Jake Olivier

American statistician living in Australia. Interested in statistical methods for injury, road safety and epidemiological research.

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

In case you were thinking of playing the lottery…

[9News Sydney @9NewsSyd]

In just a matter of hours, one of us could be $200 million richer.

Tonight's Powerball is the biggest lottery offer in Australian history, but what are the odds of winning? #9News

[A/Prof Sjaan Koppel (she/her) @SjaanKoppel]

New study led by @MUARCMonash with @UNSW, @WACRSR, @CARRS_Q & @VTTI_VT used #NaturalisticDriving data (YANDS & ANDS) to reveal how young and experienced drivers differ in their real-world engagement with non-driving tasks while driving: https://t.co/s49sFF4u7T

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

@kris10phil Poor Denise 🤣

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

@stats_hunter Agreed and you can add "New Orleans" to that list.

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

@UNSWMedicine @UNSW The published article can be found here https://t.co/jybtFN7oew

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

A quarrel of statisticians was suggested by John Tukey. Seems apt for our discipline. 🤷‍♂️

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

Where did collective names for animals come from?

They were essentially just made up in the Middle Ages... along with collective names for groups of people, such as:

-rascal of boys
-misbelief of painters
-scolding of chemists
-multiplying of husbands
-disworship of Scots
-eloquence of lawyers
-discretion of priests
-threatening of courtiers
-worship of writers

Juliana Berners was a prioress who compiled the Book of St Albans in the year 1486. This was a guide for gentlemen which included information about things like heraldry. Part of this guide was called The Companies of Beasties and Fowlies, where Berners lists the collective names (known as "terms of venery") for the sorts of animals gentlemen might be hunting.

It wasn't the first such compilation but it was by far the largest up to that point. What's difficult to discover is where exactly these names came from. Some think they emerged from common usage, but others believe they were literally just made up, whether by Berners or somebody else, to create an amusing and rather poetic lingo for gentlemen.

All words are made up, of course, but usually they emerge over time or are coined in a scientific or scholarly context. These collective names, however, seem to be the result of an aristocratic hunting culture during the Middle Ages, combined with certain courtly frivolity and a fashion for obscurantist terms of venery which had come to England from France.

In any case, they weren't and never have been "official" in any way. Many of them were rarely used, if ever, though some of them did catch on and have survived to this day, such as the rather delightful "murmuration of starlings." But they were evidently supposed to be funny rather than serious, inevitably playing on the particular characteristics of those animals, such as an "unkindness of ravens" and a "parliament of owls".

And the same was true of Berners' collective names for groups of people:
-superfluity of nuns
-doctrine of doctors
-tabernacle of bakers
-fighting of beggars
-drunkship of cobblers
-melody of harpers
-poverty of pipers
-disguising of tailors

This tradition of poetic, obscure, and witty group names for animals lived on as new species were discovered. Not all the names listed below are in the Book of St Albans, and many more of these "unofficial" collective names have been coined in recent decades.

These terms of venery are, in part, a wonderful glance into courtly life during the Late Middle Ages — at the very least it gives us some idea of their sense of humour.

And there's no reason this tradition of witty collective names should disappear. Whereas Berners came up with terms of venery for taverners, prelates, and barons, we might do the same for coders, podcasters, influencers, data scientists, and bloggers.

What could be some modern collective names for these or any other groups of people who didn't exist in the Middle Ages?

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

@JulieB_Injury Well done @DrBAlbanese and Helen!

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

@HOS_ASA @amstat @AmstatPresident @RoyalStatSoc It’s not clear to me how a “method of estimating the interval for a binomial probability” is not what we now consider a confidence interval. It shouldn’t matter if Wilson did not call it that or wanted the attribution.

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

@HOS_ASA @amstat Why is Edwin Wilson not credited with inventing/introducing confidence intervals? Not to take anything away from Neyman, but Wilson published 10 years earlier and his interval is still used today (e.g., default for R prop.test w/o correction). https://t.co/pFgvjhoJt0

[Lisa Keay @KeayLisa]

Critical modelling work to enable synthesis of global refractive error prevalence data @UNSWoptomvsci @JakeBiostats #myopia
Improving population-level refractive error monitoring via mixture distributions https://t.co/P9ntrWbVpk

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

@KevinWangStats Fair point. You will always be KW #1 in our hearts and minds.

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

@Liikennepsykol1 @jamovistats Finally!

[Igor Radun (Traffic psychology is my second name) @Liikennepsykol1]

The final version of our article

"Do people prefer cycling policy aiming at extending or saving lives? An experimental survey study"

is now available online👇

#cycling #trafficsafety #pyöräily #liikenneturvallisuus

https://t.co/uikSqM2h5L

[Igor Radun (Traffic psychology is my second name) @Liikennepsykol1]

In a few hours (15:00-16:30, Room 4-Decibel), a really special Special session (Road traffic suicides) will start at #ICTTP in Göteborg. Join me and my colleagues. Welcome!

#ICTTP7

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

Very happy to see the unsung heroes of the Stat Soc Australia get formally recognised. The branches and the society as a whole could not exist without them.

[Statistical Society of Australia @StatSocAus]

SSA President’s Award for Leadership in Statistics - 2022 Winners Announced! Congratulations to the SSA Branch Councils of 2020-2022!
https://t.co/BUuxQQNkBU

[Nature Cell Biology @NatureCellBio]

NEW ONLINE: Identification of Mesp1-derived PDGFRA+ stromal cells as aortic endothelial precursors that regulate long-term hematopoietic stem cells generation during development.

https://t.co/xB7DjaQAQI

[Bianca Albanese @DrBAlbanese]

New paper out: Child restraint headrest and belt routing design features and their association with child passenger behavior and restraint misuse

@JulieB_Injury @SjaanKoppel @JakeBiostats #injuryprevention #childrestraints
https://t.co/d1owQkjUjL

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

@StatStewart @PhDemetri Prior? What’s that? 😂

[Jake Olivier @JakeBiostats]

@StatStewart @PhDemetri Interesting thought experiment, but isn't the "average" interval length infinity?