Newsy Numbers

EriDay writes "The Wall Street Journal has a new feature called The Numbers Guy about "the way numbers and statistics are used - and abused - in the news, business and politics". The first installment lets us know that somewhere between 0 and 1 Billion (or more) people will be killed by Asian bird flu."

Comments

Statistical Lies...

[Allen Zadr]

First published in 1954: How to Lie With Statistics

Good book, recommended reading, if you like the above article.

Re:Statistical Lies...

[tgrigsby]

Or if you want the Reader's Digest version, there's a quick and easy explanation of how to use critical thinking when you hear statistics here: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~taflinge/evistats.html

Re:Statistical Lies...

[hackstraw]

I've heard of the book, but have not actually read it personally. I remember reading something in 4th grade or thereabouts that talked about how advertisers used numbers to make their product seem better with things like 3 out of 4 doctors surveyed, etc.

Also, there is a popular quote that goes "Lies, damn lies, and statistics".

Similar to the article, there is a strange number game that was done a while back when the SARS "epidemic" hit the world. A total of about 850 people died from the thing, yet annually 10,000 or so people die from influenza. SARS is an epidemic, influenza not.

However, people have heard of influenza and not SARS, so I guess it makes for better headlines.

My personal favorite

[TildeMan]

During one of the 2004 presidential debates: "We increased federal wetlands by 3 million!" -- GWB

I'm still not really sure what that means.

So...

[FireballX301]

The first installment lets us know that somewhere between 0 and 1 Billion (or more)

Excellent, it's nice to know that a negative number of people won't die.

Did you know...

[se2schul]

...83% off all statistics quoted are made up on the spot!

Pi

[savagedome]

Also, in his diary, the following excerpt was found:

11:15, restate my assumptions: 1. Mathematics is the language of nature. 2. Everything around us can be represented and understood through numbers. 3. If you graph these numbers, patterns emerge. Therefore: There are patterns everywhere in nature.

aarch... panic !

[selderrr]

...somewhere between 0 and 1 Billion (or more) people...

Is that zero , or zero billion ?

[...head explodes...]

Funny Statistic

[Lord Kano]

1/3 of all auto accidents involve people who test positive for marijuana use.

This means that 2/3 of all auto accidents are cause by people who are not high.

We sober people are KILLING each other while the stoners are not.

LK

Re:Funny Statistic

[Shadow Wrought]

I remember a statistic in College (way to long ago to remember the cite) about the disparity between males and females when it comes to causing car accidents. Males were far more more likely to be responsible as the cause of an accident- unless alcohol or drugs were not involved. Then women were far more likely to be the cause;-)

Re:Funny Statistic

[i41Overlord]

I do hope that less than 1/3 of the population uses marijuana, as it's illegal.

Legality is not morality.

People used to drink also. They drank before prohibition, they drank during prohibition, and they drank after prohibition. The law didn't really change much, other than the fact that the same people went from being law abiding citizens, to criminals who supported the Kaiser (the same old Communist/Terrorist enemy tactic used forever) back to law abiding citizens.

Laws such as this are mainly academic in my opinion.

Re:Alright! Another thread where we can bash Bush

[lucabrasi999]

This thread provides and excellent opportunity to bash Bush, America, Corporations and Fox News!

Yeah, those folks at the Wall Street Journal are nothing but a bunch of crazy liberals.

Hello PR Stunt!

[torinth]

This column is just an superficial attempt by the WSJ to combat the "news is junk" meme that's been building over the last few years. They're trying to make it look like: "hell, we've got people who write fricking columns about statistical manipulation!" so that you don't think the rest of their paper prints it.

But odds are that in todays super-competitive least-necessary-change news market the WSJ has done nothing substantial to improve the accuracy of their paper and instead just inserted a column to improve the image.

A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper

[markh1967]

The article reminded me of 'A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper' by John Allen Paulos. A great read for those interested in the mangling of science and numeracy by the media and politicians.

Re:argh! Statistical abuse!

[parkrrrr]

How about a different Mark Twain quote, from Life on the Mississippi:

In the space of one hundred and seventy-six years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself two hundred and forty-two miles. That is an average of a trifle over one mile and a third per year. Therefore, any calm person, who is not blind or idiotic, can see that in the Old Oolitic Silurian Period,' just a million years ago next November, the Lower Mississippi River was upwards of one million three hundred thousand miles long, and stuck out over the Gulf of Mexico like a fishing-rod. And by the same token any person can see that seven hundred and forty-two years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long, and Cairo and New Orleans will have joined their streets together, and be plodding comfortably along under a single mayor and a mutual board of aldermen. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

A joke from the past

[Maimun]

During communism (Bulgaria), we had this joke. An American and a Soviet athlete competed in an official event of importance. The American won. Next day, the newspapers wrote: "The Soviet athlete took the second place, while the American only got the penultimate one". :)

A BBC Radio series worth listening to..

[Angostura]

The BBC has an excellent radio series called More Or Less" that unpicks the numbers and statistics that are bandied about in the news. It is authoritative, interesting and a remarkably good listen (available on demand using Real Audio)

Bad statistics jokes

[fbform]

A statistician discovered that the probability of a bomb being on board a given aircraft was alarmingly high. But he realized that the probability of two bombs being on board the same aircraft was reassuringly low.

So these days, whenever he flies, he carries a bomb with him.

---- ____ ----

A university surveyed its graduate students, and found that the male students averaged 1.8 children each, while he female students averaged 1.4 children each. Therefore men have more kids than women.