As in previous years, I want to repost a warning to ‘Og readers that all http links to Amazon.com [and much more rarely to Amazon.fr] products found on this ‘Og are actually susceptible to reward me with an advertising percentage if a purchase is made by the reader in the 24 hours following the entry […]
Bad writing and the inability to explain in terms normal people can understand are the hallmarks of academic writing. Here are two books every academic should read and take to heart to be able to recognize bad prose and learn how to fix it. Randall Munroe, Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Terms Munroe is the guy … Continue reading Review: Munroe’s Thing Explainer and Pinker’s Sense of Style
Here are the most popular entries for 2014: 17 equations that changed the World (#2) 995 Le Monde puzzle [website] 992 “simply start over and build something better” 991 accelerating MCMC via parallel predictive prefetching 990 Bayesian p-values 960 posterior predictive p-values 849 Bayesian Data Analysis [BDA3] 846 Bayesian programming [book review] 834 Feller’s shoes […]
As in previous years, at about this time, I want to (re)warn unaware ‘Og readers that all links to Amazon.com and more rarely to Amazon.fr found on this blog are actually susceptible to earn me an advertising percentage if a purchase is made by the reader in the 24 hours following the entry on Amazon […]
Can you write an entire book about a single chart? Even if that chart is supposedly the best one ever? Menno-Jan Kraak's new book, Mapping Time: Illustrated by Minard's Map of Napoleon's Russian Campaign of 1812, discusses the historical context of Minard's work, his, life, and walks through a number of design exercises to show the same or similar data in different ways.
Trees. They’re everywhere. And not just in the physical world, but in data visualization and knowledge representation as well. This is not a new phenomenon, it goes back thousands of years. Manuel Lima’s new book, The Book of Trees, gives an overview. Setting Expectations This review is an example of priming. The first time I […]
Following a now well-established pattern, let me (re)warn (the few) unwary ‘Og readers that the links to Amazon.com and to Amazon.fr found on this blog are actually susceptible to earn me a monetary gain [from 4% to 8% on the sales] if a purchase is made by the reader in the 24 hours following the […]
When I’m asked for a good book about visualization, I usually try to change the subject. There is no book I really love, they all have their issues. But thanks to Isabel Meirelles, I can now give a straight answer: Design for Information. In the interest of full disclosure: I was sent a free copy […]
The title of this book Informative Hypotheses somehow put me off from the start: the author, Hebert Hoijtink, seems to distinguish between informative and uninformative (deformative? disinformative?) hypotheses. Namely, something like H0: μ1=μ2=μ3=μ4 is “very informative” and unrealistic, and the alternative Ha is completely uninformative, while the “alternative null” H1: μ1<μ2=μ3<μ4 is informative. (Hence the < […]
Inattentional and change blindness are two fascinating phenomena that more people should be aware of. The Invisible Gorilla describes them as well as some other interesting and surprising psychological research. This book has been out for over three years, and I’ve been meaning to write a review forever. What brought it back to my attention is a recent news story on the safety implications of voice-controlled systems in cars. Just…
