Statalist submitters beware.....

Inside I know I'm just posting this for my own amusement. Below is an excerpt of a conversation thread taken from Statalist.

Jian Zhang submits a question:

Dear STATA users,
I have a question about making a table using STATA.
I couldn't figure out how to make it.
Hope that you could help me.
...then follows his question........

Here's the reply that he receives:

I can't speak for STATA. The program I know is called Stata [emphasis added by me]. Please read the StatalistFAQ before posting to be familiar with the advice given. Specific answers below.

Nick

These must be the FAQs he's referring to:

What is the correct way to pronounce ‘Stata’?

Stata is an invented word. Some pronounce it with a long a as in day (Stay-ta); some pronounce it with a short a as in flat (Sta-ta); and some pronounce it with a long a as in ah (Stah-ta). The correct English pronunciation must remain a mystery, except that personnel of StataCorp use the first of these. Some other languages have stricter rules on pronunciation that will determine this issue for speakers of those languages.

What is the correct way to write ‘Stata’?

Stata is an invented word, not an acronym, and should not appear with all letters capitalized: please write ‘Stata’, not ‘STATA’.

Fred's FAQ:

Are you kidding me?

The results are in.......or (egads! you nerds!)......

Here are the results of the survey given out in the Grad Macroeconomics and Econometrics classes:

Note: Preferences were indicated by respondents on a scale of 1 to 6 ( 1 being most desirable and 6 being least). Events are then listed by rank of preference from lowest to highest mean score.

n=31

(1) A PhD-level tutor
Mean score: 2.7

(2) Picnic in Central Park
Mean score: 2.9

(3) Dinner and Drinks at the end of the semester
Mean score: 3.3

(4) Bowling
Mean score: 3.7

(5) Six Flags Trip
Mean Score: 3.8

(6) Pool Party
Mean score: 4.6

Look to the blog within a few weeks - Eric and I will keep you posted about arranging for the tutor. Have questions about my methodology? We can discuss it over a couple of beers.

More data sources on the web

It looks like the mother lode. I tripped across it looking for income data by ZIP code.

http://www.ciser.cornell.edu/ASPs/datasource.asp

Corruption and Asymmetry of Information Resources

I know several of you are still having difficulty narrowing down your project ideas, for those of you considering either a focus on corruption and asymmetry of information, or focusing on a different field, and challenging prior assertions based on the effects of asymmetric information or graft, the following may be good resources for you.

http://transparency.org/policy_and_research/surveys_indices
http://www.corisweb.org/

Be mindful that when getting data about some of the places that have larger problems with corruption that the data acquired should be reviewed with some skepticism.

Best Regards,
Ken

Trade Statistics Sources

I know several of you have been thinking of doing papers on Trade and Development, while this is not my specialty, The following links may be beneficial to you if you've been having trouble finding general trade, finance, and development statistics. When using these, also keep in mind that if you just contact the appropriate UN office via email, they will direct you to the proper library, and most of the UN libraries, especially ESCAP have librarians that can help you locate the proper data sets for your purposes. UNCTAD keeps most of their publications in the front office (2 UN Plaza, 1120), but only in paper form. Remember to bring valid photo ID.

http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=1888&lang=1
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/ *

If you aren't familiar with nations that might come up in the course of your studies, or you have a suspicion there may be some social or political event behind a statistical abnormality, the CIA world factbook is a good place to start, and a handy tool that you might wish to have for a variety of other reasons. It can be found (and used online, or downloaded) at:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

*COMTRADE will limit you to 1000 records unless you are using it from the UN Library, or you are a subscriber.

**Many of the PDF documents you can download online are unlocked, meaning you can copy/paste from them into the data editor of your choice, then convert them to stata, or if you find a way to do it efficiently, you can copy/paste directly into stata.