Unlocking the habits of Britain’s smartphone generation
The bond between a child and their smartphone is like an umbilical cord. Now, a…
Leslie HaddonAugust 8, 2014
House prices: statistics, politics and human behaviour
‘UK house prices rose by 8% in the year’ is the latest startling headline following…
What does $4 million buy you at the Superbowl ad break?
The online technology revolution has set proverbial amongst the pigeons that make up the old…
Oz FlanaganJanuary 30, 2014
Bourbaki’s theorem: a hoax math lecture
A couple years ago I wrote about an experiment where researchers had hired an actor…
Mikhail SimkinOctober 1, 2013
The Phillips Curve revisited
In my first article, A short overview of the Phillips Curve, I outlined the complicated…
Michael MernaghSeptember 19, 2013
Correlation and causation explained
Though the word correlation means usually how two quantities vary together, perhaps it may be…
Priyantha WijayatungaSeptember 9, 2013
Syrian chemical warfare: ‘Highly likely’ or ‘Compelling evidence’?
Parliament has just voted not to join in a war. MPs were recalled from their…
Julian ChampkinAugust 30, 2013
Do home sales bolster automobile sales?
'To every complex problem there is a solution which is simple, neat and wrong' -…
Kevin DavenportAugust 27, 2013
Migration statistics: ‘Unfit for purpose’?
Official UK migration figures have been denounced. They are "little better than a best guess",…
Julian ChampkinJuly 29, 2013
Protests in Egypt: how many are out on the streets?
The street protests going on in Egypt this month have been claimed as the biggest…
Julian ChampkinJuly 17, 2013
Omega-3: wonder-supplement or cancer risk?
A new shock horror health story. ‘Taking health supplements with omega-3 fatty acids can increase…
Julian ChampkinJuly 15, 2013
Scientific inquiry into poetry
In a recent article I reported the results of the internet-test, where the takers had…
Mikhail SimkinJune 24, 2013
Bernoulli and the foundations of statistics: can you correct a 300-year-old error?
Ars Conjectandi is not a book that non-statisticians will have heard of, nor one that…
Julian ChampkinJune 10, 2013
Statistics against irritations: a response to Dickens’s apologists or If high readership is the test of good writing, then 50 Shades of Grey is a work of genius…
Recently I discussed my article1 which reported the results of the test where the takers…
Mikhail SimkinMay 7, 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
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
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
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
Income inequality in Ireland from 1922 to 2009
I read and watched with interest the Beveridge Lecture given by Professor Danny Dorling at…
Michael MernaghFebruary 20, 2013
Lance Armstrong, Oprah, seven in a row and the weather: when should we get suspicious?
Lance Armstrong has confessed to Oprah Winfrey that all seven of his Tour de France…
Julian ChampkinJanuary 18, 2013
