I’ve been a bit busy with an exam, snow shoveling and a sick kiddo this week, so I’m behind on responding to emails and a few post requests I’ve gotten. Bear with me.

I did want to mention that Hans Rosling died, which is incredibly sad. If you’ve never seen his work with statistics or his amazing presentations, please check them out. His one our “Joy of Stats” documentary is particularly recommended. For something a little shorter, try his famous “washing machine” TED talk.

I also wanted to note that due to some recent interest, I have updated my “About” page with a little bit more of the story about how I got in to statistics in the first place. I’ve mentioned a few times that I took the scenic route, so I figured I’d put the story all in one place. Click on over and find out how the accidental polymath problems began.

As an added bonus, there are also some fun illustrations from my awesome cousin Jamison, who was kind enough to make some for me.  This is my favorite pair:

See more of his work here.

Finally, someone sent me this syllabus for a new class called “Calling Bullshit” that’s being offered at the University of Washington this semester. I started reading through it, but I’m thinking it might be more fun as a whole series. It covers some familiar ground, but they have a few topics I haven’t talked about much on this blog. I’ll likely start that up by the end of February, so keep an eye out for that.