Random stats news

Dr. Bradley Efron has been awarded the 2005 National Medal of Science (he is one of eight winners). No, that's not a typo. Due to 'scheduling conflicts' several awards are 'tardy.' Dr. Efron has made significant contributions to a number of fields, but he is most well known for developing a method called bootstrapping (a method I spent some 6 hours employing last week). I've had the good fortune to meet him, and he's an all around wonderful guy, in addition to being a thoughtful and hard working researcher. It's nice to see statisticians getting a little recognition (as he says, "Statisticians don’t win many awards.”)!