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Old 12-07-2012, 07:30 PM   #5
Rob Watson
Location: CA
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 697
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Re: No, the world is not becoming a more violent place so what are you getting out of

Quote:
Guillaume Erard wrote: View Post
Robert, I am not quite sure about what you are trying to express with:
Sorry, an inelegant way of expression a distinction between a simple accounting and per capita rates. Similarly a temporal component (implied in the premise of the original post) as in 50-70 million spread over 7 years (1938-1945) versus say 80,000 dead in a day (or even a second) at Hiroshima tends to skew the numbers when considering a rate. Using numbers in such a ways can be illuminating or just crass 'spin'.

Just what do the statistics say will happen next year?
Quote:
Guillaume Erard wrote: View Post
Also your later statement:

seems to address my moral values but I am not sure either about what it is trying to imply.
Certainly not - mostly rhetorical question on my part. Just if we concentrate too strongly on the numbers one can tend to lose sight of the fact that the numbers represent actual people. Behind every nifty little statistic there can well be a myriad of conflicting stories, circumstances and obfuscatory conditions that are given short shrift by the economy of meaning one can stuff into a number.

Quote:
Guillaume Erard wrote: View Post
I will agree with you however on the fact that statistics can be confusing, especially for someone who does not seem familiar with the difference between average (mean) and median:
Well for some distributions the mean and median can be very different (as you seem to imply) and in some cases they are exactly the same (I might have read "Stats for Dummies"). My point is not a technical one. I would not be confused with skew as I more resemble kurtosis in that I'm perhaps a bit larger about the middle than I'd ought to be bit do not tend to list to either side - 'though I have been accused of being 'heavily tailed' compared to average or median even (given the lack of skew such distinctions are moot) as I am certain the distribution is perfectly normal in other respects (at least that is what my momma says).

Quote:
Guillaume Erard wrote: View Post
Thanks for you interest though, I am more than happy to address your criticisms but I will need you to express your points a bit more extensively to make sure I understand them right
Ah, the old "give him enough rope and he'll hang himself" ploy. Nicely played! I think I've made my point clear enough. Thanks anyway.

"In my opinion, the time of spreading aikido to the world is finished; now we have to focus on quality." Yamada Yoshimitsu

Ultracrepidarianism ... don't.
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