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Thursday, September 18, 2008

See, Why Can't Statistics be Like This?

Current Mood:
CC is listening to: The Big Day--Jim Chappell (In Search of the Magic)

See, if they explained statistics this way all the time there'd be no problem :-). This is from "Business Statistics Demystified" by Steven M. Kemp:

Figure 7-4 illustrates why we do not generally use vertical mirrored bar charts. Here, we see a diagram showing the difference of ethnic diversity and opportunity between the free peoples of Middle-Earth and the dominion of the Dark Lord, Sauron, in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. In each society, those who achieve the highest honor are members of "the nine." For the good peoples, this is the nine walkers; for the evil Land of Mordor, this is the nine riders.

If we note that there is, in fact, a diverse population of goblins (or, to use the more proper term, orcs), trolls, evil men, evil wizards, spiders, and others who all support the Dark Lord, we realize that this is a society with a glass ceiling. Sauron will allow only undead to rise to the highest positions of power, leadership, and recognition, becoming members of the nine riders. While statistics cannot establish causality, it may be the case that this inequality of opportunity is one of the aspects of Sauron’s realm which causes it legitimately to be considered evil.

And I'm like, "Ohhh well why didn't they explain it this way in the first place :-)?"

Labels: Found on the Internet, Reflections

Posted by Unknown | 9:09 AM | 0 Comments |

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