Abuse of Statistics

There is an old story about archers and King Arthur. As King Arthur rode through the forest he noticed all the arrows in trees and all were in a small circle indicating that all were in the bull's eye. He was amazed at this accuracy and he asked his knights to find the person who was able to shoot with such accuracy. After scouring the local villages they came back with this young fellow. King Arthur asked him if he had shot all of these arrows into the bull's eye. The fellow said yes that he was responsible. King Arthur asked him to demonstrate his prowess. The young fellow took his bow and arrow and shot an arrow into a tree. He then ran up to the tree and drew a small circle around the arrow.

Or the Missuses as Probable statistics (or there statistics as highly unprobable)

Tim Harford does rather a good job - I listen when I can catch it.

Even though it reminds me of some rather revolting margarine adverts*:
"I can't believe he's ... an economist."
(But maybe they at least haven't reached S.A.)

*Any ambiguity here is deliberate.

One of the more recent ideas about cot-death reasons is that some mattresses emit something allergenic. This can be minimized by encasing the mattress in rubber or plastic. Either that or an electric fan which circulates the air in a baby's room.

I don' like the sound of any VETTING process. Last timer I came back from the vet I wuz walkin' funny.

Del

ROFL ! Ooops, sorry, that probably caused traumatic memories of things rolling away.

_Shhhh......

_{Right! Sorry...}

The "final solution" for the human race?

Yep! And they're out there. There are movements among those that are basically rich, environmentalist, hippie, new-agers (meaning nothing negative in any of those terms) that believe this. This is not paranoia. You have the web and you can find them. Also, they hold conventions and seminars on how all this stuff might be done. They don't try to keep it secret, either.

This is why I don't worry about things like are the people on CR4, engineers or not.

KrisDel^TM did have a marvellous stock of suiatble virusses, that is until Kris smashed his bath
Del

You mean he threw out the rabies with the bathwater?!?

Nice one ... <smirk>
_{just as well Kris hasn't found this thread shhhh}
Del

If you recall, I said I was going to save the water. Not my fault the bottles floated down to Africa, across to the Carib, then drifted up to a Florida swamp. The labels would have washed off, so it was an innocent mistake by the locals.

Right - his 34 posts stack up well against your 14, don't they? That's OK, we all know you don't do math...

_{Ok, so I coundn't be arsed to check the list of posters..or is it postees?
Anyhow He's been quiet today so his tail needed a tweak
If we talk quiet, he won't hear.}
I SAID IF WE TALK QUIET HE WON'T HEAR !

Del

Wot? Oh, right, right - mum's the word...

Wooed that be a Kris'mum?

It could. It would. And I daresay it is.

But no, that's me over there. So obviously I'm not it.

All clear now?

Kris-all clear

That's done it, I'm leaving. Your combined wits make you 50 % funnier than me. I'm going to boil an egg, so the salt in my tears wont be wasted.

no no that's shirley 200% funnier?

Oh, and if you are doing an gegg pop one in for moi...

Do you want it boiled 50% more, or 1/3 less ?

How long do you have to boil an gegg for it to be done properly? And who's this "Shirley" chick that's 200% funnier than Kris, anyway? I didn't even see her post...

Horse geggs take a loooong time, have to get the feathers off first...

I keep a flock of curates in a little hut. Bit stringy for the pot, but the yolks are nice and fresh.

When a kurate gets too decrepit to produce a decent eggo, do you dispatch him using a blow or two with the side of your hand? If so, do you first declare (should that be DelCare?) him to be a BiChop? (But perhaps these yokes are too old)

I'm Idiotic, so I don't hesitate for nothing !

Reminds me of one of the funniest bumper stickers I ever saw:

CAUTION: Driver Brakes For No Apparent Reason

Do you get those, "Caution, Baby on Board" ones ? Like what's it going to do - drive erratically, forget to indicate ? Does it imply that otherwise I can shunt the car as much as I like ? Usually there isn't no baby, so I guess it's for hapless firecrew to waste their bleedin' time after a crash playing 'hunt the baby'. Oooooh, I feel a rant coming on ! m-u-s-t---r--e--s----t--r--a-i----n-----a---r----mmm

Those were all over the place back in the '80's, don't see 'em much any more. Must've put 'em in the lend/lease package last trip around. Another one I like (tho' it's a trifle worrisome) is:

I can't go to work today - the voices told me to stay home and clean the guns.

Right. And are they clean now? Or is that where you're driving to? Hmmm...

How about, "Executioner on call out", a bit like Doctors have.

People are a wee bit too tense for that to go over well these days. Doesn't mean I don't like it though!

I find "On Remand" works pretty well.

Back in the 70's, funny sayings/pictures on t-shirts were the big thing. It must be making a comeback, because I see more on t-shirts than bumper stickers.

Two recent favorites:

"Go ahead, act stupid. I could use another felony conviction."

"Unfortunately, stupidity is not a crime. You may go."

