U.S. coronavirus cases per capita, from the Washington Post

Posted on April 13, 2020 by bitemaster

Here in the Transbaikal, we get our news brought in by yak; it’s slow but reliable (“reliable” in the sense that the yaks refuse to carry anything from Fox News or the Washington Times).

It has been our good fortune that correspondent J.R. packed this link into our latest yak delivery. Instead of the usual media blather about “most cases” or “most deaths,” the Washington Post has helpfully converted the data to per capita.

Click the link and be enlightened: U.S. coronavirus cases: Tracking deaths, reported cases by state – Washington Post

8 College Degrees With The Lowest Unemployment Rates | HuffPost Life

Posted on May 6, 2019 by bitemaster

What I found interesting wasn’t the results of the study or the methodology (I didn’t read that far), but the values they reported: unemployment rate, underemployment rate, median wage early career, median wage mid-career, and share with graduate degree.

I think , if you wanted to choose a career based on the economics, you’d want to weigh those factors, as well as where you’d need to move in order to achieve those outcomes.

Source: 8 College Degrees With The Lowest Unemployment Rates | HuffPost Life

Trump selects voter fraud expert to assist in investigation

Posted on February 1, 2017 by bitemaster

Gregg Phillips, President Donald Trump’s main source for investigating alleged voter fraud in the past election is registered to vote in three different states.

There have been claims that many Trump appointees are unqualified. But not Gregg Phillips. Phillips, the source of Trump’s claim that three million people illegally voted in the November election, knows what he’s talking about. He’s registered in no less than three states.

Source: Trump’s Texas Voter Fraud ‘Expert’ Registered to Vote in Three States

If I’m not happy, why should you be?

Posted on February 1, 2016 by bitemaster

To our nation’s founders, happiness was a right of man. So would they be pleased to learn that modern day Americans are indeed happy? In fact, the majority of U.S. adults today describe themselves as “very happy.” Happiness appears to be an equal opportunity emotion, striking men, women, whites, nonwhites, young, and old in similar degrees. Marriage is associated with higher rates of happiness, but more money doesn’t necessarily buy greater happiness. The rate of happiness is depressed [ha!] among low-income Americans, but it levels off at a higher rate in households earning $30,000 or more.

In response to the Bitemaster’s rants about happiness (e.g., are women any happier now that they have the vote?), Correspondent Jeffrey Wilheim has provided a link to an actual study of people’s happiness: A Nation of Happy People

Department of Justice does zilch against mortgage fraud, then fakes its statistics

Posted on March 21, 2014 by bitemaster

Adapted from Above the Law:

A few months ago, the FBI had quietly admitted that its primary function was no longer law enforcement but rather “national security.” Instead the FBI is putting a huge part of its budget towards “counterterrorism” while its efforts to take down white collar crime is dropping significantly.

This is confirmed by new report from the Justice Department’s Inspector General. It notes that, despite President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder promising that cracking down on mortgage fraud was a top priority, the FBI has actually put it near the bottom of the list of actual priorities.

The DOJ then pretended that it had been fighting mortgage fraud and put on a whole presentation about its success — based on totally faulty numbers. Numbers that it was pretty sure were faulty — and then took nearly a year to admit that their claims of success were based on bogus stats.

via Despite Promises To Fight Mortgage Fraud, DOJ Basically Ignored It, Then Claimed Success With Faulty Stats « Above the Law: A Legal Web Site – News, Commentary, and Opinions on Law Firms, Lawyers, Law Schools, Law Suits, Judges and Courts + Career Resources.

What does the Department of Ed do with $24 billion? It ain’t going to the teachers.

Posted on October 31, 2013 by bitemaster

The NYC Department of Education has about 75,000 teachers, who are paid an average of $72,708 per year. For a total of

$5,453,100,000 total teacher expense per year

How much is that per student? Divide by about 1,100,000 students:

The cost of teachers is $4,966.45 per student

The DOE budget is $24 billion per year. Divide by 1,100,000 students and we find that we have:

$21,818.18 budgeted per student

Subtract $4,966.45 from $21,818.18 to get:

$16,852.35 overhead per student

SUMMARY:

$21,818.18 total expenditure per student
$16,852.35 overhead per student (77.2%)
$ 4,966.45 cost of teachers per student (22.8%)

Makes you wonder.

Bloomberg touts success of schools using five-year-old numbers

Posted on October 27, 2013 by bitemaster

Here’s an actual quote from the NY Daily News, 10/24/2013:

“Students at the new, smaller high schools also got four more days of instruction each year on average, according to the study of 101 schools from 2003-2008.”

Performance must have really sucked for the last five years if they’re touting this ancient study.

Nate Silver’s Times colleagues hated that he disagreed with them

Posted on July 29, 2013 by bitemaster

The Times’ public editor, Margaret Sullivan compared statistical guru Nate Silver to Brad Pitt’s character in Moneyball, writing that Silver’s “entire probability-based way of looking at politics ran against the kind of political journalism that The Times specializes in: polling, the horse race, campaign coverage, analysis based on campaign-trail observation, and opinion writing, or ‘punditry,’ as he put it, famously describing it as ‘fundamentally useless.'”

Hehe. Apparently the Times establishment got all pissy when Silver showed that he could call elections better than the rest of them.

via Nate Silver ‘disruptive’ at Times, public editor says – POLITICO.com.

Where do America’s cultural and beer boundaries lie?

Posted on April 11, 2013 by bitemaster

The Beervana blog has written up some very interesting research by Dirk Brockmann into America’s cultural boundaries — and it involves the WheresGeorge game.

Beervana: Where America’s Cultural (and beer?) Boundaries Lie.

Zumba hooker quite the busy beaver

Posted on October 16, 2012 by bitemaster

According to Wikipedia, Kennebunk ME has a population of about 10,798. The percentage age 18 or over is 74.4. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 82.1 males.

Residents 18 and over = 10,798 x 74.4% = 8,033.

Adult male percentage = 82.1 / 182.1 = 45.1%

Males 18 and over = 8,033 x 45.1% = 3,621

Number of clients of the Zumba hooker > 100

Proportion of the adult male population of Kennebunk that patronized Alexis Wright = 100 / 3621 = 2.76%

Police release first round of names of men who allegedly paid Maine Zumba instructor for sex – NY Daily News.

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Category Archives: Statistics