[R] Inference for R Spam

[Rolf Turner]

On 4/03/2009, at 11:50 AM, Michael A. Miller wrote:

>>>>>> "Dieter" == Dieter Menne <dieter.menne at menne-biomed.de> writes:
>
>> And, since my son asked me and I am basketball ignorant:
>> Why are basketball scores mostly much too close to
>> equality? The arguments (loose power when leading) might
>> suggest that 2:0 might not be significant, but relevant. I
>> tend to argue the other way round though, in medical
>> statistics.
>
> Sports scores are not statistics, they are measurements (counts)
> of the number of times each team scores.  There is no sampling
> and vanishingly small possibility of systematic error in the
> measurement.

I think this comment indicates a fundamental misunderstanding
of the nature of statistics in general and the concept of variability
in particular.  Measurement error is only *one possible* source
of variability and is often a minor --- or as in the case of
sports scores a non-existent --- source.

	cheers,

		Rolf Turner

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