A week of happy recap, and ismydatasignificant.com
Mood: okay
Posted on 2008-12-19 10:50:00
Tags: health math projects happiness
Words: 307
So I started the week of happy a week or so ago, and I'm pretty...happy with the results. It turned out to be kind of a tough week, what with the root canal and the painful aftermath, but focusing on the little things that make you happy during the day is good. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that big changes in lifestyle (new bigger house, etc.) don't generally affect one's happiness level in the long run, but little things can if you focus on them. Or something like that.
Dentistry - I gave in and called this morning to make sure it was normal for the pain to last all week. The person I talked to told me to come in, and they took an X-ray and thank goodness everything looks fine. (if I had had to have like another root canal or something I would have been seriously sad) She said the pain can last a while, and as long as it's getting better (it is!) it's OK, and she gave me another prescription for Zipac(sp?) to take in case there's a lingering infection or something. (and she told me to switch to Advil instead of Tylenol for the inflammation) So, yayish!
Last night when I got home quijax was watching Mythbusters, which I don't get to see much but I like! One of the myths they were busting was that buttered toast tends to land buttered side down, and long story short they ended up dropping toast off of a building and observing. Anyway, the results were slightly more in favor of the toast landing buttered side up, and Jamie had a physics explanation (when you butter toast it gets indented) but their numbers weren't convincing. Long story short, I created ismydatasignificant.com for an easy chi-squared test for significance. If only I understood more statistics...
11 comments
Comment from wonderjess:
2008-12-19T11:42:29+00:00
I am going to direct everyone I know to ismydatasignificant.com. ALL THE TIME.
Comment from omega697:
2008-12-19T13:04:20+00:00
But then right after that you have to direct them to aremygrammarcorrect.com
Comment from gregstoll:
2008-12-19T13:06:31+00:00
It's one collection of data!
Comment from omega697:
2008-12-19T13:07:58+00:00
It's one pair of pants, but we still say "are my pants on?" and not "is my pants on?"
Not saying it makes sense, just saying that's how it is. :o)
Comment from gregstoll:
2008-12-19T13:10:33+00:00
We also say "is the sample space big enough?" and not "are the sample space big enough?" even though the sample space encompasses many things, yes?
Comment from omega697:
2008-12-19T13:18:40+00:00
"Space" is singular. "Collection" is also singular. So "Is my collection of data significant" would be correct. I could have a basket of dismembered hands, but I would still say "These hands belong to me!" even though they were in a basket. But "data", like "criteria" or "media", is plural.
Imagine saying "Is my results significant?"
[/nazi style="grammar"]
Comment from anonymous:
2008-12-19T19:18:45+00:00
Data
1. a pl. of datum.
2. (used with a plural verb) individual facts, statistics, or items of information: These data represent the results of our analyses. Data are entered by terminal for immediate processing by the computer.
3. (used with a singular verb) a body of facts; information: Additional data is available from the president of the firm.
I'm even more of a grammar nazi -- I look these things up. ;)
(Remember that conversation at D&G's apartment about the song lyrics "if I lay here"?)
Comment from brittongregory:
2008-12-19T19:19:50+00:00
Sorry, the above was my post.
Comment from onefishclappin:
2008-12-19T11:51:48+00:00
This was a hard week for Week of Happy for me too. And maybe that makes it better that we did it this week. I'm glad that the tooth is slowing improving.
Comment from quijax:
2008-12-19T12:39:04+00:00
I think the toast one was better than the yawning one. They have some understanding of experimental setup but they're statistics are shaky I'll agree.
Comment from yerfdogyrag:
2008-12-20T23:18:59+00:00
I remember watching a show many years back (early teens for me?). They deliberately pushed buttered (I think it was peanut butter) bread off the counter and found out that falling off the edge, it would automatically flip and land peanut butter side down. If you put it on a short box (1'-2' off the ground), it would hit peanut butter side up. If you put it on a ladder and pushed it off, it would flip all the way around and land peanut-butter side up.
So, obviously, the height of countertops was put in place by shills of the floor cleaner and peanut butter industries.
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