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Fooled by Randomness: Earthquakes and Suicides

The Chief Coroner in Christchurch seems to think there is a good chance of a link between earthquakes and suicide rates. As I look at the plot of the number of suicides by month over the last five years the data looks like nothing but random variations. And in fact Luis Apiolaza over at Quantum Forest has done a good job of showing just that. A few simulations based on the variation in the actual data shows rather clearly that the kinds of variation that has been observed.

Posted by Larry on September 7th, 2012 Posted in Uncategorized
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