For LaTeX users: You can get the bibtex entry here or copy-paste from below:

@MISC\{IMM2008-03274,
author = “K. B. Petersen and M. S. Pedersen”,
title = “The Matrix Cookbook”,
year = “2008″,
month = “oct”,
keywords = “Matrix identity, matrix relations, inverse, matrix derivative”,
publisher = “Technical University of Denmark”,
address = “”,
note = “Version 20081110″,
url = “http://www2.imm.dtu.dk/pubdb/p.php?3274“,
abstract = “Matrix identities, relations and approximations. A desktop reference for quick overview of mathematics of matrices.”
}

SAS Institute is the vendor of the statistics- and information management software SAS, started back in 1976 in University of North Carolina. Kaare Brandt Petersen will be working in the Copenhagen office as Business Advisor, advocating the use of SAS and data analysis.  

kaarebrandt (at) gmail (dot) com

You can look at his resume at his LinkedIn profile or at this old school website

A comonly used way to misuse statistics, is to claim causality between two entities of which a relation has been demonstrated. For example

a) If people eating apples have longer live expectancy, then present the results as if it was because of the apples. The truth may be that people eating apples are more likely to do more exercise, but that concern won’t sell your apples, right?

b) If people wearing a tie have higher average income, then you can claim it was because of the excelent silk ties you are selling. The truth probably is that people wearing a tie have made other carrier choices from early on in their life, but never mind.

In case you want to counter a causality claim, remember that NO data, NO statistics and NO mathematics can  formally imply causality. Causality is the result of scientific theories or everyday comon sense. Thus, if the reason for one entity causing another is not clear, it is probabily just a wild guess of the authors.

A very simple trick to fool the crowd is to conduct your survey under “the right circumstances”, e.g., select carefully when or who to ask in order to get the answer you are looking for. For example:

• If you want to show that the political conservatives are getting ahead of the socialists, then just ask people outside the church og financial district instead of the supermarket or subway.
• If you want to demonstrate that many people are frustrated with delays in the airport - then ask them on a day with heavy rain and many delayed airplanes.
• If you want to prove that your garden product gives fantastic results, make sure to make the test in a year of good conditions.

If your want to counter the results of a survey, investigate carefully how the data was collected and how this affects the outcome. Everybody making a survey has a preferred outcome, and if you have identified the preferrences, you can start think of how this most likely have influenced the sampling - conciously or not.

As a celebration, and because its pretty good fun, I’ll run a series of postings on how to lie with statistics - the tricks of the trade. Most of them will be from the book by Huff, but some of my own experience. 

Dear Mr. Petersen:

Thank you for your message. Without any admission of wrongdoing, please be advised that we are in the process of removing  ”The Matrix Cookbook (Kindle Edition)”  ASIN: B0027P9C2S from Amazon.com. It typically takes 2-3 days for a listing to disappear once it has been removed from our catalog. We trust this will bring this matter to a close.

This letter is written without prejudice to any rights, remedies or defenses to which Amazon.com and its affiliates may be entitled, all of which are expressly reserved.

Thank you - what a relief.

Dear Sirs/Madams

I have found out that the document “The Matrix Cookbook” is available from Amazon Kindle

http://www.amazon.com/The-Matrix-Cookbook-ebook/dp/B0027P9C2S

I am co-author of the document, and have no idea how or why it has ended on Amazon. The copyright holder is Technical University of Denmark and they have not authorized this, so I will strongly urge you to remove it from your services immediately.

On the kindle website, the document have so-called editors named “TFTPG” which stands for The Flying Tigers Printing Group (http://www.tftpg.com). “The Matrix Cookbook” has nothing to do with this organization and I don’t know why they are related on Amazon.

I would appreciate a swift respons to this email. Thanks.

Best regards, Kaare

Lets see if that helps …

So I wrote them an email instructing them to remove it immediately - lets see if they have the curtesey to respond to that.