The other day I needed to have a job run daily. My two efforts at solving this problem failed. These were: 1. Ask the six people hanging around for no particular reason how to do it. All vaguely remembered learning that at some point and had forgotten specifically how to do it. 2. Using Google…
I have long suspected that the main role of other people on this earth is to annoy me. Take FIPS codes. FIPS stands for “Federal Information Processing Standard”. Does no one know the meaning of the word “standard” ? A FIPS code is a useful thing. For counties it is a FIVE digit code. Got…
Normally, things are very quiet in the De Mars household. Being out-numbered by daughters, two to one, my husband and I feel as if we need to maintain a united front against the younger generation. Last night, however, he irritated me. This was unfortunate because this is the man who, when we were dating, was…
My Republican friends, of which I have none, are really not going to like these results. The findings from my latest analysis are not entirely unexpected. Several years ago I attended a bilingual education conference where the keynote speaker was a middle-aged, white, male demographer from Texas. Yes, I was thinking exactly the same as…
Grown-ups lie to kids. I have discovered this. When I was young, my mom did not have a lot of money, and so things like trips to Disneyland, when they occurred at all, were on an extremely tight budget. No buying candy, souvenirs or extras. I swore that when I grew up, went to graduate…
In trying to decide what courses to teach, it is not as simple as looking at what products are used the most because, to some extent, we are looking at the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy. No one calls up and tries to order a product or schedule a class for something that they don’t…
I knew it! I am finally getting some time to finish reading The Black Swan and I came across this statement, “Makridakis and Hibon reached the sad conclusion that ‘statistically sophisticated or complex methods do not necessarily provide more accurate forecasts than simpler ones’. ” I have thought this for years. Like most of my…
A few days ago I gave an example of multiple imputation but I glossed over a number of things, which is fine when you are just getting into a topic, or when the mad scientist part of your personality has taken over, but seriously now … Our story continues … when last seen, our data…
(Or: Why a computer will not be replacing me any time soon) [Originally, the second half of this was supposed to be an explanation of the real use of multiple imputation which is in estimating parameters but then my daughter came to pick me up early and I got the flu so I am now…
Of course I am most grateful for my family. As daughter number two, a.k. a. , “The Perfect Jennifer”, commented yesterday, “This is the only family I know where everyone in the family actually talks to one another.” It’s true we don’t have any made-for-TV movie problems. No one is in rehab, no divorces, incarcerations,…