1. 11:17 27th Dec 2011

    Tags: ylntexcelsior!I love accuracyknowing is 50% of the battle

    The 12 Days Of Christmas - A Lesson In How A Complex Appraisal Can Go Astray

    “We do not wish to ruin the fun of the holidays. But, if you want to appraise something, you need to do it right.”

    There is a clear voice in this analysis and it kills me a little that there is no byline because I am terribly curious how the author would misspell “Van Hœt”.

     

  2. 19:39 16th Aug 2011

    Tags: work playlistscienceI love accuracyknowing is 50% of the battle

    Shoes and Ducks at Sea

    Boom.  Scientific goldmine.

     

  3. 15:43 23rd Nov 2010

    Tags: HIGHLY FUNCTIONAL/BROKEN.I love accuracyPlausiblyDeniable

    NO, I DO NOT WANT TO UPDATE MY PERIODIC TABLE APP, YOU KNOW WHY? UNLESS THERE IS NEW INFORMATION GOING ON IT, I DON’T _NEED_ AN UPDATE. AND, BECAUSE I DEAL WITH THE STUFF EVERY DAY, I KNOW THERE ARE NOT NEW ELEMENTS THAT YOU WERE ADDING. IF THERE WERE I WOULD HAVE READ ABOUT IT. I DON’T NEED THE FLASH AND SPARKLE, I JUST FRIGGIN’ WANTED SOME ASSURANCE THAT IF I COULDN’T PULL A MOLECULAR WEIGHT FROM MEMORY, AND I DIDN’T HAVE MY WALLET TABLES ON ME FOR SOME REASON, AND I WASN’T IN A ROOM WHERE IT WAS ALREADY POSTED SOMEPLACE, OR IT WASN’T ON A MOUSEPAD, OR…YOU KNOW WHAT? THIS IS BULLSHIT. DONE WITH YOU. UNINSTALL. FROM NOW ON, NOMINAL MASSES. CARBON? 12.
    — 

    —A chemist about 2 meters* from me, loses composure due to an update alert.

    *±2.5 meters

     

  4. 11:35 30th Sep 2010

    Tags: I love accuracychartjunk

    via ilovecharts (as seen in the “Radar”) Let’s approximate that the bottommost-disk (highlighted red), has an outer radius of 5 and inner radius of 4, with corresponding midsized-disk (highlighted orange) values of 4 and 3, and center-disk (highlighted yellow) values of 3 and 2. This means that the overall area of the disk highlighted yellow is is (9π-4π) or 5π, orange (16π-9π) or 7π, and the red is (25π-16π) or 9π. If we then posit that the creator (amir hayak) of this chart generated the regions of highlighting by simply multiplying out the percentages, the yellow area is 3.75π, orange area is 3.78π, and the red area is 2.52π.  As someone who occasionally will (very clearly, so as to not cast doubt on actual work) joke about misleading people with statistics and pictures, let me say I was gladdened to see that more people have tap-water than electricity. I mean, both would be better.  I’d poke the precision of language, but it is more galling to get data representation wrong than text in what might be a second or third language.  The international language of science is Broken English:  I get that—I grew up with it.  One wants to be better, but it takes work.  However, if one does indeed “love charts”, perhaps one should get them right.  For these kinds of figures, the differences in radii should not be equal.

    via ilovecharts (as seen in the “Radar”)

    Let’s approximate that the bottommost-disk (highlighted red), has an outer radius of 5 and inner radius of 4, with corresponding midsized-disk (highlighted orange) values of 4 and 3, and center-disk (highlighted yellow) values of 3 and 2.

    This means that the overall area of the disk highlighted yellow is is (9π-4π) or 5π, orange (16π-9π) or 7π, and the red is (25π-16π) or 9π.

    If we then posit that the creator (amir hayak) of this chart generated the regions of highlighting by simply multiplying out the percentages, the yellow area is 3.75π, orange area is 3.78π, and the red area is 2.52π. 

    As someone who occasionally will (very clearly, so as to not cast doubt on actual work) joke about misleading people with statistics and pictures, let me say I was gladdened to see that more people have tap-water than electricity. I mean, both would be better. 

    I’d poke the precision of language, but it is more galling to get data representation wrong than text in what might be a second or third language.  The international language of science is Broken English:  I get that—I grew up with it.  One wants to be better, but it takes work.  However, if one does indeed “love charts”, perhaps one should get them right. 

    For these kinds of figures, the differences in radii should not be equal.