Statistics
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Statistics is the name for a labour saving device that allows the same set of facts to support different and often contradictory viewpoints. This is achieved by manipulating gathered data in such a way that it is eventually reduced into a set of one or two meaningless and ambiguous numbers under the guise of making the raw data more palletable. The data manipulation is doe with various formulae (Or formulas to non-statistitions) which are often complex, often pointless and often named after the person who dreamed up the new way to pointlessly simplify data. Statistical "Tests" include: Correlation, regression, chi-square, Tukey tests and many more. It may alos mention both probablility and significance which is interesting since most statistics are probably insignificant. Statistics have places in nearly every industry in the countrey as nearly every occupation needs some supporting statistics to make themselves look good. The bulk of the work however is usually conducted by politicians and scientists to prove that all the money they have been given (in taxes or research grants) has not just been wasted on long lunches or glowing rats (or indeed long lunches of Glowing rats)
