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Lies, Damned Lies and Cat Statistics

Posted by samzenpus on from the nine-lies dept.

spopepro writes "While un-captioned cats might be of limited interest to the /. community, I found this column on how a fabricated statistic takes on a life of its own interesting. Starting with the Humane Society of the United States' (HSUS) claim that the unsterilized offspring of a cat will '...result in 420,000 cats in 5 years,' the author looks at other erroneous numbers, where they came from and why they won't go away."

12 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. No Don't Ruin This, I Need This! by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Funny

    When I was a kid, I used to sit there smashing mosquitoes that bit me. Every time I smashed one fat with blood, I relished the idea that I had just killed a female mosquito who was about to lay thousands of eggs. And those mosquitoes would in turn breed and lay thousands of eggs and I had essentially just ended the lives of an infinite number of mosquitoes!

    Please, just let me have this -- your environmental constraints and logical reasoning be damned!

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:No Don't Ruin This, I Need This! by c0lo · · Score: 2, Funny
      And well you did by smashing those female mosquitoes: my computations shows beyond doubt that, if you not have done that, the entire biomass of the earth would be now made of mosquitoes!

      I'll rush to publish this statistic and start a new one on rodent population, stay tuned.

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  2. Uncaptioned? by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 3, Funny

    That just means we have the opportunity to make our own captions!

    i can haz kitenz?

    Go Go Gadget Pointless Thread:

    1. Re:Uncaptioned? by jd · · Score: 3, Funny

      Unkaptshunned Kittehs aer a kryme agaynst kitteh-hood. Unless dey're orinj. Teh orinj wuns aer poyson.

      --
      It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
  3. More reliable statistics by Bogtha · · Score: 4, Funny

    People who prefer dogs to cats are 4.8 times as likely to prefer Scotch to vodka, but people who prefer cats to dogs are equally likely to prefer Scotch or vodka.

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    Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
  4. Re:Made up statistics by raxhonp · · Score: 2, Funny

    I just got the results from the latest survey, they say it's actually 103.7%.

  5. Re:Huh? by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... in 3 million years you get a race of bipeds evolved from cats that are uber cool and fight wars over what colors their hats should be?

  6. Re:Actually... by RobertM1968 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The fundamental problem is that most people are credulous morons.

    I dunno... my studies show that only about 80% of people are credulous morons, while 50% of people are moronic intellectuals.

    --
    StarTrekPhase2 - The Five Year Mission Continues!
  7. Re:Actually... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I heard your same theory debunking your common knowledge theme many times, what is the source for this theory?

  8. Re:Actually... by Pennidren · · Score: 2, Funny

    The fundamental problem is that most people are credulous morons.

    I BELIEVE YOU!

  9. Re:It's a good thing too because by Telecommando · · Score: 2, Funny

    I used a spade on one I found in my garage last month.

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    Beta sux! Join the Slashcott! http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4760465&cid=46173047
  10. Re:Do your own math by madmarcel · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, I don't have a picture of her pu...uhh... Let's just say that you're in the wrong continent altogether, the only cryptids we have here are invisible moose.