Syrian chemical warfare and Obama welfare cuts: measurement, retirement and war
A recent New York Times article stated that U.S. officials believe the Syrian government has…
Michael A. LewisApril 29, 2013
Classifying Higher Education Institutions
A few weeks ago ('Is social segregation rising across English universities?') we looked at how…
Margaret Thatcher: Prime Minister who took science seriously
The death of Lady Thatcher was reported today. Better known as Margaret Thatcher, she was…
Julian ChampkinApril 8, 2013
George Box, (1919-2013): a wit, a kind man and a statistician
‘Essentially all models are wrong, but some are useful’. That quotation comes from George Box,…
Julian ChampkinApril 4, 2013
Nobel Prize in Economics Laureates’ achievements estimated from their fame
In a recent article1, Anouk Claes and Marc de Ceuster reported the achievements of Nobel…
Mikhail SimkinApril 3, 2013
Fireballs falling to Earth: Part 3
The subject of today's article is impact risk and concludes the three-part series looking at…
Jordi PratsMarch 28, 2013
Is social segregation rising across English universities?
As a reader pointed out last week Nick Clegg's son is going to the London…
Andrew McCullochMarch 27, 2013
Fireballs falling to Earth: Part 2
In the first part of this article we saw that meteorites fall to Earth at…
Jordi PratsMarch 26, 2013
Fireballs falling to Earth: Part 1
Thanks to Russian drivers and amateur cameramen, a few weeks ago we had the privilege…
Jordi PratsMarch 25, 2013
A scientific evaluation of Charles Dickens
Previously I discussed1 my experiment that tested whether people can tell the masterpieces of abstract…
Mikhail SimkinMarch 21, 2013
Why do government ministers send their kids to private schools?
News reports indicate that British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will send his eldest son to a top comprehensive school…
Andrew McCullochMarch 19, 2013
Will bonus points improve the Six Nations Championship?
As the 2013 edition of the Six Nations Championship wraps up this weekend with a…
Niven WinchesterMarch 14, 2013
The Pope vote: left to chance?
115 Roman Catholic cardinals have been having an almighty lock-in to decide who will be…
Michael WallaceMarch 13, 2013
Kenya, Elections and violence: beating Swords into shillings?
Kenya has been having elections. The results were announced on Saturday. Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya's richest…
Julian ChampkinMarch 11, 2013
International Women’s Day: Gertrude Cox, the first lady of statistics
Happy International Women's Day! If last week's article proved anything, it's that there are lot…
Julian ChampkinMarch 8, 2013
Have kids, settle down: marital and maternal age since 1938
The average age at which women have children has been increasing since the middle of…
Oliver HawkinsMarch 5, 2013
Can you name a female statistician?
We read about statistics every day, be it the predicted winner of a football league,…
Linda WijlaarsMarch 5, 2013
Southwark Sapphire Unit – the worst rape statistics ever?
Rape is probably the most under-reported crime that there is, for all sorts of understandable…
Julian ChampkinFebruary 28, 2013
This cold weather: a good reason to have a flu jab
Recently we noted here that there is a strong seasonal pattern in mortality in England…
Andrew McCullochFebruary 27, 2013
Fuel prices, the UK energy gap and the consequences of ignoring information
The chance of large power cuts – those that hit more than a million homes…
Julian ChampkinFebruary 21, 2013
