Jul 23, 2014

Perception vs Data: Is This The Rainiest Summer Ever?

Weather report on bTV
"Oh, not again!". This is the thought that flashed through my sleepy head this morning when the weather woman stood in front of a map densely covered by small pictures of rain and lightnings. It has been very rainy summer. The never ending rain and the missing sunshine have been a major topic in the conversations for the last few months. Everyone around is sort of angry for the lost opportunities for good times outdoors. The phrases of the day are "This is the rainiest summer ever!", "There has never been such a summer before" and "I don't remember a summer like this one". It got me thinking if it really is the case or it is our perception playing tricks? I pondered on a similar question in my World Cup post where I tried to find why this tournament is considered to be a fantastic one. In contrast to the emotionally charged football tournaments, the weather perception should be relatively simple to analyze as it has been well recorder for a long time and there is hard data on it as well as there are much less factors to consider.

Jul 3, 2014

Is This World Cup Really Better Than Previous Two?

The World Cup in Brazil is perceived to be the best World Cup tournament among the last few ones. This is according to my circle of friends and acquaintances and me as much as I could be a reliable source. It made me think about what makes a football tournament a good one and why exactly this one is better than the ones in 2006 and 2010. I asked around to gather some opinions and I also decided to go and see some data to find whether it could tell bit more about that.