In the past two decades or so, Americans have searched Google about death more than they have films, TV, or even baseball. This stop-you-in-your-tracks observation, revealed by Google’s data editor Simon Rogers, is one of many in Kathryn Torney’s interview with Rogers in this issue. Google has data that helps us understand each other as a species and—like all the findings in Rogers’s new book—defy the notion that data analysis is somehow a cold, mechanical pursuit.
On a lighter note, our cover feature this issue takes a scholarly view of the beer mile—originally a Canadian (now global) sport/physical challenge in which participants gulp down a beer before running 400 meters—then repeat the act four times. People train for this. There are even world championships. Come for the beer or running; stay for an intriguing example of a modeling challenge using limited data.
Issue Highlights
Prison Remand: How the inappropriate use of remand to prison custody in England and Wales is ruining lives and wasting money
Mass Shootings: The complex web of factors behind mass public shootings
What Is Kurtosis?: Even stats textbooks get it wrong. An explanation of an often bamboozling statistical measure.
The Storytelling Fallacy: The perils of overselling a method’s performance using real data examples
Bad Stats: This issue: “promiscuous dichotomization” and why sugar doesn’t cause herpes
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