The normal distribution, multiple comparisons and risks of false alarm

I often think to myself that if we could effectively teach one single concept to all citizens, get them to really understand it and apply it to life we would all be better off. It has relevance for so many facets of our public and private decision making; ofttimes ignorance of this concept makes for a dismal political or personal outcome.
Brazillion Thoughts has an English-language translation of a post originally written by Karl at Ecce Medicus.
The traslation reads in part:

Many times, in my practice, I am required to explain some statistical concepts to my patients in order to make them avoid some frequent pitfalls. The most common concept I explain is what is “normal” in lab exams. Let’s suppose someone invents a new lab test to measure the glucose in the blood. How would we determine what are the normal values for this test?

Le Twitt de France

BikeMonkey Guest PostEven the greatest sporting event on the planet is getting into the Web2.0 act! Being in the US, land of the time-zone and sports-television challenged, I usually follow Le Tour on cyclingnews.com via their live updates. (Although for some inexplicably crazy reason the live page is in reverse chronological order this year, epic sporting spoiler FAIL!!!)
This year there is a new and improved way to get extra color commentary on the goings-on. Turns out a few of the pro cyclists have adopted Twitter, either haltingly or with full enthusiasm. In this latter list is @lancearmstrong. If you take a look at his Tweets from today you’ll find a list of other TdF competitors who are on Twitter.
Twittercounter claims that ol’ Lancie is the 16th most-followed Twitt, strange for a retired celebrity from an obscure (for the US anyway) Frenchified sporting endeavor. Except there’s this little thing about him being a cancer survivor. And his charity, the Lance Armstrong Foundation/LiveStrong.
Love or hate Lance from the sporting perspective or for his interpersonal behavior, you have to respect this. Following him on Twitter has given me an appreciation of how engaged this celebrity is in promoting awareness of cancer and supporting many programs which support those people who are fighting or have survived various cancers. Highly engaged. Twitter allows him to talk about the doings of the LAF and about cancer survivors every day…and he apparently tries to hit just such a frequency. Kewl.