How Statisticians Affect the World

I chance upon this article:

AP Impact: Statisticians reject global cooling

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091027/ap_on_sc/us_sci_global_cooling

This is a good read for all to recognize the value of statistics in our everyday lives. A good read also for all statistics students, some sort of warning for them to be careful when analyzing and interpreting data. :)

Graphs or Tables

When do we use graphs? When do we use tables?

Which is more appropriate -- a graph or a table?

Simple rule: If you want to present details or values from your data - use tables.

If you want to present a trend - use graphs.

Here's a good write-up on the use of graphs and tables for presentation purposes:

http://www.thinkoutsidetheslide.com/articles/using_graphs_and_tables.htm

Lies, lies, lies and statistics

Here's a good read about Statistics' potentials --http://my.execpc.com/~helberg/pitfalls/

SAS vs SPSS vs STATA

As a biostatistician, I've always been asked by students, residents, consultants which statistical software is the best. Unfortunately, i don't have any definite straight answer for that question. It is the same thing with any question bothering us about our life... before we can answer, or decide, we have to weigh different factors. Top 3 considerations? Read on...

1. Why do you need a statistical software? Main purpose?

If you are just a college student and you'll just be using the software for the basic statistics course, then you might not need to buy expensive licenses (yes they are very costly), there are a lot of free online statistical calculators that one can use for simple statistical analysis. Of course, it would be a different story, if you have a statistical consulting firm, you might need more than one statistical software since each software has their own unique tools for different situations. In the academics, SAS, SPSS, and STATA are very well accepted and recognized. In the pharmaceutical industry, in some countries such as the Philippines, they require SAS for clinical trials.

2. Who is the end-user?

Some softwares may require additional training for new users. SAS is a software that is heavy on programming, while SPSS has an interface that is more user-friendly.

3. Budget?

I think, SAS License is the most expensive of the three (at least here in the Philippines), followed by SPSS, and then STATA.

If there is no budget at all, and one is in health research -- then EPI-INFO or OPEN-EPI is the best option. They are actually freewares :)

Link for EPI-INFO: http://www.cdc.gov/EpiInfo/

Link for OPEN-EPI: http://www.openepi.com/Menu/OpenEpiMenu.htm

Readers! !!

I looked at the visitor's map.. and guess what -- i had some visitors ... am not sure though if they find the blog useful, amusing? ... he he he :) This map really made my day, and somehow, someway it also motivated me to continue blogging... Maybe someday i'll write more about my job and provide some useful links and articles as well. :)

Day without work!

Oh, am at work all right. 50 minutes to go before going home and still haven't done anything related to work. There are no residents, students asking, consulting most probably because it is friday therefore they are in vacation mood also. I've been reading a lot of food blogs these past couple of days. I find it entertaining. SOme food blogs really are complete, with pictures for every step in the cooking procedure. Which is very helpful to very amateur cooks like me. I told my sister that i plan to have a blog on cooking, and she told me, there are a lot of them already, so i should not bother at all. Well, she's right, so, this blog will stay as it is, at the moment. Will think of other options... :)

Happy Father's Day Again

Wow, i almost forgot i have a blog.... :) This year's father day was a double celebration because it was my eldest daughter's 11th birthday the next day. And another good thing was the in-laws paid for the lunch .... ha ha ha :)

Things are not moving here in the office, so i might as well blog, and practice my writing skills... that was my main purpose for setting up this blog actually ..... but seems am not getting into it, because the blogs are so rare that last year i only had several posts while for this year, this is my first entry... :)

Might as well rename this blog... i am envious of those who are really active in blogging... one of my favorite blog nowadays is a recipe blog... i have this hobby of reading recipe or cookbooks, and even online, i guess, i am happy reading recipes... is it weird? are there other people who got their high reading recipes? .....