Archive for August, 2006

Tool for Teaching Regression

Professor Charles Stanton of California State University, San Bernardino has put up a nifty tool that can help in the understanding of linear regression. The java applet allows you to place regression points on a Cartesian plane. Once you put down two points, the applet draws a regression line and gives you the equation for [...]

August 26, 2006   Posted in: Programming, Data and Metrics  No Comments

Public and Private School Performance in the 2003 NAEP

The US Department of Education recently released a report comparing public and private schools. The study used the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data, which is a nationally representative sample of public and private school students. This particular study looked at reading and math test performance of students in the fourth and eighth grades. [...]

August 24, 2006   Posted in: Policy, Programming, Data and Metrics  No Comments

My Way or the Highway?

Last month, Indiana announced that it would lease its state-owned tollway system to a private company for a term of 75 years for the price of $3.8 billion. The Spanish-Austrian consortium Cintra-Macquarie operates 37 toll roads around the world, according to a report by Diantha Parker of Chicago Public Radio. According to Indiana Governor Mitch [...]

August 23, 2006   Posted in: Policy  No Comments

LaGuardia’s Curious Cab Conundrum

Douglas Adams once wrote, “It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on earth has ever produced the expression ‘As pretty as an airport.’” Airports provide all sorts of mind-bogglingly stupefying experiences. Maybe this is because airports are about as screwed up a place as you are likely to ever visit. Or, maybe it [...]

August 22, 2006   Posted in: Economics  No Comments

Good Government: The Key to Becoming a Rich Country

According to the CIA World Factbook there are 20 countries in the world whose per capita GDP is $1,000 or less per year. Some of these countries are new, like, East Timor, some are tiny, and most have been racked by war over their history. Among the poorest countries are the Gaza Strip, Eritrea, and [...]

August 20, 2006   Posted in: Policy  One Comment