X-Virus-Scanned: clean according to Sophos on Logan.com Return-Path: Sender: To: lml@lancaironline.net Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2006 00:53:21 -0400 Message-ID: X-Original-Return-Path: Received: from vms046pub.verizon.net ([206.46.252.46] verified) by logan.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 5.1c.2) with ESMTP id 1340954 for lml@lancaironline.net; Fri, 04 Aug 2006 00:50:51 -0400 Received: from jacky0da39824a ([71.111.167.26]) by vms046.mailsrvcs.net (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-4.02 (built Sep 9 2005)) with ESMTPA id <0J3G001ZQISGU3YH@vms046.mailsrvcs.net> for lml@lancaironline.net; Thu, 03 Aug 2006 23:50:43 -0500 (CDT) X-Original-Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2006 21:50:24 -0700 From: "Tom Gourley" Subject: Re: [LML] Statistics X-Original-To: "Lancair Mailing List" Reply-to: "Tom Gourley" X-Original-Message-id: <003301c6b781$7fef9630$670610ac@jacky0da39824a> MIME-version: 1.0 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2869 X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2869 Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1; reply-type=response Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-priority: Normal References: Many years ago a professor told me, "There are three kinds of liars. There are liars, damn liars, and statisticians." Hopefully everyone will get a good grin out of that and not take offense as it was certainly not aimed at anyone on the list. (It is a true anecdote.) The point is one must be careful when using statistics. Statistics can be meaningful when dealing with large data sets. When attempting to evaluate data and derive trends the smaller the data set the less reliable the results. When you take a statistical trend, derived from a large group, and attempt to apply it to an individual it might or might not be accurate for that individual. Caveat emptor. One other parting thought: Logic is a method of reasoning whereby one can reach an incorrect conclusion, but with confidence. (I may have said that before. Sometimes I suffer from CRS; Can't Remember.....Stuff.) Tom Gourley