Category Archives: Mathematics

I Am Still the Punditiest Pundit EVAH!: The First Derivative Edition

Posted on November 11, 2011 by

Back when the Obama Administration was blabbering on about “green shoots”, the forefather of the confidence fairy, I repeatedly bemoaned the confusion between the change in unemployment or other economic indicators (the first derivative) versus the number of people actually … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Mathematics | 3 Comments

Meet the New New Math, Same As the Old New Math? What We Can Learn from Finland

Posted on August 31, 2011 by

Do we need an applied ‘constructivist’ curriculum for math?
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Posted in Education, Mathematics | 2 Comments

About the Gallup LGBT Estimation Poll, We Can Conclude That Many Americans…

Posted on June 2, 2011 by

…don’t understand fractions.
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Posted in Mathematics, Polling | 7 Comments

Value-Added Teacher Testing Is Very Precise: You Did Poorly With a Confidence Interval of Abyssmal to ‘We’ll Grant You Tenure’

Posted on March 15, 2011 by

The method works great, except that it can’t tell if you’re succeeding or failing.
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Posted in Education, Mathematics, News Media, Statistics | 12 Comments

Welcome to a New Science Blogging Collective: Scientopia

Posted on August 2, 2010 by

There’s a new science blogging collective in town: Scientopia.
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Posted in Bloggity Blog, Mathematics

Defense Spending and Propagandizing the Second Derivative

Posted on July 25, 2010 by

Two very similar activities, except one is a spending increase and the other is a spending cut.
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Posted in Funding, Mathematics, Military | 2 Comments

‘Counterintuition’, the Human Microbiome, and Why Fluency in Math Matters

Posted on July 21, 2010 by

Probability theory shouldn’t be counterintuitive.
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Posted in Mathematics, Microbiome | 7 Comments

The Economic Tyranny of Double Entry Accounting

Posted on May 17, 2010 by

It is impossible for the government and the entire private sector to both run surpluses. This isn’t political theory or ideology, it’s arithmetic.
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Posted in Economics, Management, Mathematics | 5 Comments

Sunday Sermon: “Statistics is the new grammar”

Posted on May 2, 2010 by

Training people how to approach data from a statistical perspective–and also how to recognize the limitations of the data and analyses–is vital in a (putatively) data-driven society.
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Posted in Education, Mathematics, Statistics | 8 Comments

Nonoptimality in Viral Evolution and Economics

Posted on February 11, 2010 by

Assuming optimality isn’t a bad thing as a theoretical exercise. But when you’re either trying to predict the likelihood that something specific will happen or explain why something did happen, assumptions are very important.
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Posted in Economics, Evolution, Influenza, Mathematics, Viruses | 1 Comment