Mind blowing statistics... (1 Viewer)

[Alex-C]

Products bearing Mary Kate and Ashley's names made 1.3 billion dollars in 2003.

Saw it in Parade magazine this past Sunday.
in fact here is the quote:
I am still in shock.

 

[Erik.Ha]

To bring it back to a more HT appropriate topic...

In the immortal words of Archie Bunker:

"Would it make you feel any better little girl, if they were pushed out of windows???"

 

[Will Pomeroy]

There are 10 kinds of people in this world. Those who understand binary, and those who don't.

 

[Brian Perry]

My favorite statistical concept is the law of large numbers, which can be illustrated with the following example:

The odds of flipping 8 heads out of 10 flips are about 1 in 20. Many people will assume, therefore, that the odds of flipping 800 heads out of 1,000 flips are the same. However, the odds of flipping 800 heads in 1,000 flips are virtually nil. (If a million people flipped a million coins every second for a million years, it wouldn't happen.)

 

[MikeSerrano]

Heh. This is precisely my reaction when I hear these kinds of numbers thrown about.

As I alluded to in my previous post, when people start spouting statistics in support of their argument (whatever it may be) I immediately think of the famous quote by Mark Twain:

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."

See also, How to Lie With Statistics.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

100% of all computer viruses are written by assholes.

 

[Lew Crippen]

You are not incorrect as far as the example goes Brian. And to be sure I did not point out that the closed population would necessarily be reflective of the general population gender distribution. My error for not pointing that out, but any reasonable survey would not sample such a skewed population.

Try working the math with an equal ratio of men & women.

 

[MarkHastings]

It would take approx. 32 years to count to 1 billion.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

The amount would vary according to your APR, service fees, bank charges, ETC. With such a small amount acharged, and most credit card's minimum monthly payment, you'll have $100 paid off in just a few years. Some cards payment policies towards minimums will end-up costing you more.

Personal Example: SEARS card. minimum payment is $14.63 Finance charge $46.72. So in 40 years, assuming everything remained constant. I'd owe the bank an additional $22425 in forty years, and the card would never be paid-off.

 

[MarkHastings]

But jewlery stores aren't a part of nature.

This kind of proves the 300% markup. If the diamond is really worthless, then you are really only paying for the labor involved in its' creation...and is that really worth thousands of dollars?

 

[Lew Crippen]

A large part of the price of a (gem) diamond is that the worlds best cartel by far is managed by DeBeers.

They control the supply of diamonds and get other diamond producers (such as the Russians) to go along with the price setting. This is not at all a case of supply & demand—except that the supply is artificially restricted or of the cost of the supply chain.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

i would never assume that the odds are the same. for someone to flip heads 8/10 times, AND do that same set of 10 flips 100 times in a row and obtain on average 8/10, i would hope that even the average person knows that it wouldnt happen.

CJ

 

[Steve Christou]

And they should be strung up by the balls!

Did you know...

A car is stolen every 30 seconds in the United States.(wow!)

Two-thirds of the people of the world have never made a phone call.

The average number of erections per day for a man: 11

The average number of erections during the night: 9

...aaah those were the days [smiles whistfully]

 

[Erik.Ha]

AHHHHHH..... but if they did, there would be no such thing as Las Vegas....

 

[andrew markworthy]

The difference is that in order to defenestrate [the correct term for pushing someone out of a window] someone, you have to manouvre them into position (assuming the unlikely premise that they are willing) or push them there, then have the strength to do it. And of course, if you're in a bungalow at the time, you'd have to drive them to a tall building first. On the other hand, pulling a gun trigger requires a lot less effort and far less time to change your mind. And it doesn't matter what floor of a building you're in. Plus, there is no physical contact with the victim to make you really aware that you are killing a living person.

Hence why there is a good correlation between countries with high gun ownership and murder rates - it makes killing easy. And citing exception countries doesn't alter the fact that the basic trend is true.

 

[Brian W. Ralston]

From my EMT training days...

If you get stuck with a needle that has blood infected with HIV, you have a 0.5% chance of contracting HIV from the blood in that needle stick.

If you get stuck with a needle that has blood infected with Hepatitis B, you have a 30.0% chance of contracting Hepatitis B from the blood in that needle stick.

 

[Ryan Wishton]

There is a 1 in 1,000,000,000,009 chance that you will look like Gidget, but only have 9 toes, 4 figures, and a deformed nose...

This was some wild statistic that was on some Gidget fansite a couple years ago...

Is it real??? I dont know... Who would go out of their way to find out such a statistic???

Here is one from Gifted Child Magazine:

"... from 1982 to 1998, there was an increase in the percentage of students enrolling in higher level mathematics courses"

I really dont think this is by choice which is how they write it in the article... This is because Math requirements are needed for almost every school and major now...

Even majors such as English and Psychology are now needing to take College Algebra and Statistics at many schools in the last 5 or so years (at least the ones around here)...

Rumor has it that in the next 5 to 10 years Calculus will be required for every single major... All BA, BS, and BFA's... From Music to Acting to History to English... I am glad I wont be there... I already took Calculus 1 fortunately so even if I ever had to return to school I should be safe... I feel for the people who suck at Math... Tons of BA and BFA majors have this problem... Many people go out of their way to declair majors that dont require a lot of math... I dont know what they will do... Seriously, Calculus for a Music major??? Will the formulas now become notes for their music??? Maybe future Actors can recite the some Limit examples at their next audition... Artists can now give America the art it has been dying for all along... A giant canvas showcasing the derivative in the 7 colours of wonders...

 

[JamesCB]

Approximately 1/3 of all food produced in the United States goes in the garbage. Now THAT'S capitalism.

 

[Angelo.M]

If the blood is positive both for HepB surface antigen and the HepB e antigen, then the risk of developing clinical hepatitis is 22-31% (depending on the study you look at). The risk of seroconversion without clinical disease is 37-62%.

If the blood is positive for HepB surface antigen and negative for HepB e antigen, then the risk is only 1-6%. The risk of seroconversion without clinical disease is 23-37%.

Sorry, couldn't resist. My point is that medical statistics are never as uncomplicated as they might first appear.

 

[Dustin Harrison]

Not sure if this is true, but..

Only 10% of Americans make over $50k a year.