Monday, September 24, 2007

The Best Simulator For Switches



a blog can be very hard. Depletion of the psquis and intellect to be trying to write something new every time, regular time intervals and, hopefully, short. As the pressure is overwhelming and not all support it well, it sometimes happens that one or another of us blogger simply loses reason and ends completely crazy , writing nonsense like that quote,
The problem is that in Chile in particular and Latin America in general, the power of a particular Christian group, the Roman Catholic, is disproportionate and harmful. (...) Religious elements seem to be the recipients of some truth revealed, and all I announce to society is declared in a tone of certainty eternal, and the Chilean electorate is unable to separate water, in contrast, insists on paying attention to the ecclesiastical authorities.
(...) Given this reality, as I said the American author Sam Harris, one wonders whether the mass extermination of Christians can be considered ethical . While I leave the question for others to answer, at least I think that these circumstances are so severe that civil disobedience is absolutely legitimate.
(...) The decision is now on the Catholics. Decide. Or return to their temples and live their religion peacefully, leaving peace to society, or have to resort to other means to resolve differences . (Emphases are added)

Although he has great caution (what virtue) of letting other the answer to your question to me is more than clear that "other means" of which he speaks Chile Liberal are none other than the mass extermination of believers , fortunately I was saved from death, but after this post I doubt he can settle down as a friend or adviser to the regime "liberal" that would set up this person in case of power their hands. Maybe it would be doomed to live in a sewer. Is not ridiculous that the "liberals" walk promoting mass destruction? "From a blog?

However, if one gives an account of the activities of the Church in public life, perhaps the final conclusion is regrettable exceptions. Since the nineteenth century anti-clerical struggles (which I find fascinating) that the Catholic teaching is opposed to the State and civil marriage, through land reform (and not just pray, it was said), Hasbún (the priest of the devil) celebrating the coup, the vicarage solidarity, the priest Medina buying porn for no one else can see it on the stands of Valparaiso the categorical rejection of divorce and the use of condoms, the scandal of the morning-after pill, among others, the truth is that there have always left the best impression. The only action of the Catholic Church that I would no doubt highlight the work of protecting and defending human rights during the dictatorship. Just have to see who makes the ridiculous, if the Catholic Church or the caller to kill them all.

having regard to the merits of the contestants, hereby established the award for stupidity month and is awarded with honors from the case, the author of Liberal Chile, with its post Tolerating the Intolerant . Applause!



Saturday, September 22, 2007

Pro Touch Hair Straightners

build majorities

As social research is not neutral, whenever an object is measured study also modifying it. This story is an example of how research questionnaires could be manipulated to achieve results that suit to their taste. The trick here is to introduce a bias by questions asked and the order in which they are made , but if someone had the intention to put numbers to their personal opinion to give more universal appearance, could simply invent rather than be bothered to "investigate"

B ernard ( B or Mr. Woolley ) tells Humphrey (H ) that the prime minister wants to reinstate the military service because he has a survey that says 64% of the population would support such action. Humphrey then advises Bernard to publish another survey showing that most of the population is against to reinstate the military. Bernard wonders how to accomplish that and Humphrey explains:

H: You know how it happens: a beautiful young woman about you. Obviously you want to take a good impression, do not want to seem silly, does it? Then she starts asking questions: "Mr. Woolley, are you concerned about the number of young people out of work?"
B: Yes
H: "Are you worried by rising crime among teenagers?"
B: Yes
H : "Do you think there is a lack of discipline in our schools?"
B: Yes
H : "Do you think young people need some authority and leadership in their lives?"
B: Yes
H "Do you think you meet the challenges?"
B: Yes
H : "Would you agree to reintroduce National Service?"
B : Emm, well, I guess it could be.
H: "Yes or no?"
B: Yes
H: Of course I would agree, Bernard. After all what you said you could not say no to that last question. Then do not mention the first 5 questions and publish only the last.
B: Is that really what they do?
H: Well, not prestigious, but those not so many. Alternatively, the young woman could get the opposite result.
B: How? H
: "Mr. Woolley, concerned about the danger of war?"
B: Yes
H : "We are concerned about the increase in arms?"
B: Yes
H : "Do you think there is a danger in giving young people guns and teach them how to kill?"
B: Yes
H : "Do you oppose the reinstatement of the military?"
B: Yes
H: You see, Bernard. A perfect balanced sample.


