Here's the (pretty abhorrent) front cover of yesterday's Sun newspaper. Bearing in mind that several recent terrorist atrocities are top of everyone's mind at the moment, it's clear what the Sun is implying here. The text on the front page is even more overt: Nearly one in five British Muslims have some sympathy with those who have fled … Continue reading The Sun and its dangerous misuse of statistics
Category: In the news
The persuasiveness of dataviz
The intrinsic power of the the chart is highlighted nicely in a recent Harvard Business Review post. In an experiment (*), Aner Tal et al. had a couple of groups read about a new medication that supposedly reduced the incidence of illness by 40%. This was clearly stated in the text the readers were given. … Continue reading The persuasiveness of dataviz
More data is not always better data
Like a lot of data-fans, I have something of a tendency to "collect" data just in case it will become useful one day. Vendors are feeding that addiction with constant talk of swimming through blissful "data lakes" and related tools, notably Hadoop and its brethren. Furthermore, as the production of data grows exponentially, the cost … Continue reading More data is not always better data
Future features coming to Tableau 9.2 and beyond
Having been lucky enough to attend the huge (*) Tableau #data15 conference a couple of weeks ago - and by now managed to recover mostly - I have noted down some information from the keynote presentation and beyond of what features are likely to appear in nearby versions of Tableau. Any errors are of course of my own doing...it … Continue reading Future features coming to Tableau 9.2 and beyond
Tableau software is now free for eligible non-profit organisations and educators
Heart-warming news for non-profits who want to save the world via data analysis from Tableau via PRNewsWire: Tableau Foundation, part of Tableau Software's (NYSE: DATA) corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, announced today that it will offer free licenses of Tableau Desktop to nonprofit organizations Qualification criteria is currently listed by Tableau as follows: Be registered as a 501(c)(3) organization … Continue reading Tableau software is now free for eligible non-profit organisations and educators
When is it safe to stop watching the match?
Despite the Harvard Business Review's insistence that data analyst is the sexiest job of the 21st century, ask a non-quant about popular references to data analyssis and you are quite likely to hear some reference to Moneyball (be that book or film). Spoiler alert: "sabermetric" data analysis enabled a baseball team with less money to … Continue reading When is it safe to stop watching the match?
From restaurant-snobbery to racism: some perils of data-driven decision-making
Wired recently wrote a piece explaining how now OpenTable, a leading "reserve a restuarant over the internet" service, was starting to permit customers to pay for their meal via an app at their leisure, rather than flag down a waiter and awkwardly fiddle around with credit cards. There's an obvious convenience to this for the … Continue reading From restaurant-snobbery to racism: some perils of data-driven decision-making
Stephen Few’s new book “Signal” is out
Stephen Few's latest, "Signal: Understanding what matters in a world of noise" has just been released - or at least it has in the US, seems to be stuck on pre-order on Amazon UK at present. Not many reviews seem to be floating around just yet, but the topic is ultra-fascinating: In this age of so-called Big … Continue reading Stephen Few’s new book “Signal” is out
Data science vs rude Lego
Data science moves onwards each day, helping (perhaps) solve more and more of the world's problems. But apparently there's at least one issue for which we don't have a great machine-learning/AI solution for just yet - identifying penises made out of Lego. Indeed this is apparently the problem that plagued the potential-Minecraft-beater "Lego Universe" nearly … Continue reading Data science vs rude Lego
UK election 2015: Who actually voted for the Conservative party?
Here in the UK we just had our general election, electing the government who will rule over us for the next 5 years. The results - a Conservative majority - were something of a surprise to most people, myself included. I'm sure I won't be able to hide my leanings for long, so to be clear, … Continue reading UK election 2015: Who actually voted for the Conservative party?
Dabbling with Data 