The reverb10 prompt for today was to sum up 2010 in one word. It reminded me of a kid I used to play with. Her name was Star, her sister’s name was Secret and her brother’s name was Arrow. She said that, after each birth, her mom opened the dictionary at random and whatever word…
I was reading this article in the Wall Street Journal on SAS software and CEO Jim Goodnight said, “We’re producing so many new products. [They’re all] in the funnel and we’ve got to get them in production and it’s taking us longer to get them out the door…. A lot of the problems are testing…
I went to the Western Users of SAS Software (WUSS) conference a couple of weeks ago. One of the great benefits of this conference, more than most others, is the extent to which you see new people discussing new ideas. What WUSS is not For both statistical software and academics, I have found a diminishing…
Hello, world – It’s me, on my soapbox again. The latest straw was a discussion of articles in Science which have been the subject of retraction or “expression of concern”. According to Retraction Watch there are between 30 and 95 retractions each year. The ones you hear about are usually in medicine and the “hard”…
Unstructured data is to the usual database as Toontown is to Irvine Ranch (or Diamond Bar or Porter Ranch or any other white bread community that has two names, six types of floor plans and where half the children are named Buffy, Jessica, Jason or Justin – you know who you are). If one were…
If you are not at WUSS you missed world-famous statistician Stanley Azen SINGING the conclusion of his keynote accompanied by an original score on the piano that he had written himself , thus setting an impossible standard for any other presenter to top. My only talent being judo (I was the world champion 26 years…
I received two doctoral fellowships, and, years later, a post-doctoral fellowship. My grandmother, who was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and had never been to college, was quite worried. On more than one occasion, she grilled me about what I actually did, and when I told her that I went to the library, read, and then…
My paper on data visualization next week may be the most useful thing I do this year, if I succeed in convincing my audience, that is. Fact: Statisticians have failed in a very important respect. This fact became apparent to me on a beautiful day lying on the beach in Santa Monica when it was…
My friend demanded. “Are you crazy?” (Only your real friends feel free to begin conversations this way.) “Why in the HELL are you doing five presentations at that conference? For free! Can you even tell me how many presentations you’ve done in your life? No, you can’t, can you? It’s not like it’s going to…
Statistics is definitely in. In the last month I’ve gotten three invitations to “tech events” from organizations which will remain nameless on the grounds that I may want to do business with them some time in the current century. All of them wanted to do something with statistics. And apps. And social media. And whatever…