What would you answer?

A man asks a passing person: “Can you please tell me where to find the train station?” Here are some answers. How would your’s look like? Education Specialist: “Of course I know where to find the station. But it would be better if you could find out yourself!” Social Worker: “Get in the car, I’ll drive you there.” Talk Therapist: “You don’t know where the train station is, and that does not only make you sad, but also a little bit angry.” Psychoanalyst: “The train station? You think about this dark cave where these long things go in and out?” Behaviour Therapist: “Lift up your right foot. Move it a little bit forward. Now place it down again. Good!” Family Therapist: “What do you think your sister thinks about your parents’ feelings when they know that you want to go to the train...

Left-hand or right-hand driving?

In Germany, we drive on the right side of the road. We call that “Rechtsverkehr” (“right side traffic”). My English dictionary translates it as “right-hand driving”, or “right-hand traffic”. Apart from the UK (which is anyways an island), we Europeans drive on the right side of the road. Interesting experiences, like crossing the border from Thailand to Laos (and changing the side on which you drive) cannot be made in Europe, as you go to the UK either by ship or train. An interesting statistical effect appears when drivers in a vehicle they are used to (e.g., Germans in a vehicle with the steering on the left) drive in countries where you drive on the other side. Your risk of being involved in a serious accident is much lower! Who would have thought that. So, you know that some countries drive on the right side. Some on the left side....

Growth Rate

The World Bank, African Development Bank, and dozens others monitor the development of sub-Saharan countries constantly. I monitor James’ body height in more or less regular intervals: GDPs are calculated in different ways – so because of the outlook, I took the data from the African Development Bank Group (received Jan 22, 2014, here). My own empirical observation provided me with growth data of James’ body height. Year Δ GDP Liberia Δ Height James 2012 8.9% 6.3% 2013 7.7% 5.9% 2014 5.4% 5.6%   Let’s see, how that correlates to each other and find out if James’ change in height could function as a predictor for the GDP-change in Liberia. R, my favourite statistics-tool, does it in a really fast way: > gdpliberia = c(8.9, 7.7, 5.4) > deltajames = c(6.3, 5.9, 5.6) > cor(gdpliberia, deltajames) [1] 0.9659277 Significantly! James’ growth...

Neighbour’s Monkey

Welcome to the real world!

Crafting for Christmas

Can you see the difference?

Gloria in Excelsis

Another advent Sunday, another recording: Gloria in Excelsis Deo. E-Mail me for mp3-files.