Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Poll Dancing?

Again this junk makes me nuts. It is bad enough that most Americans working knowledge of statistics is almost comparable to their working knowledge of Mongolian. (excepting Mongolian Americans, like John Gombojab Hangin, of course.) To compare someone's favorability rating and another person's job approval rating brings us back to the old equation, yet to be named- I think , that we have been running through our old supercomputers for more than eight years: If they are that stupid they should be fired/If they are that deceptive they should be reviled. This is like that the "study" a few weeks back that proved that the Obama White House's feud with the Fox comedy network had improved said network's ratings. Had it? Well it had if you excluded the weekend numbers from a two week sample. You know what? I work 9 hours a day. There are 7 days in a week. I must work 63 hours a week. What could be wrong with those numbers? I am the guy that failed math so hard that I had to beg to graduate from every level of schooling. Can I work for a major publication too?

2 comments:

Caitlin said...

The problem that worries and scares me is such. Media outlets will skew and misrepresent statistics and polling results and the majority of Americans are frankly too stupid to question it. I find myself at multiple times through out the day trying to encourage people, who are just too stupid to care, to take a second look at the information so faulty they out to be spewing it from orifices other then the mouth.
P.S. Speaking of Sarah Palin, my worst nightmare at this point is her having a successful bid for the Republican ticket. I don't necessarily see it happening, however I believe she sees it happening.

P.S.S. Poll dancing classes make for good exercise, you should consider it next tim you have to make weight.

Caitlin said...

*ought

attempting to silence the voices in my head.