6 ms·

There's no way on earth they can actually know the movie-viewing history of those who recently died. So the data must simply be fabricated. It undermines the

by tux1968 5y ago

There's no way on earth they can actually know the movie-viewing history of those who recently died. So the data must simply be fabricated. It undermines the point they're trying to make. They should have used a real example.

gregjw 5y ago
Its so so clearly a joke. Come on man.
- paulcole 5y ago
  From the about page: > Being keenly aware of political biases on both sides, my goal is to try to remain as apolitical as possible and try to filter out what I perceive as political biases and describe what I consider to be key insights gained from a particular report or resource It’s hard to tell what’s a joke anymore.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- spaceisballer 5y ago
  Or an advertisement for the new movie.
- tux1968 5y ago
  What's the joke? It seems to me they're trying to make a point about the study that appears lower on the page, the one claiming that vaccinated people are dying at a higher rate than unvaccinated.
  - Hnrobert42 5y ago
    Older people die more often than younger people. More older people are vaccinated than younger people. The study at the bottom shows that vaccinated people are dying at a higher rate than unvaccinated people. The joke is on the person who concludes that the increase in death rate is because of the vaccine and not the age difference.
  - he0001 5y ago
    It is a joke as the author states in a more recent article[0] [0] https://www.covid-datascience.com/post/what-do-uk-data-say-about-impact-of-vaccines-on-deaths-part3-all-cause-1st-dose-w-in-21-days https://www.covid-datascience.com/post/what-do-uk-data-say-a...
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - boole1854 5y ago
    The joke is that not taking into account all known correlated predictors when performing a statistical analysis can produce absurd results. In this case, age is a metric variable known to be a correlated predictor of what movies an individual has seen, the probability of their death due to COVID-19, and the probability of their being vaccinated against COVID-19. The precise relationship between those four items is beside the point here -- the point is just that if you did not take into account that age is a metric variable and that it is a correlated predictor of both vaccination status and death, then you did your analysis incorrectly.
  - mcguire 5y ago
    That's not a study. It's a blog post.
- OJFord 5y ago
  I read GP as recognising but criticising the joke - saying that (with quite a bit more thought/effort probably) you could construct one as jokey and ridiculous/unbelievable but based on real sources to make the point with actual data.
  - gus_massa 5y ago
    Using the real data is the nice part of many xkcd posts, for example https://xkcd.com/893/ https://xkcd.com/893/
dylan604 5y ago
What are you talking about? Of course there's a way to know their history. You think Netflix, Prime, Hulu do not have a very detailed list of activity from their sites? This person also probably did not use cash for their recent theater visits, so their ticket purchases could be found as well. If they did it through a website, then the exact movie could be found. If they did it at the ticket booth at the theater (who does this anymore?), then with some extra effort of finding the time of the transaction and then comparing to start times you could narrow down if not determine exact movie. In the days of big data, to state that exact behaviors could not be determined is just not trying very hard.
- tux1968 5y ago
  Oh come on. Everyone else saying it's an obvious joke and now here you are claiming it's obviously a legitimate claim. Even though you can imagine a way that this information might have been collected, it obviously wasn't.
  - dylan604 5y ago
    Really? This was able to be read without a tounge being firmly planted in cheek?
    - tux1968 5y ago
      Sorry. Lil shell shocked at the moment by the responses.
nzealand 5y ago
They didn't fabricate their data. They simply switched the labels. Not very well. You can see they didn't change the axis labels in this image here: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cf58cd_449149dafb04485eb2aea69aeabe0563~mv2.png https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cf58cd_449149dafb04485eb2... So the data is valid, the point is valid, but the point isn't about ghostbusters.

gregjw 5y ago

Its so so clearly a joke. Come on man.

paulcole 5y ago
From the about page: > Being keenly aware of political biases on both sides, my goal is to try to remain as apolitical as possible and try to filter out what I perceive as political biases and describe what I consider to be key insights gained from a particular report or resource It’s hard to tell what’s a joke anymore.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
spaceisballer 5y ago
Or an advertisement for the new movie.
tux1968 5y ago
What's the joke? It seems to me they're trying to make a point about the study that appears lower on the page, the one claiming that vaccinated people are dying at a higher rate than unvaccinated.
- Hnrobert42 5y ago
  Older people die more often than younger people. More older people are vaccinated than younger people. The study at the bottom shows that vaccinated people are dying at a higher rate than unvaccinated people. The joke is on the person who concludes that the increase in death rate is because of the vaccine and not the age difference.
- he0001 5y ago
  It is a joke as the author states in a more recent article[0] [0] https://www.covid-datascience.com/post/what-do-uk-data-say-about-impact-of-vaccines-on-deaths-part3-all-cause-1st-dose-w-in-21-days https://www.covid-datascience.com/post/what-do-uk-data-say-a...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- boole1854 5y ago
  The joke is that not taking into account all known correlated predictors when performing a statistical analysis can produce absurd results. In this case, age is a metric variable known to be a correlated predictor of what movies an individual has seen, the probability of their death due to COVID-19, and the probability of their being vaccinated against COVID-19. The precise relationship between those four items is beside the point here -- the point is just that if you did not take into account that age is a metric variable and that it is a correlated predictor of both vaccination status and death, then you did your analysis incorrectly.
- mcguire 5y ago
  That's not a study. It's a blog post.
OJFord 5y ago
I read GP as recognising but criticising the joke - saying that (with quite a bit more thought/effort probably) you could construct one as jokey and ridiculous/unbelievable but based on real sources to make the point with actual data.
- gus_massa 5y ago
  Using the real data is the nice part of many xkcd posts, for example https://xkcd.com/893/ https://xkcd.com/893/

dylan604 5y ago

What are you talking about? Of course there's a way to know their history. You think Netflix, Prime, Hulu do not have a very detailed list of activity from their sites? This person also probably did not use cash for their recent theater visits, so their ticket purchases could be found as well. If they did it through a website, then the exact movie could be found. If they did it at the ticket booth at the theater (who does this anymore?), then with some extra effort of finding the time of the transaction and then comparing to start times you could narrow down if not determine exact movie. In the days of big data, to state that exact behaviors could not be determined is just not trying very hard.

tux1968 5y ago
Oh come on. Everyone else saying it's an obvious joke and now here you are claiming it's obviously a legitimate claim. Even though you can imagine a way that this information might have been collected, it obviously wasn't.
- dylan604 5y ago
  Really? This was able to be read without a tounge being firmly planted in cheek?
  - tux1968 5y ago
    Sorry. Lil shell shocked at the moment by the responses.

nzealand 5y ago

They didn't fabricate their data. They simply switched the labels. Not very well. You can see they didn't change the axis labels in this image here: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cf58cd_449149dafb04485eb2aea69aeabe0563~mv2.png https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cf58cd_449149dafb04485eb2... So the data is valid, the point is valid, but the point isn't about ghostbusters.