Proofiness - Charles Seife [119]
Quaker Oats
race:
and death penalty
and politics
and voter suppression
railroads, regulation of
randomness
random weirdness
randumbness
abortion and breast cancer
in elections
red helps athletes win
tax cuts
Rasmussen, polling firm
Rather, Dan
Reagan, Ronald
Reagan administration
Reagonomics
Record, Taylor I.
regression analysis:
and death penalty
in election predictions
female vs. male racers
regression to the moon
Rehnquist, William H.
Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider
Rice County, Minnesota, ballots in
Richards, Paul
risk:
in airline industry
asteroid scares
exaggerating
insurance on
and money
moral hazard
and mortgages
and personality type
shifting
systemic
testing two scenarios of
risk mismanagement
abortion-breast cancer connection
Challenger
and death penalty
and financial crisis
in lawsuits
NASA
risks exaggerated by media
Virgin Galactic
Ritchie, Mark
Roberts, L. Clayton
Roe v. Wade
Roosevelt, Franklin D.
Roper, Elmo
Roper Corporation
Rose Bowl Parade, Pasadena
Royal Statistical Society
Ruiz, Alyzandra
Rumsfeld, Donald
Salvation Army
sampling:
in census count
in polls
sampling bias
savings and loan scandal
Scalia, Antonin:
and Baze v. Rees
and Bush v. Gore
and census numbers
and death penalty
and Kansas v. Marsh
and McClesky v. Kemp
and Potemkin numbers
Schiavo, Michael
Schiavo, Terri
seismographs
self-medication
Semipalatinsk test site, Soviet Union
sex, polls on
“Shy Tory” effect
SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome)
Silverado Banking
Simpson, O. J.
60 Minutes
Souter, David H.
Soviet Union, and nuclear testing
space shuttle
sprinters
statistical error:
in polls
reduction of
Stevens, John Paul
Stewart, Jon
Stoppard, Tom
strangelets
Supreme Court, U.S.:
Baze v. Rees
Bush v. Gore
and census numbers
and death penalty
on DNA testing
on gerrymandering
Kansas v. Marsh
McClesky v. Kemp
Roe v. Wade
systematic error:
in census figures
in polls
in presidential election (2000)
systemic risk
tax cuts:
apple-polishing with
randumbness in
“tea party” protests
temperature, human body
Tevatron
Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians
THAAD
Thomas, Clarence
tobacco tax
Tompson, Trevor
Toyota Prius hybrid
tragedy of the commons
Truman, Harry S.
truth, existence of
Tucker, Cynthia
Tversky, Amos
Twenty-fourth Amendment, poll taxes eliminated in
Twinkiegate
tyrannosaurus rex
uncertainty
vaccines
Vaseline
Vietnam War:
Hamlet Evaluation System in
Pentagon statistics on
Virgin Galactic
Vitter, David
voter suppression
grandfather clauses
illegal immigrants
literacy tests
poll taxes
sampling
and U.S. Census
voter ID laws
voter turnout
voter-verified paper trail
voting, electronic
Voting Rights Act (1965)
Wall Street Journal
Washington Post
Waxman, Henry
weapons of mass destruction
Will, George
Windschitl, Fran
Woman’s Right to Know Act (2003)
World Health Organization (WHO)
Wunderlich, Carl
Yale University, election predictions from
Zero (Seife)
Zogby International
1
One presidential aide’s notes reveal the confusion in the White House: “205 or 207? State Department can’t find the names; we assume McCarthy doesn’t have them either. 57? Said by McCarthy to be Communists. We don’t know whether McCarthy has a list. He says he does. We don’t know to whom he refers.”
2
A few months later, perhaps unwilling to be outdone by his colleague, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann touted “a five-year study just concluded at Indiana University” which proved that “upon the birth of their first child, 100 percent of parents lose at least 12 IQ points, and the average loss is 20.” These numbers, too, are fiction.
3
This doesn’t stop scientists from trying. To measure the effectiveness of painkillers in mice, some scientists use a calibrated hotplate; they measure pain by timing how long it takes for the mouse to jump or otherwise react to the hot surface.
4
Though the Park Service’s estimate was probably the best out there, some scholarly estimates went as high as roughly 900,000 people