rantlust

Posted by anupcs on January 06th 2008 in Society, Statistics
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Denmark is too cold; Switzerland is too neutral for my taste; I didn’t particularly like Austria when I visited it last year; and Iceland is too homogenous. So, I am going to move to The Bahamas if that’s what it takes to achieve happiness. I have always liked tropical islands anyway.

A recent comprehensive “scientific” study of the relative happiness of people in various countries have been published in the United Kingdom. The Danes came out on top. America is at a respectable 23 (out of 178) though the Asian countries seem far behind (India is at 125, China 82 and Japan 90). See here for the complete happiness map (PDF).

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Posted by riyer on March 19th 2007 in Education, Internet, Journalism, Productivity, Statistics, Women, World
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A few of my friends, my wife included, frequently bemoan the fact that the world as we know it is coming apart and things are getting worse every day. The daily onslaught of news on the human condition does not help alleviate this feeling for them.

Ever the optimist, I assert that on the whole this generation is doing better by itself and by its fellow man compared to any other generation in the past. Obviously I say this with no data, only as someone who is actively engaged in a grounds-up effort to provide opportunity to those who have none. Personal experience of being with some of these people gives me that optimism. Now it turns out that there is also data available to show that our lot is getting better, not worse.

Take a look at Gapminder They present human development data across the world in some very cool and innovative ways (Google has acquired their technology to make it available for free).

Go to the tools section and try out the GapMinder World, 2006 (the first one on the Tools page). You can change the X and Y axes (It defaults to Income v/s Life Expectancy but you can change them (e.g. you can compare Life Expectancy v/s Military Spending). It gives you a clear indicator on how things are changing around the world (except in Sub Saharan Africa where, due to the AIDS crisis, things have slipped back a bit).

BTW: It is also a fantastic way to get kids interested in statistics. Over the weekend my 6 y.o look at it over my shoulder and the next thing you know she spent more than an hour in front of the computer playing with the X and Y Axes. She kept telling me everything from “How Malawi compares with the United States in Child Mortality (I explained to her what that is)” , she was playing with Physicans per 1000 people etc, population growth over time etc.

I would also recommend the 1 hour Tech Talk they have posted (given at Google) and the video on Slums.

(Sorry, this post does not fit into any one category that we have - so I choose a few of them)

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Posted by riyer on December 20th 2006 in Food & Wine, Health & Fitness, Rants, Statistics
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We haven’t had one of these “Study says” posts in a while
As a child’s IQ rises, his taste for meat in adulthood declines, a new study suggests. ..So bite me, anupcs

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Posted by crewcut on November 20th 2006 in Disease, Statistics
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A final year MBA student from my alma mater committed suicide last week after having been diagnosed with Niemann-Pick Disease, a fatal genetic disease.

According to Wikipedia, the highest occurrence of NPD is in the Ashkenazi Jewish community, with an incidence of 1 in 40,000. Given this incidence and a test accuracy of 99.9%, the chance of actually having the disease, if tested positive, is just 2.4%. If the test accuracy fell to 99%, the chances drop to 0.25%.

Could this be a case of the test providing a False Positive?

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