Just a quickie (update)
February 6th, 2009 | 
Author: Here’s an update on the number of measles cases:
Statistically speaking, this means that about 100 children suffered complications and four died in 2008 because of this easily preventable disease.
Well done, douchebags.
Here’s an update on the number of measles cases:
Statistically speaking, this means that about 100 children suffered complications and four died in 2008 because of this easily preventable disease.
Well done, douchebags.
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who said common sense was ever common? Yeah well they lied!!!
[...] Common Sense has updated the Measles graph for England and Wales. [...]
[...] Common Sense has updated the Measles graph for England and Wales. [...]
I realise it looks prettier as a line graph, but technically that’s an inaccurate way of presenting the data. Why? Because it suggests that, as would be the case in fluctuations in a variable such as price, between each pair of data points there is a third data point with a value somewhere between the two. That isn’t true in this case: it’s not the case that there were a number of measles cases reported in December ‘06 somewhere between the number reported in June ‘05 and June ‘06.
I know this is somewhat petty, but given the original source for this was Ben Goldacre, who’s pretty big on the correct use and interpretation of scientific data, and moreover that it looks like you made an active choice to convert the data from bar chart to line chart format I thought it was worth telling you why you oughtn’t to have.
Yes, I also studied maths at school: well done you!
Yes, it looks pretty.
Yes, it’s technically inaccurate.
Yes, the numbers are correct.
No, I didn’t take the data or the graph from Ben Goldacre.
Yes, I actually did my own R-E-S-E-A-R-C-H and found out the numbers from a primary source (the HPA) myself.
So you may accuse me of a – shall we say – syntactically misleading representation. But don’t accuse me of plagiarism.
Now fuck off somewhere else, and don’t try being more pedantic than me, because I WILL win.
It’s not the biggest deal, really. A bar chart would have been a better method of displaying the data but in the end the data is not misleading and is complete and accurate.
I never thought I’d say this, but:
Well done, The Sun.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/health/health/article2213606.ece
You’ve just helped me regain an iota of faith in the nation’s tabloid press.
Thank you.