Resource Library

Do not make things easy for yourself by speaking or thinking of data as if they were different from what they are; and do not go off from facing data as they are, to amuse your imagination by wishing they were different from what they are. Such wishing is pure waste of nerve force, weakens your intellectual power, and gets you into habits of mental confusion. is a quote by English mathematician and mathematics educator Mary Everest Boole (1832-1916). The quote is found on page 7 of her 1909 book "Philosophy and Fun of Algebra", (C.W. Daniel, Ltd.) written to bring then modern mathematical ideas to children. The book is available online through Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org/files/13447/13447-pdf.pdf

I keep saying that the sexy job in the next 10 years will be statisticians is a quote from American economist Hal R. Varian (1947 -) quoted in an August 5, 2009 "New York Times" article "For Today's Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics," written by reporter Steve Lohr. The article may be found online at www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/technology/06stats.html

At their best, graphics are instruments for reasoning about quantitative information. is a quote by American statistician and political scientist Edward R. Tufte (1942 - ). The quote appears on page 9 of Tufte's 1983 book "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information".

Experts often possess more data than judgment. is a quote by former U.S. four-star general and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell (1937 - ). The quote is found in lesson three in the article "Quotations from Chairman Powell: A Leadership Primer" by Oren Harari originally published in 1996 in "Management Review".

Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it. is a quote from American computer scientist Donald E. Knuth (1938 - ). The quote was written on March 22, 1977 as the last sentence of a five-page memo entitled "Notes on the van Emde Boas construction of priority deques: An instructive use of recursion."

Although we often hear that data speak for themselves, their voices can be soft and sly. is a quote by American statistician Charles Frederick Mosteller (1916 - 2006). The quote is found on page 234 of his 1983 book "Beginning Statistics with Data Analysis".

Hot streaks are a statistical illusion! This is a quote from the cartoon character Lisa Simpson created by cartoonist Matt Groening (1954 - ) in 1987. The quote occurs in an episode of The Simpsons entitled "MoneyBART" that originally aired on October 10, 2010. This episode was written by Tim Long (1969 - ).

The purpose of this applet is to provide students with guided practice through problems on hypothesis testing for a population proportion using the method of rejection regions.

This issue contains articles about microarray data and the partnership between statisticians and biologists, ASA Stat Bowl at JSM 2005, an interview with Stat Bowl 2004 champion Jesse Frey, USCOTS 2005 plans, cluster sampling, an analysis of Civil War intelligence sleuth's Alan Pinkerton's incompetence.

This issue contains articles about the birthday problem probabilities using simulation analysis using R; making money on eBay using multiple regression to estimate prices of violins; McDonald's French fry actual mass vs. industry standard mass student project; PC vs. Mac computers survey of Harvard students; EESEE electronic story and exercise encyclopedia; 12 types of variables used in statistical analysis; the history of probability in the Enlightenment for rational decisions in law, science, and politics.