Perhaps the inability to observe without changing is not a feature of social research. Famous examples such as the Schrödinger cat show that harsher discipline (those that sociologists sometimes enjoy relativizing ) also face this situation.
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The dialogue between these two politicians seeking majority circumstantial and comes from a fictional British television series Yes Minister called and the sample is taken and very loosely translated from here .

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Sunday, September 16, 2007

Can I Use My Pur Filter After It Expires

Phi3stas homelands k3wl s0 r!

In comments on a previous post someone asked What is postmodern? Sometimes things like this are best illustrated by example:

If anyone thinks that is a joke, be convinced by clicking here . We leave for another day the discussion on the issue of national identity and those cans, but I anticipate that those who think that there is no such national identity crisis , not even in the light of initiatives such as this inn .

There is always some story in the ideology of ' roots' , of \u200b\u200bthe 'real ' , what ' own' . Whenever someone is outside these official versions are used to mask conflicts and often have more to do with the power to turn than anything else, for example the cueca supposedly so very Chilean, is the national dance since Pinochet came to give this category by decree in 1979. In the country always had more success and ranchera tunes.

is also the problem of fundamentalism: assume that our truth is in origin and that everything that comes next is a betrayal of that origin . Some of it is in what is said in the blog 10:00 a.m. (surely there are more, but it was all I found, if Pedro Morande or Huasos Quincheros would have surely blog linking to them).

Delivery to the beach, next update around the corner.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Opinel Knife Blueprints

What is a psychological barrier? Bad

I arrived late to the discussion of the survey Adimark. No one speaks more than it these days, is ephemeral and of public discussion. But suppose that comment at this time is more than an act of laziness, a critical exercise is an effort of this blog by avoiding the agenda of the media.

Certainly that is done up there no more. Noting the previous post one can realize that, even that has been designed to criticize the continued misuse of statistics in the media, indeed also serves to show to what extent are the mass media which determine what issues are important to talk . In Luhmann As I said Paul Morris in the comments, post on the third could be seen as a way the media system is closed upon itself and reproduce from its own elements. Nothing more recursive a media (this blog) talking about what was published in other media (La Tercera) . Anyway. About

Adimark survey is very striking that in all the papers that were copied reproduced as is an expression that was on the newspaper report that gave the company: Bachelet had supposedly fallen beyond "psychological barrier " 40 points. It is curious that conceptual innovation. Maybe some psychologist discovered one day that exactly 40 points in the human psyche crispa, is excited or put on alert. I do not own this information and I I blame my ignorance, but apparently both Adimark as all newspapers that copied the phrase as if they were following the 'greatest monkey' are well aware of the undoubted existence of this particular barrier . They are wise and virtuous people that's why I admire them.

With or without 'psychological theory' behind the statement is clearly wrong : a survey with an error of 3.4% like Adimark, a result that shows that support for the management of Bachelet is on a 39.1% no use to say with certainty that said support dropped the famous barrier. More interesting would have been to highlight the long-term trend data showing . In April 2006 the management support of Bachelet was a 62.1% and is now 39.1% . Just one can remember that, although the poll Frei CEP reached a 28% approval rating, the coalition remained in power and that even though Lagos faced the first candidate Right able to win votes and to embarrass the opponent in YEARS.



The survey also showed some known: neither major political coalitions able produce much enthusiasm among citizens . The quote that The Mercury describes this anthology is "Adimark also shows that the approval rate close to the Alliance (20.8%) exceeds the Coalition (20%)." It means that Mercury a difference of 0.8% is enough to leave victorious .

I will not presume an expert in statistics. What happens is that none of the calculations necessary to not end up talking nonsense as the former requires more skill than the basics: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The most complex one is a square root. Is there any excuse?

