Thaaaat's Numberwang

"Number occupies a strategic position in this conflict, because it is simultaneously the most generalized basis of thought and that which demands most abruptly the question of its being." — Alain Badiou

See also Mitchell & Webb's "Numberwang" sketch.

April 16
“At one point they set cell L51 equal to AVERAGE(L30:L44) when the correct procuedure was AVERAGE(L30:L49). By typing wrong, they accidentally left Denmark, Canada, Belgium, Austria, and Australia out of the average. — Is The Reinhart-Rogoff Result Based On A Simple Spreadsheet Error? but:The fact that Reinhart/Rogoff was widely cited despite its huge obvious theoretical problems leads me to confidently predict that the existence of equally huge, albeit more subtle, empirical problems won’t change anything either. via bestrooftalkever
“At one point they set cell L51 equal to AVERAGE(L30:L44) when the correct procuedure was AVERAGE(L30:L49). By typing wrong, they accidentally left Denmark, Canada, Belgium, Austria, and Australia out of the average. — Is The Reinhart-Rogoff Result Based On A Simple Spreadsheet Error?

but:

The fact that Reinhart/Rogoff was widely cited despite its huge obvious theoretical problems leads me to confidently predict that the existence of equally huge, albeit more subtle, empirical problems won’t change anything either.

via bestrooftalkever

(Source: laurenonizzle)

March 9
“The bigger potential flaw with Chief Justice Roberts’s argument is not with the statistics he cites but with the conclusion he draws from them” — In Supreme Court Debate on Voting Rights Act, a Dubious Use of Statistics

“The bigger potential flaw with Chief Justice Roberts’s argument is not with the statistics he cites but with the conclusion he draws from them” — In Supreme Court Debate on Voting Rights Act, a Dubious Use of Statistics

(Source: namtaf, via capnskull)

February 10
“This is why the JPMorgan VaR model is the rule, not the exception: manual data entry, manual copy-and-paste, and formula errors.” — James Kwak explains how Excel runs the world of finance such that it’s terribly easy to make major mistakes in The Importance of Excel More: While all software breaks occasionally, Excel spreadsheets break all the time. But they don’t tell you when they break: they just give you the wrong number. Is this any way to run a bank—let alone a global financial system?
“This is why the JPMorgan VaR model is the rule, not the exception: manual data entry, manual copy-and-paste, and formula errors.” — James Kwak explains how Excel runs the world of finance such that it’s terribly easy to make major mistakes in The Importance of Excel

More:

While all software breaks occasionally, Excel spreadsheets break all the time. But they don’t tell you when they break: they just give you the wrong number.

Is this any way to run a bank—let alone a global financial system?

(via damnafricawhathappened)

January 18
How Dell numberwanged itself to near death

Dell has spent more on stock buybacks than it has made in profit over its entire existence.
December 28
The experimental results suggest a bias for nonsense math in judgments of quality of research.

Further, this bias was only found among people with degrees from areas outside mathematics, science and technology. Presumably lack of mathematical skills renders difficult own critical evaluation of meaningless mathematics.
December 1
WSJ chart on growth leaves off entire Bush presidency. http://t.co/AKbO2ThI http://t.co/iIufMunw

WSJ chart on growth leaves off entire Bush presidency. http://t.co/AKbO2ThI http://t.co/iIufMunw

September 15

The Truth About Dishonesty

If you are cheating a lot, you need the capacity to open a new page…should we create opportunities for bankers, for example, to ask for forgiveness from time to time?
May 30
“Several local governments on the coast have passed resolutions against sea-level rise policies. — Coastal N.C. counties fighting sea-level rise prediction More:They circulated a bill that authorizes only the coastal commission to calculate how fast the sea is rising. It said the calculations must be based only on historic trends – leaving out the accelerated rise that climate scientists widely expect this century if warming increases and glaciers melt. nevver: No
“Several local governments on the coast have passed resolutions against sea-level rise policies. — Coastal N.C. counties fighting sea-level rise prediction

More:

They circulated a bill that authorizes only the coastal commission to calculate how fast the sea is rising. It said the calculations must be based only on historic trends – leaving out the accelerated rise that climate scientists widely expect this century if warming increases and glaciers melt.

nevver:

No

March 26
Just because it uses math and deals with human behavior doesn't make it economics.
March 10
auto

auto

(Source: dethship, via capnskull)