Google vs. Gallup — How the 2012 Elections Revealed Weakness in Old-School Polling
Polling techniques that changed with the times proved to more accurately predict the outcome of the 2012 elections. The loser? One of the biggest names in polling.
The Nano World — Microscopes Show Us the Ants' Willie Wonka Land
Looking closely at nature reveals that our world is a world isolated by its scale, not by its reality. At other scales, other worlds exist.
Math and Discipline — Why Nate Silver's Accuracy Isn't About "Big Data"
“Big data” isn’t what the Nate Silver story highlights. It highlights data curation, management, analysis, publication, iteration, and integrity, none of which “big data” guarantees.
More eLife Articles on PubMed Central — The Government Subsidy Continues
More articles are published by PubMed Central at the behest of eLife. It seems taxpayer-funded publishing is just fine for this new group.
Luck, Superstitions, and Rationality — Black Cats, Broken Mirrors, Ladders, Salt, and Umbrellas
Common sense of yesteryear is sometimes expressed as “luck.” Would we do better if we made modern common sense “lucky” as well?
eLife Articulates Its Media Policy, and Risks Some of Its Editorial Power
eLife clarifies its media policies, adopting the mask of an enlightened approach that actually makes it harder for everyone to generate much attention.
PubMed Central or OA Central — More Strange Behaviors at PMC and NLM Paint a Portrait of Biases and Poor Process
More information emerges about PubMed Central, its processes, its relationship with eLife, and its role as a technology provider. Overall, it looks like certain OA friends get special treatment, and the processes you think occur are often short-circuited and may not even be tracked.
"Owa, mein Arsch" — When Water's State Is More Set Than It Appears
“Look before you leap” may only be the beginning!
Book Review: Nate Silver's "The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — But Some Don't"
Nate Silver’s new book tackles many topics — Big Data, the problem with scientific statistics, chess, baseball, gambling — with style and substance. There’s a lot of signal here.
Something’s Rotten in Bethesda — The Troubling Tale of PubMed Central, PubMed, and eLife
Last week, PubMed Central became the primary and sole publisher of eLife content, putting its competition with publishers, its manipulation of PubMed indexing criteria, its competition with publishing technology companies, and its clear OA bias into stark relief.