Prelude: Chapter 10
Is the climate growing warmer? Some very fancy data collection and analysis seek to answer this question. Here's a simpler approach. "The Nenana Ice Classic is a betting contest held in Nenana, Alaska [My own note: I have actually been to Nenana a few times. And have been rafting on the Tanana River... it's an absolutely gorgeous place!] (64degrees34'N, 149degrees05'W), in which participants attempt to guess the exact minute in spring that a wooden tripod positioned on the frozen Tanana River will fall through the ice." Because money is at stake, the tripod is watched constantly, and the minute it falls has been recorded by the same standard since 1917.
Sure enough, the ice breakup has moved earlier in the spring over the decades. There is a rough linear trend but lots of variation from year to year. ... The answer is yes. The P-value is P=0.01, giving reason to conclude that there is really a tend in the moment the tripod falls.

For one brief second, I'm actually happily reading my Statistics textbook. Finally they have it right~ encorporating science, controversy, and an amazing location ...to draw my attention into the horrid world of math. But I'd much rather be doing experiments like this than calculating any linear regression lines, prediction intervals, confidence intervals or significance tests!