Obligatory, 5.25.18

The data blitz continued yesterday, so I stood down for another day.  This morning,
I am going to watch carefully to see where and when the data surge occurs.  Maybe
I can figure out where and why it is happening.

The last time was one of these blog posts.  The previous blog post resulted in
a massive 300 megabyte surge in my data usage.  It is hard to believe that blogger
uses all that much data, so this is a bit puzzling.

So, after I make this post, I will stand down for a little while, and watch and
see if that data spikes again.  If so, then I may have an idea of where to go
next.

Moving on to the next topic:

Yesterday, I made a trip to the local liberry and checked out the joint.  If this
data service is on the blink for awhile, I may as well use the free facilities
there for my information needs.

I noted in the Austin American Statesman that there was a bill which partially
rolls back the Dodd-Frank bank bill.  I tell you that this gives me something
of a sick feeling, as this is the kind of thing that could lead to another
financial disaster.

One thing that you don't want to fool with is the money and banking segment of
the economy.  If there is one thing that is justified with strong regulations, it
is the banking industry.  If you mix a lot of risk taking with that, you also
risk bringing down the entire economy.  That is one that they should definitely
not mess with.

On the brighter side, it doesn't look like they did much.  But they shouldn't
have done a thing.

Finally, this am, when I first cranked up the internet, I noticed something on
the weather page.  The weather page is my startup page, you see.

It has the record temperatures for each date, plus the averages.

As I mentioned before in my AGW discussions, a lot of confusion exists about
the statistical meanings of averages.  At the risk of adding some additional
confusion, let me comment upon what I saw.

The averages shown can give you an idea of what is "normal" and what is shall we
say, "extraordinary".

In statistical terminology, a "normal" temperature follows a "bell curve"
distribution plot.  That is to say, the temperatures, if plotted on a graph, will
show a bill curve plot around the average temperature.

Virtually all observations will fall within plus or minus three standard deviations
from the "mean".  The mean is the statistical average.  A standard deviation is
the average deviation from the mean.  Got it?

So, the average high and average low for May for this area is 85 and 63.  The
record high and record low for May is 100 and 39.

Let's guesstimate the standard deviation, then:  take 100 and subtract 85 from
it.  You get 15 as the result.  Divide by 3 gives 5.  That is the (guesstimated ) standard
deviation for the high.  By the way, this is not how it is calculated.  This
is only a wild guess.  So, a typical day in this area will have a high anywhere
between 80 and 90.  Two thirds will fall between two standard deviations, so
an "abnormally hot" day will be between 90 and 95.  A really hot day is over
95, and a new record is over a hundred.

See how it works?

It works the same way when you do the lows.  I won't do the math here.

From this little discussion, you should only pay attention to "abnormal" weather claims
when there are a lot of new records being set.

That is all...