Economics and Rorschach

I regularly read the Junk Charts blog by Kaiser Fung...but had to share this one (which comes third hand from an economics paper at Queens University  in Ontario).

The curve is called a Phillip's Curve... I didn't know what that was, but Wikipedia says, "In economics, the Phillips curve is a historical inverse relationship between the rate of unemployment and the rate of inflation in an economy. Stated simply, the lower the unemployment in an economy, the higher the rate of inflation. While it has been observed that there is a stable short run trade off between unemployment and inflation, this has not been observed in the long run." 

And for my students who may not know "Rorschach";  here is Wikipedia's intro to that as well, "The Rorschach test also known as the Rorschach inkblot test, the Rorschach technique, or simply the inkblot test) is a psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex scientifically derived algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning."

Which reminds me of a joke about a guy in the psychiatrist's office...as each inkblot is shown he describes some terrible scene of murdered and mutilated bodies... finally the psychiatrist stops and announces "You are the sickest degenerate I have ever analyzed.."  The patient responds .." Who?,,,, ME?..you're the one with all the pictures of dead people!".

National Statistics Day

This Sunday (Oct 18, 2009)is National Statistics Day in Japan. (I am reminded that I heard a few years ago from Ron Dirkse, who used to teach at the American School in Japan, that the Japanese word for statistics, toukei, is pronounced much like the last name of the great statistician, John Tukey. Ron added that "according to a native speaker the tou means something like 'put together' and the kei is 'measure, calculate or total'. She thought it was interesting that there was a Tukey famous in statistics, but this word pre-dates him by a lot.")

It seems many countries in the world have such a celebration. It seems to be coordinated by the UN, and their web site says, "One hundred one countries and areas have been celebrating a statistics day, week or month to raise the profile of official statistics. There are variations in the way these events are held. About 80 of the countries celebrate a statistics day annually or intend to do so in the future. Some countries observe either a week-long event, or celebrate a statistics day every 5 years or did so as a one-time occasion."

Missing from the list??? Everyone in North America, the UK, France, Italy, China and Russia; among the large countries, but present of note is Australia, Germany, and a united approach with most of Africa celebrating on November 18, this year.




Some seem to have been doing this for a long time...In Poland, it seems, they have been celebrating a statistics day for 90 years...

Pi and the 47 Ronin

If you take the Asakusa Line from Shinagawa, just one stop away you will come to one of the most famous shrines in all of Tokyo, the Sengakuji Temple. It isn't the biggest, prettiest, or most ornate, but it is rich with the kind of history the Japanese love. This is the resting place of the 47 Ronin, one of Japan's most popular samurai stories.

"The story has all the elements for a Hollywood production: a good, noble guy who dies unfairly; a corrupt court official and cunning villain who is disliked by everyone but seems to be always ahead of the game; the good guy’s loyal subordinates who are totally determined to avenge their master’s death at whatever price, even with their own lives... In the end, the story has sparked the imagination and inspired the utmost respect from an entire nation for over 300 years."[Luis Estrada's Travel Blog]

I came across a mathematical reference to the story in a March 1908 article in the American Mathematical Monthly I received recently from Dave Renfro.

"In Tokyo, at the Buddhist temple of Sengakuji lie buried the forty-seven Ronin, the national heroes of feudal Japan. Just within the gate, in a two-storied building, swords, armor and other relics of these heroes are shown on payment of a fee. By the side of the path leading to the tombs is a well with the inscription, 'Here they washed it.' No one in Japan needs to be told that it was the bloody head they were bringing to the grave of their lord, that dead master for whom they considered it the highest privilege thus to forfeit all their lives. The popular reverence for these heroes is still attested not only by the incense perpetually kept burning before their tombs but in stranger fashion by the fresh visiting cards constantly left upon their graves. [To someone who is still there, do the Japanese still leave these visiting cards?]"

"All the world knows their exploit, but who knows that one of them, Shigekiyo Matsumura, was the greatest Asiatic mathematician of his age, who in his work
Sanso, published in 1663, calculated the length of one side of a regular inscribed polygon of 32768 or 2¹⁵ sides, obtaining 0.000095873798655313483 and thence for the value of pi 3.141592648, which is accurate to seven places of decimals, to eight significant figures..."

I would be thrilled if any of the folks who still read this in the Tokyo area would send a digital picture of the tomb of Matsumura so that I can add it to this note.