Chance News 61

Census errors

Can you trust Census data?
Freakonomics blog, New York Times, 2 February 2010
Justin Wolfers

Bureau obscured personal data—Too well, some say
Numbers Guy blog, Wall Street Journal, 6 February 2010
Carl Bialik

To be continued...

Submitted by Bill Peterson

Height bias or data dredging?

Soccer referees hate the tall guys
Wall Street Journal, 8 Feburary 2010

According to the article, "Niels van Quaquebeke and Steffen R. Giessner, researchers at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, compiled refereeing data from seven seasons of the German Bundesliga and the UEFA Champions League, as well as three World Cups (123,844 fouls in total)" and found:

Height Difference	Probability of Foul Against Taller Player
1-5 cm	52.0%
6-10 cm	55.4%
> 10 cm	58.8%

Avg. Height of Perpetrator	Avg. Height of Victim
182.4 cm	181.5 cm

Note that the height difference on average is only 0.9 cm!

To be continued... Submitted by Paul Alper