burgers and durians: skewed logic

Monday, February 13, 2006

Can somebody please tell me what the hell is so great about having postage stamps that glow in the dark when 96% of your population supports the death penalty?

Anonymous said...: Hey, glow in the dark stamps are cool! Oh, and i read over the article, and they only surveyed 425 people - so i think saying that 98% of all Singaporeans supporting the death penalty is a stretch. Like, if you surveyed 10 of my friends, you could say that 98% of all Canadians find Sharmeen to be cool.; 1:29 AM
burgers and durians said...: True...I think the thing that annoyed me about this was that it was splashed all over the front page of the Sunday paper, with 2 full pages inside, and there was no mention of the statistical problems at all. The study was taken as truth...I kinda felt like the paper's message was: if you consider yourself part of the 4% who's against the death penalty, then you're a freak.

Perhaps the more important point, though, is that i vote 'yes' to 'Sharmeen is cool'. Oh wait, i don't get to vote cos i'm not canadian. Damn.; 8:24 PM
Anonymous said...: Hey! Why are you bagging on glow in the dark stamps!? A bigger question is "why have glow in the dark stamps if no one notices?"

Polls are presented as fact all the time. The big story here was how support for the harper govn't has risen 2% since the election. Well, if the poll is rated at +/- 4% 19/20 then their support could have fallen by 2% and still be withing the accuracy of the poll. Polls LEAD opinion more than report it.; 5:19 AM