https://theconversation.com/do-poor-people-eat-more-junk-food-than-wealthier-americans-79154
Another finding was that working more hours raises fast-food consumption, regardless of income level. People eat it because it’s fast and convenient. This suggests policies that make nutritious foods more readily available, quickly, could help offset the lure of fast food. For example, reducing the red tape for approving food trucks that serve meals containing fresh fruits and vegetables could promote healthier, convenient eating.

https://theconversation.com/paradoxes-of-probability-and-other-statistical-strangeness-74440

Statistics is a useful tool for understanding the patterns in the world around us. But our intuition often lets us down when it comes to interpreting those patterns. In this series we look at some of the common mistakes we make and how to avoid them when thinking about statistics, probability and risk.

"The transformation in Virginia’s statewide partisan lean is the product of some major changes in the voting habits in different parts of the commonwealth. If we take a step down from the statewide level, we can start to really see these shifts by looking at Virginia’s three major metropolitan areas and the parts of the state that lie outside of them."

http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/the-new-dominion-virginias-ever-changing-electoral-map/

https://theconversation.com/if-we-stopped-emitting-greenhouse-gases-right-now-would-we-stop-climate-change-78882

This decades-long lag between cause and effect is due to the long time it takes to heat the ocean’s huge mass. The energy that is held in the Earth by increased carbon dioxide does more than heat the air. It melts ice; it heats the ocean. Compared to air, it’s harder to raise the temperature of water; it takes time – decades. However, once the ocean temperature is elevated, it will release heat back to the air, and be measured as surface heating.

So even if carbon emissions stopped completely right now, as the oceans’ heating catches up with the atmosphere, the Earth’s temperature would rise about another 0.6℃. Scientists refer to this as committed warming. Ice, also responding to increasing heat in the ocean, will continue to melt. There’s already convincing evidence that significant glaciers in the West Antarctic ice sheets are lost. Ice, water and air – the extra heat held on the Earth by carbon dioxide affects them all. That which has melted will stay melted – and more will melt.

Medicaid Worsens Your Health? That’s a Classic Misinterpretation of Research https://nyti.ms/2tDUzgB

Medicaid enrollees are of lower socioeconomic status — even lower than the uninsured as a group — and so may have fewer community and family resources that promote good health. They also tend to be sicker than other patients. In fact, some health care providers help the sickest and the neediest to enroll in Medicaid when they have no other option for coverage. Because people can sign up for Medicaid retroactively, becoming ill often leads to Medicaid enrollment, not the opposite.

https://theconversation.com/take-that-chocolate-milk-survey-with-a-grain-of-salt-80178
Social scientists call this a problem with validity: the question doesn’t really measure what it’s supposed to measure. Of course, without seeing how the question was worded, we can’t know whether the chocolate milk question had validity.

Indeed, early media coverage focused on the 7 percent statistic but left out the fact that 48 percent of respondents said they don’t know where chocolate milk comes from. This gives context to the 7 percent number. While it’s conceivable that 7 percent of the population doesn’t know that chocolate milk is just milk with chocolate, the idea that a full 55 percent — over half of adults — don’t know or gave an incorrect response begins to strain credulity. This points toward a confusing survey question.

The priming effect!

http://smbc-comics.com/comic/priming

https://www.bna.com/government-websites-fail-b73014453609/

Consumer services sites such as Twitter Inc. and YouTube have the best website and email security and privacy practices, but approximately 60 percent of government websites are exposed to cybersecurity threats, according to a June 20 report by the Online Trust Alliance, an online industry non-profit.

More than just a simple explanation, as the authors note. It’s research and not anecdotal discussion.

http://theconversation.com/do-poor-people-eat-more-junk-food-than-wealthier-americans-79154

http://www.journalism.org/datasets/

Pew Research Center makes its data available to the public for secondary analysis after a period of time.