Well, I was going to wait until my day of ranting for this post, but I think I need to get it out of the way today. Politicians love to quote statistical figures, but what is certain about statistics? Some would have you believe that a majority is all that is needed so that would imply better than 50% would be required, but in the education system we classify 70-79% as average. So does that mean politicians have a larger deviation or a lower certainty than teachers? Of course we can't talk about reasonable doubt without a lawyer being involved, so what does reasonable doubt mean to a lawyer? But of course, lawyers don't like to use numbers so there is no mathematical definition of reasonable doubt.
The ironic thing is that statistical references are thrown around like everyone knows the significance of them. According to the investment firms 67% of the adult population does not have a significant retirement plan. According to Purell, their product kills 99.9% of all germs. According to the weatherman there is a 30% of inclement weather. Blah, Blah, Blah...
Are we really that uneducated that we can be bought with some scary sounding numbers? Can we really be convinced that global warming is a 'serious' issue because of a one degree rise in temperature? Do we really believe that it is the 'weak' dollar that is going to drive gas above $4/gal while the Big E banks record PROFITS AGAIN?
Hum...I say there is a 89% chance that if you are reading this blog you are female, but what is my proof? Did I just make up these numbers and hope you take it for fact or am I sitting on some massive amounts of data of my blog readers? What if I said that 96% of my commenting blog readers are female, 65% of my blog lurkers are female and 55% of my blog readers through search engines are female; would you believe that even more?
Monday, March 10, 2008
Statistically Speaking...
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4 comments:
Maybe just wishful thinking? or, more likely, you are sitting on a pile of data...
Hum! Well I'm a female and I look at your blog all the time, wish I recruit some of the opposites to view, every now and again? Would that make the whole number thing funner? Or....... Aw....... Maybe send your blog address to a few more of our female friends that are single? What do you think of that idea? HUH? HUH?
Maybe you just have a camera on all us :*)
Hahaha, well truthfully I made up all those numbers, but I do know who a large percentage of my viewers are so that does help. *GRIN*
I am always glad to have the lurkers and new visitors and REALLY appreciate those who keep returning to see what I have been up to.
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