Politicians all too often use monthly jobs numbers to infer that the other mob is doing a bad job or that they are doing a great job at managing the economy. But that’s a flawed use of the data.
It’s time to look more closely at poverty statistics.
David McNew/REUTERS
The gerrymandered district has been part of the US political landscape for two centuries. Impartial math suggests several methods for drawing fair, competitive congressional districts.
A little mathematics reveals whether the government really did ‘play god’ with the Vietnam draft, as suggested by former deputy Prime Minister Tim Fisher.
Television is not like it used to be, but it’s difficult to find accurate data on how it’s changing.
flash.pro/Flickr
With free-to-air, pay TV, catch-up services and video-on-demand, television is changing in Australia, and the viewership metrics are struggling to keep up.
The real game gets filtered by the imaginary.
OlegDoroshin / Shutterstock.com
Statistics are valuable tools for researchers - but may not be as reliable as we think. New research suggests the widely-used P value is inappropriate.
Australia’s census covers a wide range of topics, including some that are very infrequently covered by other surveys.
AAP/Dean Lewins
If reports are to be believed, both the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) and the federal government are strongly considering moving from a five-year to a ten-year census cycle. This move has been…
Adjusted data from Australian weather stations has been peer-reviewed before. But the government’s new technical panel could still offer useful advice.
Bidgee/Wikimedia Commons
The federal government’s new “Technical Advisory Forum” on weather data, announced by parliamentary environment secretary Bob Baldwin last week, will “review and provide advice on Australia’s official…
Plum. But would it matter who the umpire was?
Martin Rickett/PA Archive
They may be the arbiters of the world’s most gentlemanly sport, but cricket umpires provided by the home team are still more likely to be biased than neutral umpires, according to a new study that analysed…
Taking the fight to Ebola.
European Commission DG ECHO
The Ebola crisis brings into sharp contrast the importance of appropriate regulation for trials of new drugs. The “gold standard” in clinical research is the randomised trial, but the reliance on one particular…
Oh no – not that mistake again.
Flickr/Alex Proimos
UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH: What do we actually mean by research and how does it help inform our understanding of things? Understanding what’s being said in any new research can be challenging and there are…
An example of unidirectional cause and effect: bad weather means umbrella sales rise, but buying umbrellas won’t make it rain.
Mariusz Olszewski/Flickr
UNDERSTANDING RESEARCH: What do we actually mean by research and how does it help inform our understanding of things? Today we look at the dangers of making a link between unrelated results. Here’s an…
The 2014 World Cup has been celebrated for the number of exciting, high-scoring matches it’s given us. It started with four goals in the opening game as Brazil defeated Croatia 3-1. Then, who could forget…
Professor, Future Fellow and Head of Statistics at UNSW, and a Deputy Director of the Australian Centre of Excellence in Mathematical and Statistical Frontiers (ACEMS), UNSW Sydney