Innumeracy, Polling Data, and Statistical Models

It was suppose to be a close election, wasn't it?  What happened?  Sophisticated models like those used by Nate Silver actually called it correctly.  I had thought that political pundits were saying the election was going to be close as a get-out-the-vote ploy, but according to this recent Scientific American Blog, the pundits really just didn't understand the model.  Statistical projections apparently are just too complicated for them.

The blog entry also introduced me to an awesome Nate Silverism:  “When criticized by pundits, Nate Silver doesn’t get angry – he regresses toward the mean.”

Can you believe that they can predict the weather using statistical models?  They can't do that - weathermen can only actually tell us the weather right now, right?

Next Town Over: Only 2 Gallons Away!

Wired Magazine comes through again on p. 157 of the October 2012 issue (in bold no less):  "...and releases 2 joules of force onto the glass -"

Joules for energy, Wired; Newtons for force.

Proteins as small as Neutrons!

In the Feb 27 issue of Forbes Magazine, they have a quick, relatively harmless article about a doctor who thinks we should spend more time and money on healthy lifestyles and preventative medicine over, say, classic cancer research.  However, toward the end of the article, this little zinger is in there:
"The trouble is, tracing proteins is hard to do - they are the size of a single neutron."
Huh?  Would the editor let a phrase like "The Declaration of Independence is a phrase shorter than a sentence" get by?  'Cause that is a less egregious error!

Interestingly, they fixed the statement on the version online (apparently after someone commented on this after the original posting).  Now it reads, a bit more reasonably:
"The trouble is, tracing proteins is incredibly hard to do -- they have to be examined at the level of a single neutron."
I assume they are referring to tracking isotopes which can differ by as little as one neutron from isotope to isotope.  However, isotope spotting is generally not thought of as being done at the neutron level - rather you just mass the whole atom and infer the extra neutron that way...
Here's the link to the fixed article:
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/02/17/david-agus-end-illness/

Colbert Get 'Em Good

Thanks to Irene who forwarded me this video from the Colbert Report: http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/wed-january-4-2012-john-heilemann

from 8:10 to about 8:50 he mocks a reporter who cannot subtract!

Really?!?  When the reporter says "Again with the math!", I think to myself if the reporter could not pronounce something on the teleprompter, would he say "Again with the spelling!"?