Nate Silver is the geek world's Chuck Norris

[delphipsmith]

The hashtag #natesilverfacts has been trending on Twitter since Election Night. Here are some of the best:

‏

@weldonwk: Nate Silver wasn't born, the probability of his existence just increased #natesilverfacts

@edyong209: Immense RT @TrojanScientist: Before going on a date, Nate Silver calculates the prior probability of reaching third Bayes.

@petridishes: Han Solo lets Nate Silver tell him the odds. #natesilverfacts

@edwardbenson: Nate Silver escaped from a Prisoner of War camp by shrugging and making an independence assumption #natesilverfacts

@Smedette: Nate Silver can recite Pi. Backwards. #NateSilverFacts

@clarklab: Statistical margin of error will now be referred to as “Distance from Nate” #natesilverfacts

We also have the (fictitious, one hopes) #drunknatesilver ("Last night, I walked onto a maternity ward and pointed out the 53rd President of the United States. #DrunkNateSilver").

Then there's the hilariously over-the-top parody account @fivethirtynate, which has gems like this: "@fivethirtynate: Molten variables hiss and roar. On my mind-forge, I hammer them into the greatsword Epistemology. Many are my foes this night!"

Also, some people think he's a witch :)

Comments

[squibstress.livejournal.com]

Funny stuff.

Read an interesting piece on the topic at the Good Math/Bad Math blog. As someone with only the most rudimentary understanding of statistics, I have no idea if it's accurate.

[delphipsmith]

Thanks for the link -- really interesting, especially the distinction between frequentist and Bayesian viewpoints. I don't pretend to be any kind of a math expert (last math class was Calc I, more years ago than I will admit to in public!) but I'm fascinated by how it works.

I prowled around through the older posts and also really enjoyed this one on programming. Looks like I've got another fun blog to monitor :)

[delphipsmith]

And speaking of frequentists and Bayesians...in an odd coincidence, I just stumbled across this :)

[arcanetrivia]

@petridishes: Han Solo lets Nate Silver tell him the odds.

Husband and I lol'ed.