Armstrong Affair shows USADA uninfluenced by measurement

The US Anti-Doping Agency says it has “overwhelming proof” seven-time Tour-de-France winner Lance Armstrong was cheating by doping himself with performance-enhancing substances. What is the evidence? Armstrong was tested for drugs perhaps hundreds of times during his cycling career.  Every single test pronounced him clean. That is strong evidence against doping. According to the USADA, [...]

This time it’s different: stock market indicators

There is no shortage of indicators in the stock market. And anyone who can find reliable leading indicators that give reasonable predictions of what the markets are going to do in the future will quickly get very rich. Many people try—and fail. That does not mean there is necessarily anything wrong with the indicators themselves. [...]

What polls, police radars and the Hawthorne experiments have in common

There is an election campaign in my home province of Ontario. As often happens during elections, somebody raises the issue about whether public opinion polls influence the outcomes of elections (such as in this article). If only measurements involving people could produce objective information. People and the way they react to measurements make this very [...]