Thanks for visiting my blog. My name is Marlowe, and I'm a cat who learned about Six Sigma, quality improvement, and data analysis from hanging around my houseperson when he was working on his master's degree in applied statistics. 

He's not as smart as a cat, but he's reasonably sharp for a human. However, he sometimes forgets to turn off his laptop at night, and when he does, I like to jump in here and share my adventures in data and statistics.

If you're a cat, the things I'll be talking about should be right up your alley. What can data tell us about the relative merits of various cat toys?...

Serving cat food? I sure hope you've set your alpha
level high enough.

"Bad kitty!" That's a phrase you almost never hear, but even we cats make the occasional mistake. I was reminded of this recently as I watched my human trying to analyze some data. People frequently make mistakes when they test a hypothesis with data analysis. Specifically, they can make either Type I or Type II errors.   

When I first started reading my human's statistics textbooks a few years ago, this idea seemed awfully silly to me. We cats appreciate being direct, and you either get the answer correct or you don't. I...

Marlowe the Stats Cat here. Earlier, I showed you how easy it was to set up my statistical software with a personalized menu of statistical tools I use most often. 

The problem is that I share a computer with one of the humans who live in my house, and the statistical tools I use most may not be the ones he needs to use. And I don't want to clutter myinterface with a "Human" menu.    I'm trying to be kind, but I should just be direct about this: as a cat, I have abilities that far oustrip those of my human. That extends to the range of statistical tools I can use effectively.   What I need to...

Marlowe the stats cat here. My human left his laptop unattended again, so I thought I'd share a few of my favorite posts that appeared on The Minitab Blog during 2012. These are the ones that made me laugh even while teaching me something about statistics or quality improvement. 

We don't get a lot of credit for it, but the fact of the matter is that we cats really do have a pretty good sense of humor. See the photo? That's why you don't catch us cats laughing that much. Now, we're not big on slapstick or pratfalls (we tend to leave that kind of comic relief to the dogs, thank you very...

When I want to analyze data, I want my statistical software to give me the options I want, when I want them. I want a menu that's perfectly suited to my needs. Maybe even a toolbar that gives me instant access to the tools I use most frequently. 

That's not too much to ask, is it? 

Look, you can't argue with nature. I'm a cat, which means I want things my way. If my human puts something (like a computer keyboard) right where I planned to take my mid-early-afternoon nap, I'm going to lie down there anyway and make him type around me. As the photo below and a bunch of others on this webpage prove,...

Marlowe the Stats Cat here. That guy I share my house with left his laptop unattended again, and I spent the evening doing searching the web for news about one of my favorite subjects: salmon. Yum. But I wound up getting more than a collection of cool salmon pictures...I also got a better understanding of the role the size of a dataset plays when you're doing a hypothesis test.  

You see, my search led me to this paper that summarized a 2009 analysis of neuroimaging data collected from a frozen salmon. Yes, you did read that correctly: some people with Ph.D.'s actually ran an MRI on a dead...

My name is Marlowe, and I’m a cat. A cat who tries to make the best decisions based on data and statistics, and wants to help you do the same thing. Hey, if I can use data to better understand my world, so can you. 

I permit several people to live with me. They’re all okay, but my favorite houseperson is that one who studies statistics. He taught me about this data analysis stuff. Oh, he didn’t know he was doing it—he was just reading textbooks aloud and talking to himself while doing his assignments. But cats have the best ears on the planet, and it didn’t take long before I figured out what...