Comments on: Wired Relates Playboy Playmate BMI and Average BMI, 1954-2008

By: Your Writing Dept Blog » InfoPorn: Presenting raw data with visually stimulating graphs

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:04:41 +0000

[...] stimulating infoporn. A recent presentationÂ explores something you may have never considered:Â Playboy Playmate BMI and Average BMI, 1954-2008. Wired Magazine might be taking the presentation of information past what the average Excel user [...]

By: LOESS smoothing « Learning R

LOESS smoothing « Learning R — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 20:15:14 +0000

[...] March 10, 2009 LOESS smoothing Posted by learnr under R | Tags: ggplot2, R | Jon Peltier writes about the LOESS smoothing in Excel, and presents a utility to facilitate adding smoothers to the data. He goes on to show how to use smoothing to help analyze the body mass indexes (BMI) of Playboy playmates – a topic recently discussed in Flowingdata forums. [...]

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:03:37 +0000

Here's a follow-up to my comment about a LOESS smoothing of the data: LOESS Smoothing in Excel

By: LOESS Smoothing in Excel | PTS Blog

LOESS Smoothing in Excel | PTS Blog — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 10:01:21 +0000

[...] than linear regression over the whole data set or over portions of the data. See the discussion in Wired Relates Playboy Playmate BMI and Average BMI, 1954-2008 on the FlowingData [...]

By: Playboy pour la science | Karizmatic

Playboy pour la science | Karizmatic — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:58:09 +0000

[...] Via FlowingData [...]

By: dasistdasen.de » LinkmÃ¼llhalde fÃ¼r den 18. Februar â€˜09

dasistdasen.de » LinkmÃ¼llhalde fÃ¼r den 18. Februar â€˜09 — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:30:19 +0000

[...] Wired Relates Playboy Playmate BMI and Average BMI, 1954-2008: [...] Wired Magazine visualizes Playmate BMI and US average BMI over the years. While the US [...]

By: Nathan Yau

Nathan Yau — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 20:05:02 +0000

I’m sure the Hef has a lot of say on who is a playmate, but I bet he leaves a lot of the choices to Playboy editors. Either way though, it’s best to keep in mind that Playboy is a magazine – a business – so whoever is choosing intends to pick what will sell the most magazines.

My wife really likes Girls Next Door, so I’ve seen an episode or 20 :)

By: John

John — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:19:05 +0000

A question: What is the selection process behind who is the playmate? If Mr. Hefner is judge judy, and executioner, this chart will potentially just show his taste in women over the years. Is it a team of editors or just Hugh? Anyone a religious watcher of “Girl next door”?

By: Nathan Yau

Nathan Yau — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:19:03 +0000

@Adam – That’s is one of the best job titles ever. Thanks for visiting FD and taking the time to comment :)

From an analytical standpoint, I’d say the linear fit is a bit of a stretch since there’s even a slight increase in BMI towards the end. So instead of a continuous decrease, we might even be seeing the beginning of an upswing in Playmate BMI. Julian’s moving average graph and Jon’s loess graph seem to suggest that.

By: Julian Burgess

Julian Burgess — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 21:06:18 +0000

Hello. I’ve created a graph which shows the full data plus a 24 month average, this shows that there hasn’t been a linear decrease, but it has actually risen slightly since the mid eighties. Great blog.