17 Dec
2003
17 Dec
'03
11:17 p.m.
On 26 Jun 1996, Clay Olbon II wrote:
Probably the same way other things are counted when used to make a political point (# of homeless people, # of date rape victims, etc.). Make a wild-ass guess based on a very small sample, then multiply by a factor of 10 or 100. I think lying with statistics has become a national pastime recently. I tend to not trust numbers issued by folks who stand to gain from the use of the numbers.
Clay
Lying with statistics probably started with the invention of the same. Mark Twain put it best: "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics" :-) ...Paul