<$BlogRSDUrl$> Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. Author/Speaker/Consultant
Internet Happenings, Events and Sources


Sunday, February 20, 2005  

Number Watch
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/number%20watch.htm

John Brignell, Professor Emeritus from the Department of Electronics & Computer Science at the University of Southampton, is the author of this informal website "devoted to the monitoring of the misleading numbers that rain down on us via the media." Brignell says he aims to "nail" a few of the "Single Issue Fanatics (SIFs), politicians, bureaucrats, quasi-scientists (junk, pseudo- or just bad)," who use misleading numbers to write catchy articles or who try to keep numbers away from public notice. Since April 2000, he has been posting a "number of the month" as well as a "number for the year," which offer his commentary on media usage of misleading numbers and explanations for why the numbers are misleading. He also posts book reviews and an extensive list of online resources on statistics and statistics education. The FAQ section includes answers to some interesting questions, such as "Is there such a thing as average global temperature?" and some more basic questions such as "What is the Normal Distribution and what is so normal about it?" The Bits and Pieces section includes a variety of short articles on statistics and his definitions for some terms he uses on the website. Visitors are also invited to join the discussion forum (complete with a few advertisements) and view comments by others who want to discuss "wrong numbers in science, politics and the media." A few comments sent to Brignell and his responses are also posted online. This site is also reviewed in the February 11, 2005_NSDL MET Report_. [From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2004. http://scout.wisc.edu/]

posted by Marcus Zillman | 4:15 AM
archives
subject tracers™