The Rational Optimist. Ridley’s thesis is that the key to prosperity lies in economic growth, and that economic growth is caused primarily by innovation fueled by the exchange and mating of ideas. As long as ideas are allowed to move freely they will inevitably mate, mutate, [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: book review, Economics | Leave a Comment »
Here are a few quick signaling items for your perusal. I will try to do a similar roundup each Friday if I’ve stumbled on enough items throughout the week. Enjoy! How to Signal That You Are Marrying for Love? It’s tougher than you might think. Some suggest using a pre-nuptial agreement to signal one’s love and affection [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: applied signaling, signaling | 1 Comment »
A unique anniversary is upon us. Seventy-five years ago today — Oct. 20, 1935 — the Gallup Poll published its first official release of public opinion data. Here we are three-quarters of a century later, still working to fulfill the mission laid out in that first release: providing scientific, nonpartisan assessment of American public opinion. [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: Gallup, Poll | Leave a Comment »
Great visualization via FlowingData that takes the United States, Europe, China, Japan, and India and places them within the continent of Africa to give you a better sense of the relative size of the continent. It is a great example of how relational visualization can make an impact. It also reminded me of this episode [...]
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: data visualization, relational data | Leave a Comment »
Fiction
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)
Non-fiction
The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball
Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value
The Numbers Game
Codes of the Underworld: How Criminals Communicate
Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception
The Rational Optimist
The Quiet American
How Doctors Think
The Wisdom of Whores
Switch
Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory
