August Café Scientifique
Journalists are trained to be suspicious and questioning when people try to feed them stories. They typically aren't trained on statistics, which makes dodgy numbers a good strategy for getting stuff into print. The main issues that we target in StatsChat are bogus polls, failure to divide one number by another, and lack of context, and I will give some examples. Things do seem to be improving, at least in the 'news' parts of the newspapers.
About Thomas Lumley
Thomas Lumley is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland, and a major contributor to the StatsChat blog. He works on genetics, semiparametric statistics, statistical computing, and the statistical problems encountered by his co-workers in heart disease epidemiology.
Join the discussion
Each month we organise a facilitated discussion in the downstairs lounge bar at the Horse and Trap.
As always we suggest you arrive early to order food and drinks and secure a seat before the discussion begins at 6.30pm, Horse and Trap, 3 Enfield Street, Mt Eden.
Please note we will be providing a Koha basket on the night and your donation, no matter how big or small, is most welcome.
Please visit the the Horse and Trap website for more information about the venue and how to find your way there.