Measurements Properties & Issues

"Failing the possibility of measuring that which you desire, the lust for measurement may, for example, merely result in your measuring something else - and perhaps forgetting the difference - or in your ignoring some things because they cannot be measured." A quote by British statistician George Udny Yule that can be used in discussing the validity of measurements. The quote is contained on the last page of his famous 1921 British Journal of Psychology paper "The essentials of mental measurement." The quote is commonly paraphrased as "In our lust for measurement, we frequently measure that which we can rather than that which we wish to measure... and forget that there is a difference."

A song that might be used in pre-service courses for statistics teachers (or professional development workshops) to point out why using technology is preferred to training students to use Normal Probability Tables. The lyrics were composed by Robert Carver of Stonehill College. May be sung to the tune of the "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" written by Schoenberg and Kretmer for the play Les Miserables. The lyrics won an honorable mention in the CAUSE 2013 A-Mu-sing contest. Musical accompaniment realization and vocals are by Joshua Lintz from University of Texas at El Paso.

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.