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UN Statistics. New York, 1 June 2016 - The chair of the Statistical Commission, Ms. Wasmalia Bivar of Brazil, addressed the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) on 1 June during its Coordination and Management Meeting. Ms. Bivar, who provided her briefing by videolink, informed the Council that the Statistical Commission at its last session in March had agreed “as a practical starting point” on a global indicator framework, which had been developed by the Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators (IAEG-SDGs).

She also informed the Council of the recent work of the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the plans for a first UN World Data Forum to be held in Capetown, South Africa, in January 2017. The presentation (English, Spanish) was followed by a short Q&A session. Daily News, Polls, Public Opinion on Politics, Economy, Wellbeing, and World.

Nate Silver: Eight cool things journalists should know about statistics. Journalists need to bring science and forecasting into their news coverage, despite the fact that predicting outcomes is viewed as “uncouth” in some newsrooms, statistician Nate Silver told a gathering at the Online News Association conference Friday. Silver has achieved rock-star status in the world of data journalism thanks to correctly calling the 2012 presidential winner in all 50 states, not to mention his smart analysis of baseball and a best-selling book about why predictions fail.

A critic of stories that use numbers in inaccurate or inexact ways, Silver offered eight points that journalists should know if they use statistics: 1. Statistics aren’t just numbers. Silver’s message is that statistics have specific meanings that require critical thinking on the part of the journalists who use them. 2. Data require context. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Silver is moving FiveThirtyEight from the Times to ESPN, with plans to relaunch in early 2014. Tags: Nate Silver, Online News Association. Number Of | How Many | You Ask! We Count! Statistic Brain | Numbers  |  Percentages  |  Financials  |  Rankings | Statistic Brain. Census Bureau Homepage.