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982 andrew gelman stats-2011-10-30-“There’s at least as much as an 80 percent chance . . .”


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Introduction: Kaiser Fung points to the above self-canceling statement which comes from a quantitatively-trained expert on international debt. I can only assume that he was speaking quickly and that the reporter didn’t know enough to ask him to clarify. When I’m interviewed, I emit a lot of ums, uhs, and probably quite a few meaningless remarks, but usually whoever is interviewing me knows to just keep the good stuff. As Kaiser points out, the above quote could mean two completely opposite things! In context I’m sure it was clear to the speaker but it’s not at all obvious what’s going on in the published version. Again, I’m not blaming the expert here, it’s just a miscommunication that got into the article, something that Kaiser noticed (and that I care about) because of our interest in probability communication. In any case, the line “at least as much as an 80 percent chance” should join “ But viewed in retrospect, it is clear that it has been quite predictable ” in the Probability Hall


Summary: the most important sentenses genereted by tfidf model

sentIndex sentText sentNum sentScore

1 Kaiser Fung points to the above self-canceling statement which comes from a quantitatively-trained expert on international debt. [sent-1, score-0.136]

2 I can only assume that he was speaking quickly and that the reporter didn’t know enough to ask him to clarify. [sent-2, score-0.087]

3 When I’m interviewed, I emit a lot of ums, uhs, and probably quite a few meaningless remarks, but usually whoever is interviewing me knows to just keep the good stuff. [sent-3, score-0.649]

4 As Kaiser points out, the above quote could mean two completely opposite things! [sent-4, score-0.127]

5 In context I’m sure it was clear to the speaker but it’s not at all obvious what’s going on in the published version. [sent-5, score-0.19]

6 Again, I’m not blaming the expert here, it’s just a miscommunication that got into the article, something that Kaiser noticed (and that I care about) because of our interest in probability communication. [sent-6, score-0.492]

7 In any case, the line “at least as much as an 80 percent chance” should join “ But viewed in retrospect, it is clear that it has been quite predictable ” in the Probability Hall of Fame. [sent-7, score-0.562]

8 I was curious about the background of Kenneth Rogoff (the source of the above quote) so I looked him up and found this mini-autobiography, which for some reason irritated me. [sent-10, score-0.106]

9 I’m not sure if it was the odd line about his parents being “true liberals” or the exhaustive detail about the various newspapers and books that reprinted his old chess games. [sent-11, score-0.756]

10 I can’t fault the guy for bragging—in some ways, this entire blog is a big brag—but there was something about the tone of Rogoff’s bragging that put me off. [sent-12, score-0.476]

11 My favorite part was where he mentions that he finished 13th in a chess tournament in 1976—he is oddly precise and lists his place as “tied for 13th-15th”—but qualifies this by explaining that he played only in the summers, unlike the other players who were full-time professionals. [sent-13, score-1.133]

12 I have to admit, if I’d ever been good enough in a sport to finish 13th in a major tournament, I’d probably find a way to work it onto my webpage too. [sent-14, score-0.514]


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tfidf for this blog:

wordName wordTfidf (topN-words)

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Introduction: Kaiser Fung points to the above self-canceling statement which comes from a quantitatively-trained expert on international debt. I can only assume that he was speaking quickly and that the reporter didn’t know enough to ask him to clarify. When I’m interviewed, I emit a lot of ums, uhs, and probably quite a few meaningless remarks, but usually whoever is interviewing me knows to just keep the good stuff. As Kaiser points out, the above quote could mean two completely opposite things! In context I’m sure it was clear to the speaker but it’s not at all obvious what’s going on in the published version. Again, I’m not blaming the expert here, it’s just a miscommunication that got into the article, something that Kaiser noticed (and that I care about) because of our interest in probability communication. In any case, the line “at least as much as an 80 percent chance” should join “ But viewed in retrospect, it is clear that it has been quite predictable ” in the Probability Hall

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Introduction: No joke. See here (from Kaiser Fung). At the Statistics Forum.

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Introduction: Mark Palko writes : Chess derives most of its complexity through differentiated pieces; with checkers the complexity comes from the interaction between pieces. The result is a series of elegant graph problems where the viable paths change with each move of your opponent. To draw an analogy with chess, imagine if moving your knight could allow your opponent’s bishop to move like a rook. Add to that the potential for traps and manipulation that come with forced capture and you have one of the most remarkable games of all time. . . . It’s not unusual to hear masters of both chess and checkers (draughts) to admit that they prefer the latter. So why does chess get all the respect? Why do you never see a criminal mastermind or a Bond villain playing in a checkers tournament? Part of the problem is that we learn the game as children so we tend to think of it as a children’s game. We focus on how simple the rules are and miss how much complexity and subtlety you can get out of those ru

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Introduction: Kaiser Fung points to the above self-canceling statement which comes from a quantitatively-trained expert on international debt. I can only assume that he was speaking quickly and that the reporter didn’t know enough to ask him to clarify. When I’m interviewed, I emit a lot of ums, uhs, and probably quite a few meaningless remarks, but usually whoever is interviewing me knows to just keep the good stuff. As Kaiser points out, the above quote could mean two completely opposite things! In context I’m sure it was clear to the speaker but it’s not at all obvious what’s going on in the published version. Again, I’m not blaming the expert here, it’s just a miscommunication that got into the article, something that Kaiser noticed (and that I care about) because of our interest in probability communication. In any case, the line “at least as much as an 80 percent chance” should join “ But viewed in retrospect, it is clear that it has been quite predictable ” in the Probability Hall

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