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Sunday, September 2, 2007

Pro Touch Hair Straighteners

surveys: kicking with alternate numbers

Cristián Bofill, director of The Third , feared, hated and respected. Mateo has a reputation for being a workaholic boss and demanding: they have hundreds of stories from arbitrary dismissal, for long hours in the drafting of the paper, countless challenges to his subordinates for lack of thoroughness or not having any of the information. But all its rigor has not served absolutely nothing when it comes to publishing statistics reliably, it would be time to start taking the matter seriously.
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statistical errors The Third are repeated , which is more serious considering for some time that the newspaper decided to build its own center of surveys. What helps them produce their own data if they are using them so badly? Let only a couple of mistakes.
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2 + 2 = 5 (for extremely high values \u200b\u200bof 2 ...).

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The last survey was published in two shifts: Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, he said on the first page that " Alvear is installed as the best presidential rival Piñera." This is the chart that accompanied the note:


The tie between Soledad Alvear and Piñera by 45% is evident. However, to presume from these data that actually Piñera beats Lagos and Insulza a little more complicated. The first thing to keep in mind (which is obvious, but the paper seems to consider minor) is that survey data are always estimates and the actual value of each number moves between certain margins : this is a confidence interval and corresponds to the value of the estimator + / - the value of the estimation error.

Another way to see if Lagos wins Piñera e Insulza is a difference of proportions test for independent samples . According to the calculations of this blogger, the statistic test (z) of the comparison between Piñera and Lagos da and between 1.4845 and Insulza Piñera da 1.5011, considering a confidence level of 95% and a sample size of 800 cases. Both test statistics are within the acceptance region: no history to say that one (Piñera) is greater than the other (Lagos or Insulza). Piñera That is not only tied with Soledad Alvear. Lagos also tied with Insulza.

The editorial staff of interpreting the data prefer a rather more free, "however, the former Minister Alvear lost ground in their dispute with Piñera. In July two-Insulza and the helmsman of the DC-got a draw against Piñera (...). Now, although the former minister close the gap with Piñera (42% vs. 47%) is second Alvear . The text continues by stating that "despite having suffered their pole position in the presidential race RN the flagship is not surpassed by any of the figures in the Coalition: Alvear and tied with Lagos and Insulza exceeds five points .

In the fall of the same article says that "the standard bearer RN barrier does not exceed 50% compared to the top 3 cards of the ruling party ": reality, however, is that support for Piñera among the population, according to the calculation of confidence interval should be between 46.6% and 53.4%, ie may well be over 50% .

Soledad Alvear, the best ever.

On Sunday published the results of the evaluation of public figures. The title page 8 reads: "Alvear leading political ranking and outperforms the PS presidential." Also presented the following chart:

thumbs shows the variation of the estimator since the previous survey, carried in July. Whether the difference is significant would require further calculation we will not do here. I'll settle for actually show what is said in the headline is not true : an estimate of confidence intervals shows that the value for the people of the positive evaluation of Soledad Alvear could be among 65.6% and 72.4% . The Insulza could be among 63.6% and 70.4% and Lagos between 56.6% and 63.4% . Intervals as Soledad Alvear and Insulza overlap, you can not say that the president of the DC is heading a ranking: there is actually a statistical tie with Insulza.

Knowledge and news.

There is nothing problematic (at least from my perspective, a journalist may think otherwise) use surveys as a tool of construction news, provided they are used well. The problem surely arises when the imperative for 'hit' or have an interesting story conflicts with what the data say: understand that there is nothing more boring and exciting than a headline saying "TIE! ". I imagine that the news judgments requires that there be a winner, even at the expense of discrediting little a little to their polling center.

anyone else inclined to conspiracy theories that I could draw the following conclusion: The Third is right and is interested in building a climate of opinion unfavorable to the possible pre-socialist candidates . This is difficult to prove. What we do know, thanks to
Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann is that the climate of opinion is very important for how individuals decide to vote. Anyway, I would not go so far as to say that the suspicious are wrong: on the contrary, it is the responsibility of the newspaper ensure public confidence in writing and keep a good image . The burden of proof lies with the newspaper, not the public. If you are served to the public to distrust and arguments presented in large print and color cartoons, the fault of La Tercera.

Recommended Reading:
Public Opinion Does Not Exist of Pierre Bourdieu.
reporting How survey of Eduardo Arriagada .

Sources: the graphics were removed from the editions of Saturday 1 and Sunday September 2, La Tercera. Extracts of the texts also originate there.

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