Spring-cleaning in a statistician’s office

There must be some hallucinogenic drug given off by spring flowers, because it is the one time in the year when I am struck by the irrational thought,

“Maybe I should clean my office.”

Like any other spring cleaning undertaking, random things are uncovered that make me think,

“Huh. I wonder what that was for.”

Here, for your entertainment, are a list of random things found under, in and around various crevices. I think several of these were notes for a blog post I was thinking about writing and never did, probably because my notes fell behind the couch and lay there until covered with dust.

• Sticky note:  Wald = Z-squared  (always good to be reminded)
• Another note: According to Agresti & Finlay, the likelihood ratio test is more powerful than the Wald test for small samples.
• A scribbled note on conditional probabilities of  death calculable using logistic regression results
• Another note: Logistic regression – interpreting confidence intervals….  for Exp(B) < 1 it means that, for example, if Hispanic = 1 and non-Hispanic = 0 then and CI = .20 – .86 then the event is LESS likely to occur for Hispanics. If it is 3.41 – 35.93 then the event is MORE likely to occur for Hispanics.

{Gee, I hope the event is something good, like getting Easter lilies delivered.}

• Flowchart of my first draft of the project we are working on now, with a lot of scribbling on it and half the boxes scratched out.
• Stack of SPSS output from a completed project
• Stack of SAS output from another completed project
• Dividend check for $3.68 from 2007
• Receipt for purchase of my office guinea pig. Upon reflection, I conclude that, even though the guinea pig cage is in my office and should therefore technically count as office furniture, there is no way our accountant will allow this as a business expense and throw the receipt away.
• Ugly Dolls Watch
• Flowchart I wrote a month ago for part of project I am working on now ….

… this is the point where I got distracted because we really are in start up mode and I am so excited about our new project I am working on it pretty much non-stop …. guess the cleaning will have to wait.

I still think I ought to be able to deduct the guinea pig.