40 fascinating blogs on statistics

All the following is from:

http://www.bschool.com/blog/2011/40-fascinating-blogs-for-the-ultimate-statistics-geek/

There is no need of further comments:

At some point in nearly every (but not all) major and career path, statistics will be encountered. Even tangentially, they still define and describe everything from the efficacy of cancer medications to earned run averages, and everything in between. Understandably, the near-universality of the subject attracts scads of admirers, and the internet provides them with a lovely public platform to trade ideas and insights through blogs, forums, communities, podcasts and more. While not comprehensive, the following list offers up an eclectic mix of blogs to pique the interest of many different breeds of the statistics geek.

1- Probability and statistics blog: Matt Asher finds statistics and probability everywhere, and his blog offers up some amazing, educational and provocative content.


2 -Xi'an's Og: Not all of the content presented here revolves around statistics, but this Universite Paris Dauphine professor sticks mainly with research, papers, events, computations and Bayesian subject matter.


3- Three-Toed Sloth: Math and statistics geeks wanting to see the disciplines applied to current events, science and plenty more will have plenty to love about Three-Toed Sloth.


4- Statisfaction: PhD students affiliated with the CREST research institute blog extensively about statistics, economics and plenty more relevant, often overlapping topics.


5- Freakonometrics: Anyone with a particular affinity for statistics as it relates to business, economics, finances and more seriously needs to give Arthur Charpentier's blog a visit. Those who do not speak French need only run it through Google Translate to read what he has to say.


6- R-bloggers: 140 contributors discuss the latest news and views from across the R community, which focuses on computational software for statisticians.


7- Statistical modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science: From Dartmouth comes a frequently-updated, highly intelligent resource packed with discussions about statistics, art, political science and plenty of models.


8-The Endeavour: John D. Cook offers math, probability and statistics geeks plenty of intelligent commentary on a wonderful array of related subjects.


9- Revolutions: Give Revolution Analytics' blog a look for detailed discussions about their R programs, open source and — of course — statistics.


10- Numbers Rule Your World: Statistics are absolutely everywhere, and this blog peers into how they permeate daily life as well as marketing, business and economics.


11-The Numbers Guy: Many statistics buffs turn to this Wall Street Journal offering glimpses in how the media and the public use and abuse numbers every day.


12- Observational Epidemiology: Epidemiology, higher education and statistics collide in one frequently updated, insightful resource about the practical applications of the maths and sciences.


13 -Understanding Uncertainty: University of Cambridge's Statistical Lab and the Winton Programme it hosts hope to educate the public about the mathematical risks and uncertainties associated with numerous important topics and current events.


14 - Five Thirty Eight: Nate Silver with The New York Times blogs about the numbers that drive politics, with statistics and calculus forming the site's core.


15 -The Stats Blog: While this resource may not update as often as some of the others listed here, both The Stats Blog and its accompanying website deserve plenty of attention.


16 - Social Science Statistics Blog: Statistics fans who enjoy applying the associated formulas to psychology, sociology and other "soft" sciences would do well to follow Harvard's myriad takes on the matters at hand.


17 - Significance: As both a blog and a magazine, Significance brings statistics to the masses, making it a valuable resource for those new to the discipline.


18 - Realizations in Biostatistics: Check out this resource by a Bayesian biostatistician for some interesting, educational research on the numerical world of medicine and more.


19 - Blog about Stats: Everything readers need to know about this multi-author reference can be found right there in this title — it's a place where anyone who enjoys the subject can come and talk with like-minded individuals.


20 - R-statistics blog: It may update comparatively infrequently to some of the others, but readers curious about R and open source will still enjoy the content here.


21 - R-Chart: Take a look at R from the perspective of a web and database developer, who illustrates main points with some excellent, effective visuals.


22 - The Numbers: Gary Langer explains the statistical and mathematical findings behind recent polls and political undertakings.


23 - Lies, damned lies and statistics: Another seriously cool read merging daily life and statistics, this time focusing on social media, PR, branding and other topics of interest to businesspeople.


24 - Empirical Legal Studies: Several different writers dissect legal issues using statistical models and other empirical means in this enlightening resource.


25 - Stats Make Me Cry: In spite of its glacial schedule, Stats Make Me Cry is still worthwhile reading for those who enjoy learning as much as they can about the eponymous discipline.


26 - CoolData blog: Kevin MacDonnell researches and data mines in order to find interesting tidbits for anyone needing to raise funds for higher education. Statistics, naturally, finds its way into more than a few postings.


27 - Stats with Cats blog: Along with comforting pictures of feline friends, Charlie Kufs' accompaniment to his book makes statistics palatable for eager novices.


28 - LoveStats: For the statistician who embrace social media and market research, LoveStats delivers plenty to pique their interest.


29 - StatChat: Stay on top of news and views from around the worlds of applied statistics, data analysis and their intersections.


30 - Sabermetric Research: Baseball greatly appeals to plenty of statistics geeks out there, but visitors who prefer other sports still see some favorites represented here sometimes.


