Re: errors in journal articles
Joel Best is a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware. This essay is excerpted from _Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers From the Media, Politicians, and Activists_, just published by the University of California Press Telling the Truth About Damned Lies and Statistics By JOEL BEST The dissertation prospectus began by quoting a statistic -- a "grabber" meant to capture the reader's attention. The graduate student who wrote this prospectus undoubtedly wanted to seem scholarly to the professors who would read it; they would be supervising the proposed research. And what could be more scholarly than a nice, authoritative statistic, quoted from a professional journal in the student's field? So the prospectus began with this (carefully footnoted) quotation: "Every year since 1950, the number of American children gunned down has doubled." I had been invited to serve on the student's dissertation committee. When I read the quotation, I assumed the student had made an error in copying it. I went to the library and looked up the article the student had cited. There, in the journal's 1995 volume, was exactly the same sentence: "Every year since 1950, the number of American children gunned down has doubled." This quotation is my nomination for a dubious distinction: I think it may be the worst -- that is, the most inaccurate -- social statistic ever. Full text: http://chronicle.com/free/v47/i34/34b00701.htm -- Warren S. Sarle SAS Institute Inc. The opinions expressed here [EMAIL PROTECTED]SAS Campus Drive are mine and not necessarily (919) 677-8000Cary, NC 27513, USA those of SAS Institute. = Instructions for joining and leaving this list and remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES are available at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ =
Re: Patenting a statistical innovation
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Paige Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > If it so happens that while I am in the employ of a certain company, I > invent some new algorithm, then my company has a vested interest in > making sure that the algorithm remains its property and that no one > else uses it, especially a competitor. That would be perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately, patent law doesn't work that way. You cannot patent an algorithm per se. But anybody can patent applications of the algorithm that you invented. You could end up having to pay royalties to somebody else for using your own algorithm. The law is insane. -- Warren S. Sarle SAS Institute Inc. The opinions expressed here [EMAIL PROTECTED]SAS Campus Drive are mine and not necessarily (919) 677-8000Cary, NC 27513, USA those of SAS Institute. = Instructions for joining and leaving this list and remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES are available at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ =
Re: Levels of measurement.
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Paul W. Jeffries) writes: > ... > The textbooks say that a ratio scale has the properties of an interval > scale plus a true zero point. This implies that any scale that has a true > zero point should have the cardinal property of an interval scale; namely, > equal intervals represent equal amounts of the property being measured. No, you've reversed the direction of the implication. > But isn't it possible to have a scale that has a true zero point but on > which equal intervals do not always represent the same magnitude of the > property? Income measured in dollars has a true zero point; zero dollars > is the absence of income. Yet, an increase in income from say 18,000 to > 19,000 is not the same as an increase in 1,000,000 to 1,001,000. At the > low end of the income scale an increase of a thousand dollars is a greater > increase in income than a thousand dollar increase at the high end of the > scale. See the discussion of log-interval scales in ftp://ftp.sas.com/pub/neural/measurement.html -- Warren S. Sarle SAS Institute Inc. The opinions expressed here [EMAIL PROTECTED]SAS Campus Drive are mine and not necessarily (919) 677-8000Cary, NC 27513, USA those of SAS Institute. = Instructions for joining and leaving this list and remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES are available at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ =
