University and college classes start today for one of the most cash-strapped, debt-burdened, under-employed cohorts of post-secondary students this country has ever seen.[1] But that’s not the story. Instead, on the radio, in the newspaper, online and among many university instructors, the focus is on “entitled” students, “coddled” first-years, and
Continue readingTag: statistics
elementalpresent: “Gotta Spend Money to Make Money”… or is it “Make Money to Save Money?”
“Young people want to retire early and spend, too”. That’s the main finding of a survey commissioned by the Bank of Montreal, released today in newspapers across the country. The coverage of the survey report is problematic on its own. For instance, although 1000 Canadians aged 18 and over were
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Statistics Canada: Crime rate reached its lowest level in 40 years in 2011
The evidence on the crime rate in Canada is out! Statistics Canada reported yesterday that rate of crimes reported to Canadian police forces across the country reached its lowest level last year. The incidents of serious crimes also dropped. By six per cent. That’s for most offences, including attempted murders,
Continue readingelementalpresent: How to Eliminate Tuition Fees (and do it right)
Quebec student group CLASSE has come forward with an offer of what it would take to end their almost four-month strike: the elimination of tuition fees by 2016. The plan is based on taxing banks, starting at 0.14 per cent per cent this year, and rising to 0.7 per cent
Continue readingelementalpresent: “Twelve Going on Thirty” OR “Is the Globe and Mail the Worst Newspaper Yet?”
What do I have in common with a 12-year-old? Other than being alive, right now, in the same world, I’d like to wager ‘not a whole lot.’ Yet psychologist Jean Twenge is working on the assumption that we share a generation, and for the Globe and Mail, it just might
Continue readingTrashy's World: Year in review….
… can be found here… interesting stats. Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingDeath By Trolley: Moneyball Versus Short Hops
I recently had the privilege of reading the book and watching the movie, Moneyball. As a stat-headed baseball nerd, I thoroughly enjoyed both. For those unfamiliar with Moneyball, it is a book-turned-movie which also energized a new approach to baseball analytics under the same name. This new approach is presented in the book and movie […]
Trashy's World: Good vid that demontrates the powers of robust stats…
I particularly like the last paragraph on the BBC 4 site:
“…without statistics we are cast adrift on an ocean of confusion, but armed with stats we can take control of our lives, hold our rulers to account and see the world as it really is….
The Sir Robert Bond Papers: By the numbers – infectious syphilis rates
Inspired by a comparison of rates for infectious syphilis for Canada and for Alberta, your humble e-scribbler took a gawk at the tables from the Public Health Agency of Canada that the Globe staff used to make their tables. Alberta’s rate per 100,00…
Continue readingSlap Upside The Head: Gay Teens More Likely To Be Homeless
One in four GLBT high school students in Massachusetts are classified as homeless, according to a new study from the Children’s Hospital Boston, published in the American Journal of Public Health last week. Students who identified as GLBT accounted for only five percent of all respondents, but nineteen percent of homelessness. That’s a full 25% of the GLBT-identified sample, […]
Continue readingSlap Upside The Head: Hate Crime Reporting Improves
More and more hate crimes are being reported across the country, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In 2009, the number of hate crime reported in Canada went up by 42%, and police are optimistic. ”It’s not that the hate crimes are actually increasing,” explained Ken Smith from the Edmonton police department’s hate crimes unit. […]
Continue readingTories take lead, or statistical anomaly?
The latest EKOS poll, released to the CBC, show that the Conservatives are holding a 32.4% lead, with the Liberals at 28.9%. The NDP are holding 16.6% support, while the Green Party maintains 10.7% and the Bloc are at 8.9%.
Normally, the statistics wo…
Continue readingPop The Stack: Stockwell Gets Tough on Imaginary Crime
Oh Stockwell, you never let us down do you? Whenever we doubt for a moment that the Conservative government makes all its decisions based on gut instinct, emotion and irrational fear you’re there to remind of the true Reform-Alliance-Conservative way of thinking, like protecting Canadians from the “alarming” amount of unreported crime. You have to […]
Pop The Stack: Census is too intrusive, says Idiot.
Oh my God, I can’t believe Warren Kinsella is such an idiot. I’m sorry, did I say that out loud? I didn’t mean to read this story, it just happened, and now it can’t unhappen and I’m very upset. Call me crazy, call me anal, call me “someone who understands statistical methods” or “someone who […]
Pop The Stack: An Economist Who Doesn’t Want More Data? UCalgary Called, they Want their Degree Back.
Witness Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the first non-lawyer to lead this great nation since Lester B. Pearson. Bachelors and Masters degrees in Economics from the fabled University of … Calgary. He dropped out of UofT. And Witness Tony Clement, proud UofT graduate in Political Science and Law and one of the architects of Mike Harris’ Common Sense […]