Sunday data/statistics link roundup (1/13/2013)

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Jeff Leek

These are some great talks. But definitely watch Michael Eisen's talk on E-biomed and the history of open access publication. This is particularly poigniant in light of Aaron Swartz's tragic suicide. It's also worth checking out the twitter hashtag #pdftribute .
An awesome flowchart before a talk given by the creator of the R twotuorials. Roger gets a shoutout (via civilstat).
This blog selects a position at random on the planet earth every day and posts the picture taken closest to that point. Not much about the methodology on the blog, but totally fascinating and a clever idea.
A set of data giving a "report card" for each state on how that state does in improving public education for students. I'm not sure I believe the grades, but the underlying reports look interesting.

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Thomas Lumley

That's "Swartz", not "Schwartz".

And on the report cards, note that the grades are quite noticeably negatively correlated with state-average maths and reading scores. (link), and include items of very dubious relevance (eg, states are marked down for having a defined-benefit pension scheme for teachers).
- jtleek
  
  Thomas, you are my name spell-checker. Thanks and fixed!
  
  Re: the report card. Yes I noticed the negative correlation. I'm not sure how I feel about the defined-benefit pension scheme - clearly there are some reasons this may drive costs away from students. On the other hand, it is clear that teachers deserve retirement benefits. I think this is one of the harder issues that local state governments are wrestling with right now. The obvious best case scenario is more money for education in general, but that is a hard sell in the current economic climate.
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