Harry FELDMAN, wrote: 17 March 2009 22:30
My 'law' is, 'Don't believe you know what a number means until you're
read the definitions and explanatory notes. And don't believe them
until you've read the questions and interviewers' instructions.'
-----
Very relevant article at
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/david_aaronovitch/ar
ticle5834725.ece
David Spiegelhalter spoke on BBC Radio 4 this morning about lay and
journalistic interpretation of statistics. Nice example, press freaked
out last year when there were four murders in one day in London. David
commented that he had looked at numbers of murders per day for the last
three years. Without saying "Poisson distribution" he said that based
on about 140 murders per year (.4 /day) you would expect about once in
three years to have four in one day. Could be a good topical example
for schools - how dangerous is society and what personal risk factors
affect individuals.
Allan
***********************************************************************************
This email and any attachments are intended for the named recipient only. Its unauthorised use, distribution, disclosure, storage or copying is not permitted. If you have received it in error, please destroy all copies and notify the sender. In messages of a non-business nature, the views and opinions expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the organisation from which it is sent. All emails may be subject to monitoring.
***********************************************************************************
******************************************************
Please note that if you press the 'Reply' button your
message will go only to the sender of this message.
If you want to reply to the whole list, use your mailer's
'Reply-to-All' button to send your message automatically
to [log in to unmask]
Disclaimer: The messages sent to this list are the views of the sender and cannot be assumed to be representative of the range of views held by subscribers to the Radical Statistics Group. To find out more about Radical Statistics and its aims and activities and read current and past issues of our newsletter you are invited to visit our web site www.radstats.org.uk.
*******************************************************
|