One of the things I liked about the book The Tyranny of Numbers, was what the author called its historical interludes. These were chapters about historical figures relevant to the development of counting and statistics. These reminded me very much of some of Stephen Jay Gould’s essays on historical figures (mostly scientists) in the way […]
Entries Tagged as 'Maths'
Herceptin again
June 2nd, 2006 · Comments Off on Herceptin again · Life
On the back page of today’s Guardian G2 supplement, Gavyn Davies has slightly different numbers to those I was using, but he seems to come to roughly the same conclusions, albeit without a conspiracy theory about drugs companies tacked on the end…
Tags: Maths·Medicine/Health·Newspapers
Herceptin
May 31st, 2006 · 1 Comment · Life
There was an interesting article on the BBC website today about the use of statistics – a subject which has always interested me. It talks about shampoo and obesity figures, but ends up on the topic of Herceptin. I am not a scientist and I am not a doctor, but for a while I have […]
Tags: Maths·Medicine/Health·NHS·Statistics
Council tax maths tricks
April 4th, 2006 · 1 Comment · Politics
I really am full of admiration for the Tories’ latest leaflet, and for two main reasons. The first reason is trivial, but means a lot to me. The latest one actually followed basic design principles. Normally they get carried away with fonts and have so many different ones that it gives the impression of a […]
The pink pound
January 24th, 2006 · Comments Off on The pink pound · Life
If it is in the Guardian it must be true. Or must it? Unlikely as it might seem, gay men and women apparently earn £10,000 more than straight men and women. It does not fit in with most gays and lesbians I know. A lot have had more disposable income through having double-income households and […]
Penniless footballers?
January 9th, 2006 · Comments Off on Penniless footballers? · Politics
I had to laugh a bit at the latest attempt to persuade us that taxes in Britain need to come down – but only for the better-off of course. This time it is a story about how our ‘draconian’ tax laws are keeping top footballers away from the UK. Is this an attempt to get […]
Abortion and crime
October 1st, 2005 · Comments Off on Abortion and crime · Life
There was a story in today’s paper, which Elephunt has already commented on, that really grabbed my attention. At least the headline did, but then it turned out to be a bit of a non-story. Apparently someone called William Bennet, who used to be in the Reagan administration but now has a radio show, said […]
Tags: Books·Crime/ASB·Maths·Quotes·Statistics
I love statistics
September 13th, 2005 · Comments Off on I love statistics · Life, Technology
Sometimes statistics bring out the inner nerd in me. I can spend hours on Football365 looking at the various ways they slice the data to present Crawley Town’s position in the Conference league, let alone the Hammers’ Premiership performances. Some of my happiest times at work have been when I was faced with masses of […]
Tags: Football·Internet·Maths·Statistics
Intelligent Design
September 9th, 2005 · Comments Off on Intelligent Design · Life
Last week’s Guardian had an article by Richard Dawkins and Jerry Coyne refuting any suggestion that ‘Intelligent Design’ deserves to be taught in schools alongside Darwinian evolution. It was obviously a heart-felt piece, but while I totally agree with the thrust of the argument I have to say that I found a follow-up article this […]
Stephen Jay Gould
August 9th, 2005 · Comments Off on Stephen Jay Gould · Life
I really do need to thank Tom Hamilton for this post which contains a link to this essay by Stephen Jay Gould I know its a bit of a nerdish thing to admit, but I’ve been a fan of Gould’s for a long time, and half a dozen of his collections of essays have pride […]
Tags: Books·Evolution·Heroes·Maths·Medicine/Health·Statistics
