Invasion Day, Statistics, and more
Jan. 26th, 2021 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcpipOnce again Australia has reached the date where we celebrate "Australia Day" in willful ignorance. A national holiday whose date doesn't represent what it says it does, which has been declared on all sorts of days, and in reality represents the declared invasion of the eastern coast of the country. Despite the fact that in 1988 then Prime Minister Bob Hawke promised a Treaty with Indigenous Australians (we're the only country in the Commonwealth that doesn't have one), and with all that follows. It is a lie to say this is all in the past; it is very much in the present any sociological data would reveal if one makes the effort. We cannot even begin to engage in "reconciliation", as was once the popular term until there is recognition, and recognition requires a Treaty.
Trawling through the grim numbers has been a capstone on a significant portion much of the week's activities which have involved a great deal of statistics and econometrics. Part of the statistics has been strengthening the content I have for the maths and stats HPC workshop I conduct with R and Gretl in particular. But it is also an area in economics where I am probably weakest, mainly due to a lack of exposure. Whilst there is some justified criticism of economics as a discipline dressing itself up with mathematics to appear more scientific, there is enormous value in quantifying economic relationships and testing economic theories. There is no point in having developed a just economic policy if the actual data shows it just doesn't work; positive analysis must be applied to be normative principles.
It has not all been work and study in the past week, however. I enjoyed myself attending Damien B's birthday gathering at Gong De Lin earlier in the week, and attended a virtual meeting of SOFiA Melbourne with Mark Vallis giving a presentation on Hypatia of Alexandria. Regular gaming sessions included Cyberspace, RuneQuest, and Cyberpunk 2020, and I'm still working through the Cyberpunk 2020 conference transcript. Also, using credit from a cancelled flight from the middle of last year, I am visiting Adelaide at the end of next month, the first time I have been in that part of the world for several years. I am rather looking forward to it.
Trawling through the grim numbers has been a capstone on a significant portion much of the week's activities which have involved a great deal of statistics and econometrics. Part of the statistics has been strengthening the content I have for the maths and stats HPC workshop I conduct with R and Gretl in particular. But it is also an area in economics where I am probably weakest, mainly due to a lack of exposure. Whilst there is some justified criticism of economics as a discipline dressing itself up with mathematics to appear more scientific, there is enormous value in quantifying economic relationships and testing economic theories. There is no point in having developed a just economic policy if the actual data shows it just doesn't work; positive analysis must be applied to be normative principles.
It has not all been work and study in the past week, however. I enjoyed myself attending Damien B's birthday gathering at Gong De Lin earlier in the week, and attended a virtual meeting of SOFiA Melbourne with Mark Vallis giving a presentation on Hypatia of Alexandria. Regular gaming sessions included Cyberspace, RuneQuest, and Cyberpunk 2020, and I'm still working through the Cyberpunk 2020 conference transcript. Also, using credit from a cancelled flight from the middle of last year, I am visiting Adelaide at the end of next month, the first time I have been in that part of the world for several years. I am rather looking forward to it.
