Chance News 74

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Quotations

"The government are very keen on amassing statistics. They collect them, add them, raise them to the nth power, take the cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams. But you must never forget that every one of these figures comes in the first instance from the village watchman, who just puts down what he damn pleases."

Sir Josiah Charles Stamp [1880-1941]

As quoted by Howard Wainer, in Picturing the Uncertain World Princeton University Press, 2009, p. 23.

Submitted by Paul Alper


"So when I hear scientists say, 'The data speak for themselves,' I cringe. Data never speak. And data generally and most often are politically and socially inflected."

Andrew J. Hoffman, Professor of Sustainable Enterprise, University of Michigan

As quoted in Q. and A.: Taking On Climate Skepticism as a Field of Study, Green Blog, New York Times, 9 April 2011

Submitted by Bill Peterson

Forsooth

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