Thanks for that link, Janet. The link to the BBC
David sent around wasn't accessible from here.
Rosling's presentation displayed a wonderful method
of displaying data and potentially makes a useful point,
but...
200 years ago, there was no Italy or Germany, much
less a Congo or Vietnam.
Even where everyone is on the grid and there is
a robust statistical infrastructure at arm's length from government
interference, income is notoriously difficult to collect with accuracy.
Indeed, I believe there are fundamental obstacles to doing so. Per
capita GDP is no substitute by any means, although often enough in fact
substituted for actual income, but if that's the source of the data, where did
they come from for countries that didn't exist, or even for those that
did?
I'm not convinced that longevity and health are the
same thing.
I'm a little concerned that he had nothing to say
about the log scale on the x axis.
His conclusion appears to buy into the fallacy that
correlation is evidence of causation and draws a trajectory based on that
assumption that ignores all other factors, some of which are patently
relevant.
In
solidarity,
Harry Feldman Safe Work
Australia Data & Analysis
Section Strategic Policy
Branch GPO Box 641
Canberra ACT 2601 Location code: C220NB2 Phone (02) 6240 6812
From: email list for Radical Statistics
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of J R M
Shapiro Sent: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 22:52 To:[log in to unmask] Subject: The Joy of Statistics BBC4 Tuesday 7
December, 9pm
Dear all,
Unfortunately only 5 minutes of this TV film includes
Florence Nightingale as in RadStats #102. It looks interesting
though.
Janet Shapiro
Hello all,
I am sending this e-mail to:
1. All of those who know I was filmed in April for this BBC
documentary on The Joy of Stats, which will be shown tomorrow (Tuesday, 7
December) on BBC4 at 9pm. The four and a half hours of filming in
the Parliamentary Archvie, where I talked
about Victorian statisticians, but mainly Florence
Nightingale, was cut to about five minutes of Nightingale
2. Friends and colleagues who know about the work I
do
3. And to anyone, mainly other statisticians, who are
interested in statistics, as the bulk of the programme is a lighthearted
exploration of the world of statistics, narrated by the Swedish and UNESCO
statistician, Hans Rosling
For those of you who miss it tomorrow and want to see it, you
can access the BBC website , where it will be shown until 14 December.
Otherwise, there will be a website where it can be accessed, and
once the prodcuer needs to tell me the name of the webstie I can
let anyone know who is interested.
Here is a 4 minute excerpt from the
film which the producers put up on YouTube a few days ago as a
preview, which has already gone viral, and a quarter of a million
people have already downloaded it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo
.
With best wishes
Eileen
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