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Do Super Bowls Really Predict Elections, Stocks?

Bizarre Super Bowl myths busted

(Newser) - Do Super Bowls really predict presidential elections? Or the stock market? Do they make you hit your wife? People have claimed all of these things over the years, so the Guardian decided to take a look at what it calls "Super Bowl-ology," the "science" of making weird... More »

City Ranking Lists Are Utter Nonsense

Cities' best qualities can't be quantified: Will Doig

(Newser) - Captivated by a list of America’s most romantic cities ? How about its dirtiest , or smartest ? Such lists may be "click-bait," but there’s not much truth to them, writes Will Doig in Salon . How, for example, can Memphis be both the sixth-happiest place to work... More »

Why Marriage at 23 Worked for Me

It's famously risky, but getting married young worked for one Californian

(Newser) - You can’t trust statistics. They’ll warn you of the high risk of divorce that comes with marrying young—but that didn’t stop Katie Arnold-Ratliff. At 29, she’s been married 6 years to a man she met at 15, and they couldn’t be a better match,... More »

Why Physicists Clean Up at Poker

To start, they understand numbers

(Newser) - What's the not-so-simple secret of playing poker? Quantum physics, finds NPR . It turns out that several top players are physicists—and that's no fluke. Physicists understand probability, statistics, and modeling. "I mean—when you think about it—they build models of the world," says Jennifer Ouellette, author of... More »

Family's 3 Kids Born on 8/8/08, 9/9/09, and 10/10/10

But it's not that strange, statisticians say

(Newser) - Barbara Soper managed a feat that seems like it should be impossible: She had her three children on 8/8/08, 9/9/09, and 10/10/10. No, she isn’t a mathematician who planned out her pregnancies to happen that way: Her first child was born full-term, but the next two were both born... More »

Women Spend 3 Years of Life Shopping

That's more than 25,000 hours over 63 years

(Newser) - It’s official: women shop a lot. A survey by a marketing firm finds that over a 63-year lifespan, the average female will spend about 2 years and 10 months—or 25,184 hours and 53 minutes—shopping for food, clothes, and the like. A spokesman says the results aren’... More »

New Jobs Bring Out New Job Seekers— and Boost Unemployment

Administration says trend is positive, if counterintuitive

(Newser) - As the economy generates more jobs, giving hope to previously “discouraged” workers, the jobless rate could actually spike instead of declining, the Washington Post reports. Still, what's happening in the economy is good, the White House says, laying the groundwork for the likelihood that job creation will lag behind... More »

Top Countries, Pages, and Other Surprising Facebook Stats

Average users has 130 friends, spends 55 minutes a day

(Newser) - Facebook's runaway growth is well documented, but some details still wow, and some are quite odd. Website Monitoring takes a look at the salient facts.
  • Popularity: The US has the most active users, but 70% of Facebookers are international. Sure, the UK comes in at No. 2, but No. 3
... More »

US on Pace to Win Most Olympic Medals

Based on projections and medals so far, US could edge out Canada

(Newser) - Based on an analysis of Olympics projections from across the board, the US could come out on top of the medal count at this year’s games for the first time since Lake Placid—in 1932. Nate Silver averaged medal projections from 9 sources; after two days the US has... More »

US Life Expectancy, Health Costs Not a Pretty Picture

Viral graph shows better stats for numerous developed countries

(Newser) - A graphic that's gaining wide currency on the Internet paints a grim picture of the American health care system, which costs more than any other country's but results in an average life expectancy that's solidly middle-of-the-pack. The graph, originally posted on a National Geographic blog, wasn't clear enough for the... More »

Don't Apologize, Meg, Voting Is Dumb

Whitman's ballot wouldn't have made a difference anyway

(Newser) - Meg Whitman has taken heat for her, ahem, spotty voting record—the ex-CEO wasn’t even registered to vote until 2002—and, of course, she has apologized. But she shouldn’t have, writes Christopher Beam for Slate. Economists have long argued that, from an individual’s perspective, voting is irrational.... More »

Winter Babies' Real Problem? Less-Educated Mothers

Accidental find shines light on old conundrum

(Newser) - For years, economists have been trying to explain why winter babies have it so tough. In study after study, those born in winter consistently perform worse in school, earn less, and are less healthy than peers born at other times of year. Now Notre Dame economists Kasey Buckles and Daniel... More »

DUI Arrests of Women Up 30% in Decade

(AP) - The number of women charged with driving under the influence has increased nearly 30% during the past decade, Transportation Department officials said today, while the number of men fell 7.5% in the same period. The department says the number of impaired women involved in a fatal crash increased in... More »

Today's Sexy Job: Statistician

With so much data to crunch, firms need them—and will pay up

(Newser) - Forget the nerdy image: In today’s digital world, statisticians are hot, the New York Times reports. Big firms like Google need number-crunchers to parse piles of data, and they’re willing to pay for it—a statistician with a PhD can rake in $125,000 in his or her... More »

What Turning 30 Really Means

(Newser) - What does turning 30 mean, anyway? Sam Greenspan knows, because he got Book of Ages: 30 for his, um, 30th birthday. He runs down 11 factoids on the appropriately named 11 Points website. A sampling:
  • 30-year-olds keep resolutions: Though 26% less likely to make New Years resolutions, 30-somethings are 26%
... More »

House Health Care Vote Looks Like a Squeaker

But slim margin could vanish if bill moves left or right: Silver

(Newser) - A compromise health care bill will likely squeak through the House by about two dozen votes, Nate Silver writes on FiveThirtyEight.com. The Energy and Commerce Committee’s Friday night 31-28 vote is a good model, with its similar balance of Republicans, liberal and Blue Dog Democrats. The committee passed... More »

New System May Revolutionize Baseball Stats

(Newser) - Branch Rickey once complained that “there is nothing on earth anybody can do with fielding,” but that's about to change thanks to a complex new camera and computer system, the New York Times reports. The system, which will be unveiled for baseball executives tomorrow, records the exact speed... More »

Zagat Is Wrong: Peet's Is Better Than Starbucks

Bad methodology gave Seattle giant the survey win: Nate Silver

(Newser) - Zagat’s annual fast-food survey served up its usual batch of surprises, but one stood out for Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com fame. Somehow, some way, Starbucks beat Peet’s Coffee for best coffee chain. A travesty of that magnitude can only mean mistaken methodology, Silver contends; Starbucks is fine,... More »

Huckabee's Plan to Revive GOP Doesn't Add Up

Nate Silver shows why party shouldn't play to social conservatives

(Newser) - Perhaps it's Mike Huckabee's admitted distrust for math, but he's dead wrong about the best strategy to bring back the Republican Party's power, writes Nate Silver on his blog. To make the case that the party shouldn't move to the middle, Huckabee says, "People that are social conservatives are... More »

Are Americans Falling Out of Love With Cars?

Drop in driving could be delayed reaction to gas prices—or not: Silver

(Newser) - Is the fact that Americans are driving less even after the cost of gas has come down a sign that US attitudes are changing, Nate Silver asks in Esquire—or is it just another example of how slowly they respond to changes in fuel prices? “The real test,”... More »

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