I am a statistician. Let's face it, most people are not. What's worse than admitting ignorance is thinking you can use them to make a point without understanding. There's a famous quote of confusing origin that 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.', often used to dismiss the idea that numbers can tell you anything important. Sadly, these types of people are also the most anxious to use numbers and statistics when they support their own cause.
I have no intentions of this blog taking on any sort of issues. I do not mean this blog to take one side or another, but rather to simply see what numbers might actually be saying. I see this taking two forms - the first situations where I find people misusing (or misrepresenting) numbers to, well, tell a damned lie, and the second to answer questions I think of that I find interesting that can be backed with numbers.
By all means, if you come up with a question that you believe can be answered with easily found data, let me know. If you have an issue with the way I've looked at something, let me know as well. We all make mistakes, so after I make a few perhaps we can run the numbers on them.
I'll be trying to come up with things to update on every Wednesday.
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