31 - Statistical Sage Blog: Four different writers keep a general statistics blog that plenty of students and professionals needing to collect data will find a valuable reference.


32 - Fishing in the Bay: Almost everything statistical eventually shows up here at Fishing in the Bay, which looks at things through an Antipodean lens.


33 - Blogs at AnalyticBridge: Scroll down to the "Blog Posts" section on the main page to read a broad number of perspectives from across the statistics and data analysis communities.


34 - Beyond the Box Score: For sabermetrics buffs, this highly engaging forum and blog delves deeply into the numbers that drive baseball.


35 - Mathematics & Statistics at Williams College: Another multi-author resource, offering statistics fans a chance to seek out different opinions and ideas regarding math, education, research and more.


36 - Mr. C's AP Statistics Blog: Visitors hoping to perhaps teach high school statistics someday may find this resource useful, though it does not update as often as some of the others on this list.


37 - dataists: Discover helpful methods the make gathering and analyzing statistical data as easy and painless as possible.

38 - FlowingData: Nathan Yau creatively blends the technical with the creative in his innovative visuals incorporating various statistical findings.


39 - Byte Mining: A statistician-turned-computer scientist talks about both his fields, along with the expected intersections and overlaps.


40 -information aesthetics: Another seriously cool blog blending statistics and data analysis with the latest trends in graphic design and art.

Embargoes on the web

Paolo Tarolli sent to me the following link where the Nature Geosciences (and Nature indeed) ask for an embargo on information about unpublished papers. They argue among other things:

" it may well be in our authors' interest to limit pre-publicity of their results "

Frankly, I disagree on the statement (Well they can require what they want for their journal).

I am contrary to any embargo. I noticed that in Physics the free distribution of Preprints was massive even before the present era of web 2.0 with no problems whatsoever. At the same time, I believe (actually Nature would probably agree with me on this point) that I am able to judge my Science's topics with the same deepness of any other of my peers, and  that getting any scientific information early  is very useful and propel the advancement of science. 

Granted this, it would be very difficult in the present times, to filter out any written information, from the public. 

Moreover, if scientists do not make the effort to show and make to understand the public how science work, how can we believe it will support us ?  If we do not give to the society a sample of what the scientific debate is, and what is about ... in the matter, how can we think our work will not be degraded to opinons ? If we do not grow people to understand the problematics of our activities, and the methods to solve them, how can we believe science can be adopted  as a better way of thinking, and not just because it provides products ? 

On the contrary I appreciate the EGU open access journals where the policy to show discussion papers, both improve the "preprints", and make more careful most of the peer reviews.

Wittgenstein teaches: what can be said at all can be said clearly, and what we cannot talk about we must pass over in silence.

Flood Observatory at University of Colorado, Boulder

The information comes directly from their site, and data were obtained mostly by using remote sensing data from MODIS. In fact, The Flood Observatory uses orbital remote sensing to detect, measure, and map surface water changes. It includes:





1- River Watch, an experimental satellite-based river discharge measurement system (example).

2 - The Surface Water Record, a comprehensive map record of the Earth's changing surface water.

3 - Active Archive of Large Floods, 1985 to present (listing and characterization of large flood events).

4 - Rapid Response Inundation Maps, for individual flood events.

A library of Georeferenced photos from the field

They can be found at http://www.eomf.ou.edu/photos/. Pictures are usually pretty boring at the moment. But the idea is interesting and possibly the database will improve. An idea to follow.

Clicking on the photo you should be able to get the data connected to it.  The information come from EOS the AGU weekly journal, and the relative article is here.

Free GIS Data

This is indeed a very strange blog. All feed up the same day, February 18, 2011 with 54 post about various data set. Two at least did not escape my attention.

The global Evapotranspiration map made by Antonio Trabucco  for the CGIAR-CSI :

Also the reference to the global DEM derived from the satellite Aster measurements is of interest for hydrologists, and according to some paper are better than SRTM data.

These are not the only good data you can find there!

Two other source of information about GIS data are remarkable:  those from Robert T Wilson and those one can find in Tomislav Hengl wiki Spatial-Analyst at the page of global data sets.  Another source of interesting data is here where you can find addresse a map of runoff data by NCAR/UCAR and some interesting considerations.

Naming Rivers

This is a variation on the themes inspected by Boetti and his wife in their "The thousand rivers". In this case, what is inspected is the name with which the river are addressed. Terms like "fork", "canal". Beside, the technology is outstanding. Below, please find the Great Britain.

The case of United States is:

The original sites, images, and explanation regarding how the maps where realized,  can be found at: http://spatialanalysis.co.uk/2011/08/naming-rivers-and-places/
The blog itself is very interesting to follow.

Open Source Software and Intellectual Properties

People often think that using an Open Source License for Software left freedom for any behavior. In fact, this is not the case.  Here you can find a presentation by Bruno Lowagie where he discussed the related issues and obligations.

Open source requires ethics, is a demanding exercise, and it is not about robbery.