Anonymity Is An Abstraction

 It don't exist:

https://www.wired.com/story/big-data-may-not-know-your-name-but-it-knows-everything-else/

The P-Values Wars Continue

 From a behavioral scientist:

https://towardsdatascience.com/ditch-p-values-use-bootstrap-confidence-intervals-instead-bba56322b522

Monday ASMR

 For feline fans, after the hectic holiday weekend... Can't remember if I've used this one before, but an old 5-minute cat-scratching video that actually makes for a fine ASMR clip even though it's not even labelled as such:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLnC4fjSKdc&list=PLGoqlGdXk6CNhNLVH2nMghXys38LS7Wbd&index=561

A "Law" of Language

 As someone who was always interested in both math and psycholinguistics, was happy to see Zipf's Law get a mention from Futility Closet today:

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2021/12/24/zipfs-law-2/

Wikipedia entry for same:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zipf%27s_law

Thought I'd Seen All the Different Takes With Rubik's Cube (but I was wrong)

 Cubist art (that Leonardo could appreciate):

https://twitter.com/slater_jona/status/1473915632794144768

A Christmas Story... From a Mathematician

Thanks for this Joselle... lovely!!

https://mathrising.com/?p=1811 

Statistical Significance and "Oomph"

 What models and data analysis can miss:

https://mindmatters.ai/2021/12/the-cult-of-statistical-significance-and-the-neglect-of-oomph/

Flawed Covid Research et. al.

 203 retractions... and counting:

https://retractionwatch.com/2021/12/18/weekend-reads-fraudulent-and-faulty-research-a-275k-settlement-but-resignation-for-a-professor-covid-19-ivermectin-and-beyond/

Books, Books, Books...

 A book list for your mathy friends at Holiday time (...or, for anytime):

https://mathladyhazel.medium.com/a-mathematical-reading-list-for-lifelong-learners-in-2022-4152fe1203ab

Matchstick Beauty

 Once again, an offering from Futility Closet:

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2021/12/16/network/

Where Can I Buy One ;))

 But before you laugh too hard, realize THIS is almost how mathematicians sound to some people:

https://twitter.com/PaulLeeTeeks/status/1471330346096496643

Huhh, What....

 A little delightful visual entertainment today via Futility Closet:

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2021/12/15/keep-right/

…and another fun one by Sugihara (of many he’s done):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWfFco7K9v8

Movie Mathdom

 For today, just a fun post from "X-Bubbler" on favorite movies about mathematicians:

http://xbubbler.blogspot.com/2021/12/some-movies-about-mathematicians.html

...which reminds me of a more recent such movie which I never saw, "Adventures of a Mathematician" all about the life of Stanislaw Ulam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba7JnqdbbzA

BBC on Covid Immunity...

 Natural immunity vs. vaccination:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0b98hzl

John Cook on "Fraud, Sloppiness, and Statistics"

 A LOT of scientific papers later appear to be wrong. John Cook attempts to explain the likely reasons; longer than his typical posts, but still succinct:

https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2021/12/11/fraud-sloppiness-and-statistics/

Password Security....?

 Ahhh, yes, all those password recommendations?:

(read the comments also)

https://junkcharts.typepad.com/numbersruleyourworld/2021/12/cybersecurity-mystery.html

The Quality of Big Data

 Bigger not always better...:

https://www.statschat.org.nz/2021/12/10/making-it-up-in-volume/

More (World Championship) Chess Analysis

 From Game 2:

https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2021/12/08/objectively-worse-but-practically-better-an-example-from-the-world-chess-championship/

Statistical Illusion

 Today, from Futility Closet:

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2021/12/08/balance-8/

Journals, Peer Review, Hoaxes/Conning....

via Gelman and Sokal:

https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2021/12/06/journals-submit-article-with-fake-data-demonstrate-that-some-higher-education-journal-youd-never-heard-of-is-as-bad-as-pnas-psychological-science-lancet-etc-etc-etc/ 

Space Junk By the Numbers

 ...and accident waiting to happen???

https://observationalepidemiology.blogspot.com/2021/12/elon-musk-may-not-fully-grasp-magnitude.html

K-12 Math Education ("an alarming trend")

 Scott Aaronson has a guest post at his blog today on K-12 math education:

https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=6146