Soxy

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Feb 3, 2017 -> 10:21 AM) Heros? They got big bucks from the teachers unions. nothing 'heroic' about it. Murkowski's also gotten over 40k from the DeVos family. . .

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Feb 6, 2017 -> 08:26 PM) There was no shooting at Berkeley. Pretty sure it happened on the anniversary of the Bowling Green Massacre. . .

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Feb 2, 2017 -> 07:43 PM) Paul Wellstone, for example. I felt called to come back to Soxtalk, and what do I see, but a mention of a politician I still pine for.

QUOTE (KipWellsFan @ May 19, 2012 -> 08:18 PM) This still goes on here? Hahaha What he said.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 05:33 PM) If there's a small sample size though I'd have to figure that anything one could reasonably call "Error bars" would be smaller than the ones they present. But if the standard error on the test itself is 15, then it seems like it would require an overwhelmingly large sample to get the error bars that they've reported. I would assume that as well, but since they aren't specifying what the error bars are--I'm not going to give them the benefit of the doubt. (Or much detail about sampling methods which is probably most crucial for IQ distributions.) This may be my bias (as an experimental psychologist), but in general people distort the f*** out of psychological research. I'm sure that's true in Geology too. But everyone thinks they understand Psychology, so any data we put out just gets distorted and messed up beyond belief. I simply don't trust anything I read based on a "psychology" study in the media. Now, if this was in a top tier journal, I'd go for it. But Psychology Today, no way.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 05:27 PM) To make it a bit clearer what you're saying...when you say "the test itself has a 15 point standard deviation" does that mean that if a single person took the test n number of times, the final distribution of IQ numbers would be normally distributed with a 1σ value of 15? Single person. So, if they used a small enough sample size, this range of means wouldn't be totally unheard of simply by chance.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 05:10 PM) The standard deviations presented in Figure 1 are on the order of ~1.0 points in IQ or less, while showing 10 points of spread, and the very liberal and very conservative groups are at least 5 error bars apart. Are you bringing outside info here or is there something in the article I'm missing suggesting that the actual error bars in that figure should be 5x larger than presented? The IQ test is relatively unique because it has been used so extensively that we know the range of scores. Basically, we (psychologists that are not me) know that the test itself has a 15 point standard deviation. So, if we gave the test to everyone in the country 68% would score between 85-115 and 96% between 70-130. (This is actually how the range for mental retardation and "gifted" were determined.) Of course this is only true for individual scores, group means have a much smaller likely range. (I used to know this, but it's crazy rare to have a mean be more than 5 or so points away from 100.) Basically, I find it unlikely that this was due to anything other than chance. Maybe if I read the original peer reviewed article, I would be less skeptical. But this seems to prey on people that don't know a ton about the IQ distribution, statistics, critical thinking, or how not to piss me off. My question was more if those are standard deviation, standard error, or some other type of confidence range. Plus, it's psychology today. Weekly World News : Reality :: Psychology Today : Psychology.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 04:01 PM) Wait, what? The human verbal trip-up has been one of his best assets? If it is true that the GOP will negotiate with him because he is Not Obama, than that would work for anyone he picked as a VP. Not that he would ever pick Huntsman or any other Republican, but still, I don't see how Biden has done anything to help Obama, at least in the public eye. What he might do behind closed doors I don't know. No way, if he had picked Clinton there would have been no chance they would play ball with her.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 23, 2011 -> 04:32 PM) Since liberals' patriotism was allowed to be a valid question and discussed like it actually meant something, you're going to enjoy the hell out of this article: Why Liberals Are Smarter Than Conservatives Dude, those differences are like 2/3 of a standard deviation. In those measly 10 points you probably have around 50% of the population. What do those error bars represent? Your article fails the Soxy Peer Review. Rejected outright, please do not resubmit. In related news, I might need a vacation because it is not good that these are my first thoughts upon reading this article. Dear science and statistics, you are ruining my life. On a related note: has anyone on here ever actually taken an IQ test? I never have.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Aug 22, 2011 -> 10:17 PM) So if the regime falls (I guess it will sooner rather than later)... then what? The last time we asked that question after a round or three of triumphant chest-beating it became clear nobody had a clue what the f*** to do and the s*** hit the fan and kept flying. Not really keen on having that happen again. That's exactly it. There was actually an interesting piece on Al-Jezeera English about leaders and possible fractures within the rebels a few days ago.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Aug 22, 2011 -> 09:32 AM) I'm not sure i'd agree that life begins at conception, but I also think allowing abortion up through 28 weeks is wrong. As of now I'd say that it's acceptable up through 5-6 weeks probably. I dunno how having a heartbeat and having brain function doesn't make you "alive." "Life" is obviously an incredibly difficult word to define, but let's compare it to its opposite - death. "Death" is when you have no heartbeat and you have no brain function. So if you have both... Under my definition of being alive or of "life" (which is obviously the sticking point here), he's still emphasizing "innocent life" in believing that capital punishment is wrong. IMO abortion is doing the same thing. I think the problem I have with this is that your biology is a bit off--at 6 weeks you have neural cells that seem to be functioning. I will grant you that. However, in general they are just that undifferentiated neural cells. To say we have a functioning brain at 6 weeks post conception is overly simplistic and borderline wrong.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 01:10 PM) It's clearly not just the strawpoll, his fundraising has been awful. He probably has had people behind the scenes telling him to get out, and now Parry is in there in the "playing to the base but former governor" role. Fair point. And Pawlentry probably wouldn't even have been able to carry his homestate.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 01:01 PM) Wow, I'm surprised also. usually people don't fall out this early. Especially after such a meaningless poll. It'd be like quitting because an AP Poll showed you were down a few points (although the AP Poll might more reliable and more valid).

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 14, 2011 -> 09:52 AM) I'll beat Balta to the bad news Republican post http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/paw...?tid=sm_twitter This surprises me. I thought that he could have been a contender. He seems like a pretty traditional Republican.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Aug 12, 2011 -> 12:11 PM) I found this on facebook, and couldn't say it any better. One of my friends posted that this was the stupidest thing since Pat Robertson said one of the Teletubbies was gay. Totally right.