A charming Australian view of the world

by Kim Iles

An experienced biometrician, Jerry Leech from Australia, has been writing a regular column of 1 or 2 pages for an Australian forestry journal. The articles are no longer online, so we have made them available here. The were originally published under the banner: “Lessons not learnt at university”. They are well worth a read.

They often have a technical content, but the real messages are quite general, and are about the psychology of getting inventory work done in ways that school does not teach you. Take a look. I think you will find them interesting. Any technical statistical issues are discussed very competently – but do not get in the way of the deeper lessons.

Their forestry association puts out this informally written little publication, with bits of history and insights into plantation forestry.

The year, quarter, page and title of his articles are noted below.
2010 (4) p28 Hanging a gate.
2011 (1) p27 There is no such thing as a silly question.
2011 (2) p29 Drawing the right statistical conclusion.
2011 (3) p11 When is a permanent sample plot not a permanent sample plot?
2011 (4) p29 When is the allowable cut not simply area times yield?
2012, (1) p29 Pushing statistics too far.
2012, (2) p25 Metric or imperial?
2013 (1) p11 When simple linear regression analysis is actually simple.
2013 (2) p16 Are tigers endangered?
2013 (3) p 8 Gaining acceptance.
2013 (4) p12 How significant is significant?

Curriculum Vitaes

Originally published March 2014, Updated January 2023

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