New statistical site makes relevant data available for the masses

[DukeP]

Sorry about the long headline.

Statistics are both a boon and a curse. As a teacher ,I have way too often used statistics in a way that was far less than optimal. Numbers are misleading, and not all persons are capable of doing the necessary arithmethic factchecking.

But now theres an online statistical engine, that eases the work: Gapfinder.

Check out the presentation here: http://www.gapminder.org/videos/200-...ged-the-world/

Oh: its free.

~~DukeP~~

[cjolley]

That is really interesting. Nice find.

[Nowhere]

BTW, there's a superb (just watch first 3 minutes and you'll watch the rest ) presentation on related issues, by the same people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUwS1uAdUcI

How I wish most/large number of presentations I attended/will attend (in person) were like this...instead most are just POS fillers, with Powerpoint used as a crib sheet by the presenter. The few good ones I've seen used, typically, practically no electronic/etc. aids, just a blackboard usually.

Which makes me think that the biggest thing accomplished by mainstream presentation software is making untallented people confident enough to make large number of presentations/public speeches...which are a waste of time.

And, obviously, gapminder is so great not because of the software, but people there who already knew what they were doing when it comes to presenting ideas...and were just a little more CS inclined / decided to make their own software that would...actually work.

[DukeP]

I could not agree more.

Unfortunately - Powerpoints are easy. I make a rather large amount of presentations. At least 2 different presentations a week.

And: People expect me to have a powerpoint with me.
And they expect me to give them my powerpoint, after I have told my presentation.

I always do.

Sometimes I dont show half the slides.

Sometimes i spent half the time speaking in front of one particular slide.

But the couple of times I have given a presentation without a powerpoint or similar presentation tool; the start is uphill. Like I need to convert people, to make them have faith in my "own" oppinions, instead of those on the .ppt.

I guess its the sense of "getting ones moneys worth".

When I step onto the stage and deliver a 45 minute presentation w/o visual aids etc. many people, at least in Denmark, frowns on paying my 1000$ fee (which is actually quite cheap).

When I do the exact identical presentation - but with a powerpoint - people seems more inclined a priori to value the presentation.

Perhaps most people think little of the preparations required to give an unaided 45minutes presentation.

Imo it takes much more time to prepare an unaided than an aided presentation.

~~DukeP~~

[VJ]

Interesting!

But it can allow one to draw conclusions that are untrue: it is possible to combine uncorrelated data...
As an illustration, consider this example (from the author the Flying Spaghetti monster):