First Blog

You want more?  You want programs that cost too much? You want to get elected?  Our national candidates have found a way.  Just CHANGE THE MATH!  STEP 1. From now on...

Over a century ago, British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli penned ,”There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.”   So true this is I’ve advocated for years my all students should take a Stat course.   We’ve advanced and now it is safe to say there are Lies, damned lists, statistics, and campaign promises. You can tell because whenever a campaign promise is kept, it becomes actual news. Even the official remarks on it as though one finally happened.   A regular flurry of press releases issue forth as if from a snow machine.   Remarkably, every election season most people vote for these promises knowing all the while they will not likely become reality.   Elections, therefore, are the single greatest example of hope by mankind – or are they simply legalized gambling events?    (You bet your future on outcomes you don’t expect. 😊 )

Letters from the future.   Many of us wonder what can be achieved with big data, which combines multiple data bases and machine learning.  This is the second of a series of letters maybe not sent yet but soon will flood the world.  We are suggesting what can be done right now, like today.   This particular letter is sent to Democratic voters; a similar letter targeting Republican voters is just as easy.  The footnotes are for you, the reader, not the letter recipient. NOTE.  Many databases need to be resourced for this letter.  This is what big data does, and it does it today . Dear Mr Enyone, We understand you are very busy, and this is the reason you were unable to vote in the previous election (1), even though you are so registered.  It has come to our attention that you are earning about $45,000/year (2), and you must be concerned about the decline of the dollar and availability of universal health care (3). You also grew up in Detroit where most residents vote soli

What concerns me about Republicans is that there seem to be candidates from moderate to far right all advocating courses of action, many contradicting the other.   Moreover, many seem to have a firm constituency that believes in the correctness of their proposals.   It is the lack of internal consensus that is of greatest concern.   All camps delight in extolling their virtues in equal measure to their opponents’ faults.   Another, most troubling concern, is that of the polls.   In this cycle, we see complete amateurs vying for the top spot, with essentially no records of achievement – except possibly with giving speeches.   Overall, there is so much internal dissent, it has become disturbing.  Pollsters, even the most honest, have little experience polling preferences among such a large group of participants.   They give percentages of error not sustainable even by elementary statistical methods.     Moreover, they have no method of accommodating newsworthy visibility.    Yet, po