Sunday, February 8, 2009

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

All is well here. The tea/orange juice method of keeping me healthy seems to be working. I happen to be on Youtube looking at some of my account settings and I happen to stumble upon stats on views and locations. I don't know exactly where people are (as in city or town), but it shows the country. There are some that seem obvious (highest percentage of views in the U.S., a good percentage of views here in Ireland that corresponds to me posting videos here) but then there are some stats that surprised me. The most surprising bit is not the number of views, but the location. Some of the countries that show up are China, Spain, France, Portugal, and less so Canada. Champlain has a study abroad location in Montreal, but the others, where did those come from? Did anyone go on any cool trips recently that I didn't know about (mainly China, Spain, France, or Portugal)? Got to love new technology and the tracking that goes along with it. Don't worry, I don't really care where you are. Al readers welcome on this bog.
In science today, we were tracking number on the flow of rivers. It was interesting that in something like data collection, numbers can lie. There are rivers that have dams on them. There is a noticeable and sharp change in the volume of the flow in the river. Just remember, there is a stat to support almost everything. We take numbers to be the truth. No crap, no B.S., just truth.

With Peace and Love,
Scott

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." -Samuel Langhorne Clemens

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