Why “Randomized Blocker?”

This was a nickname coined during the Fall of 2011 within Harvard’s statistics department. During a seminar on Reading Fisher with Xiao Li and Joe Blitzstein, one of the presenters used it during a discussion of Fisher’s contributions to experimental design. The moniker stuck (for various reasons…) and was subsequently “sanctified” by Xiao-Li at the department holiday party — in writing, on a slide. Needless to say, it is now inescapable and provides a concise summary of my personality.

What is the header?

It is a graphic representation of a 5 factor randomized block design with 6 replicates per block and 189 blocks. The R code to create it is available here. If you are red green colorblind, yes, it is brown.