People tend to think that those who prefer to see arguments based on numbers and statistical evidence are lacking in personality and a sense of humor. In an effort to counter this perception, here is a joke David Tufte (a fellow economist at Southern Utah University) posted on his blog (VoluntaryXchange).
A statistician’s wife gives birth to twins. Excitedly, he calls everyone to share the good news. When he tells the church they say, ‘That’s terrific! Bring them down to church this Sunday, and we’ll baptize them!’
’Uh, let’s just baptize one of them,’ says the statistician. ‘We can keep the other one as a control”.
Okay, beyond that one joke (which is just a sample of one for those keeping track), here is the latest podcast from Nerd Numbers.
http://www.nerdnumbers.com/podcasts/STAT_01_30_2011.mp3
as Dre notes, smart readers (like you) are using the RSS feed at:
http://www.nerdnumbers.com/podcasts/stat_feed.xml
(Advanced->Subscribe to Podcast in iTunes)
Here are some details from the podcast. As Dre notes, I was a guest (along with Dre’s brother and Arturo Galletti). The conversation wandered from my plot to destroy basketball as we know it, childhood memories of the Incredible Hulk, and eventually a bunch of stuff on basketball. If you click on the above link, Dre has posted a number of links that will make your listening even more enjoyable. And as you listen, you will also hear some attempts at humor (although, often the attempts may not have been statistically significant — and yes, that attempt at humor was also not statistically significant).
And one should note, from this podcast comes the subject of my next post.
– DJ
Wages of Wins Journal 
Matt Walters
January 31, 2011
Re: All-Star selections, excerpt from ESPN recap of Wolves/Raptors-
“Though his statistics aren’t quite as stunning as Love’s, Bargnani is in a similar bind as a standout on an unsuccessful team.”
Just checked the automated WP numbers and had a laugh.
Devin
January 31, 2011
Matt:
Don’t get me started on Bargnani.
dberri
January 31, 2011
Bargnani has a PER of 16.7. So he is clearly above average. Can’t see how anyone could argue with this.
Matt
February 1, 2011
On a random note:
Any thoughts on KG as a dirty player from a more intelligent crowd? Is it all overblown or is he really becoming awful?
Obviously, this isn’t WP related.
brgulker
February 1, 2011
I loved all the Pistons talk! I’ve been considering evaluating Dumars’ draft history through Wins Produced of those picks in the NBA. This might be the motivation I’ve needed to do so.
In short, I’m not convinced Dumars is below-average. I think he’s found very useful talent in the late first and second rounds. Where’s he’s failed miserably is the lottery. My theory is that those failures dwarf his more modest successes.
Time to test the theory, I think…