This Electronic Statistics Textbook offers training in the understanding and application of statistics. The material was developed at the StatSoft R&D department based on many years of teaching undergraduate and graduate statistics courses and covers a wide variety of applications, including laboratory research (biomedical, agricultural, etc.), business statistics and forecasting, social science statistics and survey research, data mining, engineering and quality control applications, and many others.
The Electronic Textbook begins with an overview of the relevant elementary (pivotal) concepts and continues with a more in depth exploration of specific areas of statistics, organized by "modules," accessible by buttons, representing classes of analytic techniques. A glossary of statistical terms and a list of references for further study are included.

Electronic Textbook StatSoft

"Obviously, such research does not speak at all to the question of the prejudice level of the president," said Banaji, "but it does show that George W. Bush is appealing as a leader to those Americans who harbor greater anti-black prejudice."

Gold Star. If I knew how to give gold stars, that is, or if I had any.

Study Ties Political Leanings to Hidden Biases

Our
brains may never be well-enough equipped to understand the universe
and we are fooling ourselves if we think they will.

Why should we expect to be able eventually to understand how the
universe originated, evolved, and operates? While human brains
are complex and capable of many amazing things, there is not necessarily
any match between the complexity of the universe and the complexity
of our brains, any more than a dog's brain is capable of understanding
every detail of the world of cats and bones, or the dynamics of
stick trajectories when thrown. Dogs get by and so do we, but do
we have a right to expect that the harder we puzzle over these
things the nearer we will get to the truth? Recently I stood in
front of a three metre high model of the Ptolemaic universe in
the Museum of the History of Science in Florence and I remembered
how well that worked as a representation of the motions of the
planets until Copernicus and Kepler came along.

I tend to not care for these guys, but this one is interesting.

The human brain and its products are incapable of understanding the truths about the universe

nderstanding
the contemporary shift away from visual towards
more aural legal metaphors requires an initial explanation of our
traditional preference for visually oriented legal language. In this
part of the Article, I suggest that this preference is a product of
three overlapping factors: first, a longstanding American cultural
bias towards visual expression and experience that is arguably based
on the social prominence of the written word; second, the traditional
numeric and political domination of American law and legal literature
by members of gender, racial, ethnic, and religious groups which
through their special command, control, or endorsement of writing have
in the course of American history developed and/or demonstrated a
particular respect for visuality; and, third, the accord that exists
between orthodox American legal values and the values we have come to
associate with vision as a phenomenon. In the pages that follow, I
will consider each of these factors in turn.

I don't know why I am memeing this.

Visual Metaphors in Law and Legal Discourse - Professor Bernard Hibbitts

It used to be that the only way to get a
college degree was to fork over a lot of money and spend hours sitting in a stuffy classroom. But things have changed, and more and more schools are delivering the
classroom--by mail, on video, and over the Internet--directly to you, wherever and whenever you want. Whether for love of learning, career advancement, or personal
satisfaction, you can get a college degree--bachelor's, master's, or doctorate--faster, cheaper, and better nontraditionally.

Russell contemplates completing his last year of study online.

Degree.net Central

Peter A. Strittmatter, president of the LBT Corp., said, "This is a momentous occasion not only for the LBT partners but also for the international astronomical community. These first images far exceed our expectations and provide a glimpse of the unparalleled observational power the LBT will provide. We are extremely excited by the prospect that we can now observe the Universe from the earliest epochs of galaxy formation as well as provide major new capabilities for the study of exo-solar planets and the possibility of life outside our solar system."

Large Binoccular Telescope Successfully Achieves First Light

It doesn't matter how brainy you are or how much education you've had - you can still improve and expand your mind. Boosting your mental faculties doesn't have to mean studying hard or becoming a reclusive book worm. There are lots of tricks, techniques and habits, as well as changes to your lifestyle, diet and behaviour that can help you flex your grey matter and get the best out of your brain cells. And here are 11 of them.

read later

New Scientist 11 steps to a better brain

It appears that there are enormous differences of opinion as to the probability of a failure with loss of vehicle and of human life. The estimates range from roughly 1 in 100 to 1 in 100,000. The higher figures come from the working engineers, and the very low figures from management. What are the causes and consequences of this lack of agreement? Since 1 part in 100,000 would imply that one could put a Shuttle up each day for 300 years expecting to lose only one, we could properly ask "What is the cause of management's fantastic faith in the machinery?"

Linked from Dagmar's 6 dumbest ideas in computer security.

Personal observations onthe reliability of the Shuttle,by R.P. Feynman

] When scientists wanted to explore what kind of life might
] exist on Mars, public television's "NOVA" recorded the
] building and launch of the rovers sent to the planet.
]
] Now, a year later, the "NOVA" team is back with "Welcome
] to Mars," featuring data collected by the robots as they
] searched for signs that the planet may once have harbored
] tiny forms of life. The program airs at 8 tonight on PBS.

I really enjoyed this as well. I was surprised that most of the engineers were in their 30s. I'm used to seeing fuckers in their 40s and 50s in the Apollo movies.

'NOVA' welcomes viewers to Mars - 01/04/05

When you point to any structure on the large image of the hand, that bone or structure will be highlighted in the smaller image to the left to help you locate it.

Anterior view of Right Hand