[geeks] What desk toy or "tchotchke" says "geek" to you?

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Fri, 31 Mar 2006 @ 17:01 +0000, Mike Meredith said:

> On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 18:03:57 -0500, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> > I can't come up with it, 
> 
> Then perhaps you shouldn't make unsubstantiated and insulting claims
> about other countries. 

I didn't do that.

Just because what information I had is no longer with me doesn't mean it
wasn't valid.

I can't regurgitate everything I've read or seen for you on demand.

> > Then you get a cop to tell you the arrest and conviction rates in the
> > same area.
> 
> And the average policeman has an accurate figure for the number of
> arrests she's made in the past year ? Not very likely is it ?

Yes, he does, because it is required by law.

Now that it is in computer databases, he can track it in real time if he
wants.

Honestly, you act as if this is magic.

> > If the arrest and conviction rates are several times higher than the
> > reproted numbers, then the reported numbers are wrong.
> 
> I presume you mean arrest *numbers* there ? What about arrests where no
> crime has taken place, or where multiple arrests are made for a single
> crime ? 

Elementary statistical groundwork. If you ever read a report where they didn't
account for this, then they didn't know what they were doing.

Arrests where no crime has taken place are rare.

The bigger problem is crimes that don't result in an arrest, often because of
technicalities that shouldn't exist.

> There is no direct correlation between the number of crimes and the
> number of arrests.

Which is why people who do things right don't make them.

> > That's what I saw, and so I have my doubts about what is published in
> > some countries over there.
> 
> Given your methodology for doubting the figures, I doubt you know enough
> to come up with a genuine criticism for the figures in other countries.

You don't know my methodology, you are just fabricating what you imagine
it might be.

> A politician lied ? Oh dear! Well it's hardly new, and has no relevance
> on crime figures.

I didn't say it did. It was an example of how a government can care little for
what its own numbers say.

> > The book "How to Lie with Statistics" is a good read to help with
> > that.
> 
> Sounds like a good read, although I suspect it won't tell me much I
> don't already know.

You can't find out if you don't read it.

> > > 'other governments lie so ignore their figures' and 'somebody told
> > > me it's bad in Europe so it must be so'.
> > 
> > I didn't say that, you did.
> 
> I shouldn't have put it in quotes, or should have emphasised that I was
> rephrasing what you wrote, but that's pretty much what you said.

No, it isn't.

-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["An Irishman is never drunk as long as he
can hold onto one blade of grass and not fall off the face of the earth."]