Things that make you go "Hmmmm…"

[retina]

http://rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_abuse.shtml

[kracker]

Originally Posted by retina

http://rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_abuse.shtml

I think it should go into the "funny" thread...

[Brian-E]

Originally Posted by retina

http://rinkworks.com/stupid/cs_abuse.shtml

I remember seeing someone at work back at the start of the 1990s, when I was helping to provide support for staff PCs, handling 5 1/4 floppy disks (on which crucial company data was stored) with their protective covers off and with his thumb over the opening, obviously touching the disk inside. He thought it was just a handy thumb-notch for ease of portability. Unfortunately he was a really senior person in the company and I didn't have the nerve to speak to him about it.

Here's another site which gives similar stories, but then mostly on the software side of things, from a helpdesk in New Zealand.
http://www.evilgenius.org.nz/index.html

[ewmayer]

Obese or Overweight People Top 2.1 Billion Worldwide - Bloomberg

Idiotic "meaningful statistic" des Tages:

"More than half of the world’s 671 million obese people live in the U.S., China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Pakistan and Indonesia."

Toting up the per-country population numbers for the aforementioned nations we get

County		Population (in millions)
--------	------------------------
Brazil		 202.6
China		1364.7
Egypt		  86.5
Germany		  80.7
India		1244.7
Indonesia	 247.4
Mexico		 119.7
Pakistan	 186.6
Russia		 143.7
U.S.		 318.1

...which total to almost exactly 4 Bln, or ... (breathless pause; wait for it) ... 56%, also more than half - of the estimated current global population of 7.17 Bln. Ergo, a giant nothingburger of a statistical blurb.

OTOH, the "exceptional" U.S. being home to 13% of the world's obese - 3x the average per capita rate - is highly significant. But following that with "...followed by China and India, which together represent 15 percent" as the article does is again inane, because China and India taken together are home to 36% of the world's people; thus their collective per-capita obesity rate is much lower than average, and drastically lower than that of the U.S.

An Onion-esque "Poll: Over 70% of journalistic blurb-turner-outers unqualified to use statistics" faux-headline seems apt.

[retina]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

"Poll: Over 70% of journalistic blurb-turner-outers unqualified to use statistics" faux-headline seems apt.

Indeed. And now that the 100-year meteorite event has just occurred recently in Russia now we are good for another 100 years of peace.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by retina

Indeed. And now that the 100-year meteorite event has just occurred recently in Russia now we are good for another 100 years of peace.

Actually we were overdue. The last one before that happened in 1908.

[retina]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

Actually we were overdue. The last one before that happened in 1908.

Maybe that one early.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by retina

Maybe that one early.

Perhaps, but what are the odds of that happening?

======================

Switching back to an earlier sub-discussion in this thread:

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Anyone here thinking of buying one or more of the Saddle Ridge found coins when they go up for sale? I might consider buying one of the lower-priced ones if the "sekrit stash" premium over a similar run-of-the-mill-graded coin is not outrageous.

The coins are available for sale on Amazon, A few cursory same-year/mint/grade cross checks versus ebay alas reveals that the "sekrit stash" premium is at least 2x for the lower-priced coins, and probably a lot more for the rarer ones, where such cross-checks are difficult since similar coins come uo fro auction/sale rarely. (I.e. one would really need access to a multi-auction-site database).

However, the check was still worth it, because there is some very funny hoi-polloi snark in the "customer reviews" posted for the cream of the crop lot:

Thanks to the free shipping, I was baaaaarely able to purchase these. Very pleased! Coins are shiny and coin-like. Old can is, as promised, an old can. A great value!

[retina]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Perhaps, but what are the odds of that happening?

Ask a journalist.

[chappy]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

Ergo, a giant nothingburger of a statistical blurb.

<snip>

An Onion-esque "Poll: Over 70% of journalistic blurb-turner-outers unqualified to use statistics" faux-headline seems apt.

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1996-04-17/

[kladner]

Originally Posted by chappy

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1996-04-17/

Curse you! The Dilbert site is a deadly trap! However, it does have a search engine which found a favorite which is just over 20 years old.

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/1994-04-27/