Due Oct. 5

Read Green, Mayer, Taddeo OR Sternbergh articles in Taibbi book

Answer the following questions:

1. What is the topic of this article and what is the author's main point?  The topic of this article is Nate Silver.  He has created a website that is considered a mega poll.  The main point of the article is how Nate Silver created this Website and it has become to go to place for election predictions.

2. Discuss at least two interesting pieces of information you learned. Why were they interesting?  Nate Silver is a baseball statistician that used his skills to create an algorithm to predict elections.  He has used his knowledge to create a new polling system.  He uses the top ranked polls for individual elections and runs simulations in an algorithm to come up with a mega, more accurate poll.

3. What sources did the author use -- these can include people, documents, first-hand observation, etc. Discuss the quality of the reporting.  Joe Sheehan, on of the creators of PECOTA, Moneyball, Nate Silver, Dick Bennett a pollster for ARG, FiveThirtyEight.com,

4. Do you agree with the author's conclusion? Why or why not? The conclusion for this article is that Nate Silver has created a new way to look at polling.  The author states how cocky these statisticians can be. Nate Silver knows how things have been done, he now wants to change the status quo.

5. Discuss how the historical context you learned from the Daniel book thus far illuminates the contemporary story you just read. Does it prove to you that history repeats itself and there's nothing new under the sun or does it prove that these times are different from the early days of political reporting?  Based on what I have read so far in the Daniel book, I have a hard time comparing the way Silver is using his Website.  Sure there was a form of polling in early political history, but the way Nate Silver has become so accurate by compiling so much data is by far ahead of that time.

6. Did you like this article? Why or why not?  I liked this article because Nate Silver saw a flaw in the predicting of elections.  He took his knowledge of baseball stats and applied a formula to calculate a more precise election prediction.  This Website is now the number one poll that people turn to for election predictions.