Yeah...there's a lot of 'em about.
Oooooh there's a car coming the other way ...brake.
Oooooh there's a leaf in the road....brake.

Oooooh there's a parked car, there's still room to drive an articulated lorry sideways through the gap...but I'd better brake just in case.
Del

Curious - most of the Baby-on-Board cars I see in the Harlow area have the reverse problem. So I've never been able to decide whether these notices are intended to give space for extreme driving, or they are placed by family in the forlorn hope that other (more responsible*) drivers will keep their cherished ones safe.

(I suppose it comes to the same thing in the end)

*Part of the Harlow paradox - I noticed this when they first elected Jerry Hayes

Rant, rant

You've set me thinking about names on the front windscreen. When I've recovered from this Essex-moment, and wiped the coffee from the monitor, I'll return. Those signs would be a great prezzy for Shaz to give Wayne. It saves her saying, "'ere, Wayne, arv missed me....". Maybe the baby signs refers to Wayne's youth ?

I always wanted to see one which said Bill and Ricky (Billericay )
Non Brits pls ingnore above.....
Del

PMSL ! There's got to be sonme real funny ones out there, though I haven't seen the horrible things for ages. Always used to be on green film. How about "Geek" and "____ " ? Fluffy dice seem to be alive and kicking.

Fluffy dice seem to be alive and kicking.

What? where? Are you sure it's not Verm ? Ithought they all been strung up years ago....hangings too good for 'em.

Del

That's another marketing opportunity CR4 missed ! D'ya reckon we could slide in with some fluffy vermin ? We could even dip him in acrylic and ressurect clackers

The possibilities are endless....

?

That's actually rather witty, though "STFU" would have worked just as well. Oh, the pain of ambiguity.........

It's the first time I have seen a "Guest" was allowed to post a picture with their text, but never mind that, - ONLY A PICTURE ?

That's new

I'd have used this if I was posting anon ;

Oh dear....now I'm going to get slapped wrists. Guest may have just been making a philosophical observation, but I'm going, so it'll have to wait for tomorrow.

Why?

The F-Word is no longer a sensation

True, Gordon Ramsey even has that title for a TV show. The FCUK brand is seen all over the place here, and we're constantly reminded by adverts that's "Australians would'nt give a XXXX..". The last one is probably a statistical abuse, since I'm sure there are probably some prim Australians. At least one or two anyway. The funny bit about the armpit photo is that anyone who's shocked when first seeing it (ie most of us), is probably revealing their inner murkier thoughts.

Well, they say you have to take the good with the bad y'know...

It's the ugly worries me most.

And you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs

Some say you can (make an omelette without any eggs having been broken), but I think we should call them pancakes

Tofulettes? I'll not tell you what I think we should call them!

Maybe you could use some sort of ultrasound to mangle the eggs contents, then gently cook it. Not sure if that counts as omlette, but it would be interesting to try. When chilled, it would make a nice snack, all wrapped in it's own hygienic/protective eco-cover. I'm guessing, but Scotch Eggs probably don't feature much in cuisine out your way ? Minced chicken might work, but I think the overall meat/dairy mix would be a bit of a problem in trad jewish cooking. I'm not sure to be honest, but they do taste nice. Best with salad cream.

Does making a small hole and sucking the egg out with a syringe count as breaking the egg?

That crossed my mind too, but you may be planning some kind of evil genetic experiment, so I'm going to say no*. My 'treat it like a gallstone' approach would be neater, although it does preclude adding salt and pepper.

*If you're a nice little old lady, sorry - you go for it my dear !

You could cook an egg in the shell, but eating it that way might prove problematic. I never thought of them as a "crunchy snack"! Here's an egg ("tamagotchi" is "egg" in Japanese) you have to cook a looooonng time:

You sure ? Wiki says it's a portmanteau word, = egg + watch. Me cook you looong time too

Oh, wicked Wiki! It is a possibility - my Japanese is rusty. If Epke were on this thread we could know for sure... Makes me wonder what a Dutch-Japanese dictionary must look like!

Yes, in Japanes egg is Tamago and the rest comes from wachi which is Japlish for watch

Oh, now I don't know if you're pulling my leg about the 'wachi' bit ! It could be pinched, like the French 'La Weekend', but I'm sure the Japanese had the concept of watch long enough to come up with a word. Mind you, anyone evil enough to cook a cute toy - Pikachū wa baka ja nai yo!

Any other day i would pull your leg but not today, Japanese use Katakana to convert foreign words to Japanese, but they don't have an equivalent for t they have a ti(witch sounds like chie). e.g mente(nansu) is Japlish for maintenance

Now that, I believe. You got me worried about tomorrow though !

And who's this "Shirley" chick that's 200% funnier than Kris, anyway?

Maybe she's still on the Airplane!

Or with Otto the Autopilot...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1290293/bio

What a waste !

You never know which of those might just be what we have all been looking for*

_{(* - For the last 60,000 years - when the Cro Magnon^® first Left Africa)}

_{(^®- Registered trade mark - property of Crô-Magnon in southwest France)}