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Bayesian stats book banned in China

stat.columbia.edu

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Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#51

Post by Symmetry »

nkurz wrote: post #47
Symmetry wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You misunderstand, I'm very much not saying that there is or will be a general policy of banning things related to Bayesian methods. Rather, thats its quite possible one mid-level bureaucrat thought that Bayesian methods were unacceptable in this one instance. Maybe he (I think "he" is a safe assumption here) was confused and really thought that this sort of math was subversive. Maybe he was worried that he hadn't ba…

Seeing as this is a post on Bayesian statistics in China, I must ask: why are you sufficiently confident to assert that "he" is a safe assumption? Because it's political, because it's mathematical, because it's irrational, or because it's China?

Reviewing the evidence a bit more, it seems I shouldn't be. I imagined the gender ratio in the CCP was worse than what evidence I've been able to dig up suggests it is.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#52

Post by RickHull »

lightoverhead wrote: post #44
mayank wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Understandable, but for future reference to anyone who might be interested, telling strangers to "use their brains" is generally not appreciated in many cultures, since it implies that they weren't.

points taken. I updated my original post. sorry for that condescending tone.

Also, as China is surely the least transparent nation among world powers, I think it is unreasonable to expect foreigners outside the curtain to have an understanding of what really goes on behind the curtain. The lack of transparency fuels wild speculation.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#53

Post by raganwald »

keyist wrote: post #49
raganwald wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, we're in violent agreement. The thing about the USA and Canada is that we're constitutional democracies. That doesn't mean that as people we're any less crazy than places with a different system, but our constitutions act as a brake slowing down implementation of crazy policies and providing a kind of "undo" when things go wrong. As we saw in the FLQ Crisis and again during the G20 summit, Canadians can lock thou…

"But our system at least makes these things aberrations and provides dissenters a way to rectify the problems in the courts." What a lot of people don't get when they try to tu quoque US/Canada/etc on particular events is that their protection of essential liberties is defense in depth. If a book was banned: - due process means that this incident can be taken to court - freedom of press means the mass media can infor…

V. true. Sadly, those who prefer a tyranny seem to have figured this out and are assaulting all of the freedoms you've listed. I leave it as an exercise for the reader to determine which of these liberties are currently under assault.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#54

Post by yters »

lightoverhead wrote: post #34
gort wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's not immediately obvious why they would.

I agree, it's not immediate application. But Bayesian is one of the most important or fundamental knowledge to develop these cutting-edge technologies.

How? I'm experienced with spacecraft design and the like, and have never heard of Bayesian probability theory being used. If it was fundamental I'd expect some mention, somewhere.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#55

Post by yters »

lightoverhead wrote: post #26

Hi Guys, I am from China, and of course the Bayesian is taught in China. Only in the culture revolution time, this crazy thing may happen; but it's long time ago when Mao was alive. Now China is a modern society; of course, the Bayesian theory is taught in schools; otherwise how could they send the spaceship to the outer space and have the fastest super computer in the world so far. you are smart hackers, not a bunch…

It's good Assange didn't wiki-leak China. Otherwise he'd be dead, not getting extradited to live in a cushy prison.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#56

Post by yters »

lightoverhead wrote: post #26

Hi Guys, I am from China, and of course the Bayesian is taught in China. Only in the culture revolution time, this crazy thing may happen; but it's long time ago when Mao was alive. Now China is a modern society; of course, the Bayesian theory is taught in schools; otherwise how could they send the spaceship to the outer space and have the fastest super computer in the world so far. you are smart hackers, not a bunch…

It's good Assange didn't wiki-leak China. Otherwise he'd be dead, not getting extradited to live in fame in a cushy prison.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#57

Post by CWuestefeld »

mayank wrote: post #35
lightoverhead wrote: post #26

Hi Guys, I am from China, and of course the Bayesian is taught in China. Only in the culture revolution time, this crazy thing may happen; but it's long time ago when Mao was alive. Now China is a modern society; of course, the Bayesian theory is taught in schools; otherwise how could they send the spaceship to the outer space and have the fastest super computer in the world so far. you are smart hackers, not a bunch…

Launching a spaceship almost certainly uses Bayesian methods for tracking (e.g., Kalman or particle filters for position tracking), but I seriously doubt that building a supercomputer requires a dedicated use of Bayesian statistics. On a different note, perhaps you could be slightly less condescending in your future posts.

Is a Kalman filter considered a type of Bayesian statistics? It doesn't seem that way to me, but I'm not so hot at higher math.

In any case, many years ago, I worked on a radar system for a fighter plane. Its air-to-ground radar (at the very least; this was the part I was involved in) did indeed use a Kalman filter.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#58

Post by CWuestefeld »

Alex3917 wrote: post #18
llimllib wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pretty sure he was joking there?

It seems like a joke at first, but once you take into account China's previous actions it's actually quite likely.

Like the (brief) period when the sense of traffic lights was changed, so that "red" indicated "go". This makes perfect sense, since anything red must of course stand for making progress.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#59

Post by jcr »

I realize the "Death to the Shaw" spelled out by the first word of every seventeenth page was supposed to be a joke, but it is not very funny in light of the recent events of the last handful of days:

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/0105/Suicide...

Though I viciously dislike of all forms of royalty, they are still human beings and they did not get a choice about being born into the nonsense.

Re: Bayesian stats book banned in China

#60

Post by Alex3917 »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #58
Alex3917 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like a joke at first, but once you take into account China's previous actions it's actually quite likely.

Like the (brief) period when the sense of traffic lights was changed, so that "red" indicated "go". This makes perfect sense, since anything red must of course stand for making progress.

I was actually just trying to make a bayesian joke, but I think it was a little too subtle.
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