Conversation in class, re: proof-reading
A: This can't be right, it says the infant mortality of X is 130%.
B: Clearly, you're limited by a pretty hard ceiling of only every single one of your children dying.
Me: Well, you could always import kids from somewhere else and kill them, too.
(horrified stares, mouths agape)
Me: I, uh, shouldn't talk. With words.
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2 comments:
Well then I'm number two.
Sometimes the only way to make the point is stupid humour - and nothing deserves it more than the misuse of statistics in every day reporting. If I hear "... increases your chances of dying by X%" one more time I'll scream. Your chance of dying is, and always has been, exactly 100%. No one gets out alive.
Now if you want to talk about your chances of dying by a certain age, or from a specific disease, then fine, but that isn't how the stats are used and reported.
Rant over - pet peeve!
I thought that was pretty damn funny.
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