I found this article on the BBC website to be in equal measures interesting and depressing. It is called Why do people vote against their best interests? and is about the US healthcare issue, but really has lessons for the left over here too.
Entries Tagged as 'Statistics'
Sick statistics
January 25th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Life
Should there be some sort of exam where journalists have to display even a rudimentary grasp of statistics before they are allowed to go around journalling all over the place? I have just been reading this piece from the Telegraph about people taking sick days.
Tags: Books·Newspapers·Statistics
Superstition
July 27th, 2008 · No Comments · Life
Last week somebody in Horsham bought a lottery ticket at Waitrose in Piries Place and won £2.3 million. This week, if the papers are to be believed, business has been booming for the Waitrose lottery machine as people have been flocking to buy a ticket from the ‘lucky shop’. Which part of “random” is it [...]
Tags: Horsham·Statistics
Alternative medicine success story?
February 20th, 2008 · 8 Comments · Technology
According to this story: (which refers to this earlier story)
There is growing evidence that acupuncture can greatly increase a woman’s chance of becoming pregnant
I am more than a bit sceptical about claims for medical treatment based on theories like “the body’s major organs use energy pathways to communicate and that malaise occurs whenever communication breaks [...]
Tags: Medicine/Health·Statistics·WTF
Lies, damned lies, and statistics
January 6th, 2008 · 2 Comments · Life
Only I couple of weeks ago I was pouring scorn on a set of meaningless statistics, and now there is another set which is not as bad but which says the opposite.
Tags: Crawley·Horsham·Statistics
Meaningless statistics
December 23rd, 2007 · 2 Comments · Life, Work
There was an eye-catching headline on the Argus website about how ‘Salaries in affluent Brighton are £3000 below average‘. It also says that salaries in Crawley have dropped £6,000 in the year. And its all rubbish.
Tags: Brighton·Crawley·Horsham·Statistics
A happy Christmas for West Sussex councillors
December 23rd, 2007 · 4 Comments · Politics
Well, its going to be happy for some of them anyway, specifically the 18 of them who are getting way-above-inflation pay increases – backdated to April so they get a nice lump sum in their next pay. They will be spending Christmas with their snouts in the trough.
Tags: Greed·Statistics·Tories·WSCC
Introspection
December 20th, 2007 · No Comments · Technology
One last (for now) bit of navel gazing about the new look and feel of this site and then its back to waffling about football, Dr. Who, music and the manifold shortcomings of the Tories.
For a start, while I was not looking, the hit counter ticked past the momentous but arbitrary 100,000 hits mark. I’m [...]
Tags: Design·Photos·Statistics·Wordpress
Crawley drops down the table
November 19th, 2007 · No Comments · Life
Last year Crawley could ‘boast’ the 3rd and 6th most violent streets in Sussex, but this year it can only manage the 11th and 20th most violent streets, while the most violent of the lot is… Terminus Rd in Eastbourne. All according to this story in the Argus.
The league table is based on violent offences [...]
Tags: Crawley·Crime/ASB·Statistics
Tables
August 14th, 2007 · No Comments · Life
It really is pointless having any league tables produced until everybody has played at least three or four games each.
BUT
It is OK now that West Ham are off the bottom thanks to Spurs losing another game. What happened to all their talk of finally breaking into the top four this year? Its early [...]
Tags: Football·Statistics
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