Posts Tagged ‘statistics’

Whether your improving a recipe, testing out a new marketing strategy, or calming a crying baby, you are doing experiments. Here’s a little-known method to get better results in less time.

This seemed like the perfect follow up to my post on the value of statistical understanding. Let’s just hope no one learns conditional probability the hard way.

Almost everyone takes a statistics class as part of their college career, but how many of us retain that knowledge past the final exam?

A little graphing humor to start your long weekend.

TweetHere’s a sample of some of the recent research on building design and energy efficiency. A performance comparison of passive and low-energy buildings Ardeshir Mahdavi, Eva-Maria Doppelbauer Energy and Buildings, In Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 4 March 2010, ISSN 0378-7788, DOI: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.02.025. Abstract: This paper compares apartments in two residential blocks in Vienna; one [...]

TweetGreat news!  Carbon emissions in the US were down 3% in 2008, and are likely to trend even lower in 2009, according to a study published by the EPA. Of course, it’s a little like congratulating a sick person on losing weight – positive effect, but a decidedly negative cause. According to the LA Times, [...]

TweetIt’s an age old dilemma for efficiency advocates: how do you calculate how much energy you didn’t use or how much money you didn’t spend? You can’t put a yardstick up against something that doesn’t exist. We tend to rely on models and predictions of what might have happened, and calculate the savings based on [...]

TweetIn a rare bit of ecological good-news, a study published by the US Geological Survey found that even though population of the US has increased 30% since 1980, our water consumption decreased by 5%!  That’s not even a per capita number, it’s an overall reduction due to conservation.  Take a look: I took the liberty [...]

TweetThe thing I find fascinating about carbon accounting is that it provides an even playing field to compare seemingly disparate objects or activities.  For instance, which is worse: driving a Volkswagen Golf, or owning a cat?  Answer: it’s almost too close to call. Robert and Brenda Vale, architects from New Zealand, have published a new [...]

TweetI just returned from the Discovery 2009 and Innovator’s Summit in Chicago.  The conference is all about analytics, data mining, visualization and the people who make their living understanding numbers. One the speakers, Joel Best, really caught my attention.  He is the author of several books including Stat-Spotting: A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data [...]