by david allan van nostrand | Aug 5, 2024 | Case Study, How to tell good research from bad, Misinformation traps, Voodoo Statistics
When I was living in Trinidad and Tobago (locally abbreviated as TT), I taught interactive seminars in Human Behavior for MBAs at the University of the West Indies Graduate Business School. We met Saturday mornings because all the students were employed full-time in...
by david allan van nostrand | Feb 15, 2021 | Artificial Intelligence, Shaky Science, Voodoo Statistics
Long before automated resumé screening, a friend complained long and loud about how every time he needed to hire someone to work in the office, the phone would ring all day. Most of the applicants who called about the job were not the kind of people who had resumés or...
by david allan van nostrand | Jan 18, 2021 | Misinformation traps, Shaky Science, Voodoo Statistics
What’s the Truth About Radon Gas? Radium, a solid, is one of forty radioactive elements (uranium and plutonium are the best-known). Discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, it glows in the dark and has a half-life of 1,600 years. This means its radiation hangs...
by david allan van nostrand | Nov 23, 2020 | Using Information, Voodoo Statistics
Ask Americans to name the first soft drink that comes to mind, and most say Coca-Cola. Ask Americans what company they think of first when they think about auto insurance, and you’ll get many different answers (Allstate, Farmer’s, Geico, Liberty Mutual,...
by david allan van nostrand | Jun 15, 2020 | Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Voodoo Statistics
Lee Lantz was a seafood merchant who found a mild and flaky fish that tasted great. Its name, Patgonian Toothfish, was as unappetizing as its looks. It was an ugly human-sized fish with a mouthful of menacing teeth. He couldn’t change its appearance, so he made up a...
by david allan van nostrand | Dec 30, 2019 | Unintended Consequences, Voodoo Statistics
Pauline Esther Phillips was an American advice columnist who answered letters subscribers wrote to the San Francisco Chronicle. Her byline was Abigail Van Buren. Writing gossip columns was her job, and she knew almost as much about statistics as the nail technicians...
