Comments on: Startling facts, or not

By: walt

walt — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:58:08 +0000

I was wondering…but that explains it.

By: Ruth Ellen

Ruth Ellen — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:21:58 +0000

Um… I’m referring to the Verizon thing, not the car thing, which, by the way, I also heard, and thought to myself “Well, duh… one in ten Americans lives in California.” Guess my percentage was dated – I had remembered the 10% from my high school days.

By: Ruth Ellen

Ruth Ellen — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:20:31 +0000

This is just astonishing. I would have thought it was a hoax. Even more astonishing is how patient he was on the phone. I would have blown my top LONG before the twenty-somthing minutes had passed.

By: walt

walt — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 02:29:46 +0000

John, Just wanted to note that your comment was flagged as spam–apparently the three links (and maybe the lead text?) outweighed the fact that you’ve commented before. But I do still check all spam before deleting it.

By: John Dupuis

John Dupuis — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 22:11:52 +0000

The story continues... It seems that the poor guy that started the whole thing has set up a blog about his experience with Verizon customer service. I also can't help but point out the Technorati search used by the blogger at A Blog Around the Clock to find other reactions: verizon 0.002.

By: walt

walt — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 18:13:25 +0000

John, Good example!

I’d already seen it, as Good Math, Bad Math has been in my Bloglines list for a while now. (Your blog may have pointed me there?)

The “California does more X” examples are legion and remarkably sloppy–particularly those that say “California has more X than any other state (or than many other nations),” where X could be almost anything unsavory or savory (other than land area).

By: John Dupuis

John Dupuis — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:11:53 +0000

Walt, Check out this post from Good Math, Bad Math for an even more brain-numbing example of innumeracy. Lots more in the comments to that post too.