Tag Archive | Poverty

The Struggle of the Poor College Student

This is the first in a series of posts hoping to clear out a bunch of interesting articles that I’ve read lately but haven’t had time to blog about here. Today’s post is based on a September article by Vicki Madden in the NY Times about poor students. For me, it came at a good […]

TMQ Tidbits of the Week

Once again, here is the best of Gregg Easterbrook’s Tuesday Morning Quarterback column on ESPN.com. You can read the football bits here. Due to the outcry about the officiating  in the Monday Night Football game, I’ve included the first bit even though it is football related. (Note: I do not necessarily endorse his political positions, but have […]

TED on Wrongful Convictions: Part VI

In today’s final installment of TED’s wrongful conviction series, David Dow points out the uncomfortable connection between childhood environment and eventually being sentenced to the death sentence. About three quarters of death row inmates have a history in the juvenile justice system. How can we break this link and help end this link? Dow has […]

TED on Wrongful Convictions: Part V

In today’s installment of TED’s wrongful conviction series, James Lockyer gives a case study of a wrongfully convicted client of his, and the long journey to justice. Some of the thoughts from previous talks in this series (click the Wrongful Convictions category above or the Wrongful Convictions tag to see other posts in this series, […]

TED on Wrongful Convictions: Part IV

In today’s installment of TED’s wrongful conviction series, Peter Donnelly discusses how misunderstanding statistics and probability can lead to wrongful convictions. Even the “experts” can really mess this up. The problem is often experts in other disciplines attempting to apply statistics and probability, and failing miserably. However, often no one seems to notice. We would […]

TED on Wrongful Convictions: Part III

In today’s installment of TED’s wrongful conviction series, Rob Warden discusses false confessions. Why would anyone admit to a crime that they did not commit? There are several reasons. Some are predictable (to make the interrogation stop), while others are more surprising (police have lied and implied they have evidence that they don’t). Warden gives example cases […]

TED on Wrongful Convictions: Part II

In today’s installment of TED’s wrongful conviction series, Bryan Stevenson talks about the issue of justice. Our criminal justice system is supposed to give every accused the same protections, but does it? Stevenson points out where it does not, and how we might be able to make a difference.

TED on Wrongful Convictions: Part I

I recently came across a series of good talks about the phenomenon of wrongful convictions. There are numerous reasons for the problem, some of which will be discussed in the videos. I’ll spread them out over six days, so that my readers can give each talk the thought that it might deserve. The speakers come […]

A Statistician Cracks the Lottery

While that claim may seem pretty bold, it is exactly true. At least for the scratch off games. Check out this article for the full details, but I’ll give an “executive summary” of the story here! A geological statistician named Mohan Srivastava was clearing his desk and found some old scratch off Ontario lottery tickets […]