OK, you can beat me again.
My keyboard keeps going off half cocked these days.
I just spent 45 minutes posting about the NY Times’ story about marriage and birth trends in America. As I love to do, I picked apart the Times choice of wording and then jumped all over the data showing that 15% of all US births in 2003 were to non-residents.
Being an inquisitive SOB, when I got through writing I went to the US Census Bureau Website to check out the data for myself. I was not happy with what I found there.
As is usual with the NY Times, they apparently didn’t bother to notice that the 2003 survey was a “Test Survey” that only included a partial sampling of the counties in the ENTIRE COUNTRY.
Look at this map and tell me how you can deduce anything meaningful from their sampling:
Where's the Red States?
Did they look at your neighborhood?
(I’m taking a deep breath now….)
I’m not a professional statistician, but in my humble “Rocket Scientist” opinion this new survey is ALARMING based on the TRENDS it presents, but basically the details are meaningless.
I wonder how much this "Survey" cost each of us?
Why do our government and media insist on bombarding us with such crap?
2 comments:
I'm not a statistician either but isn't that the way they compile TV ratings too. Very hit-and-miss. Why do they then base so much credo on the viewing figures. Multi-million dollar advertising contracts are based on a random selection of TV viewers. Hmmm
Nice Blog sir
Yup, they looked in my neighborhood (Sebastian County, Arkansas is highlighted in blue). I find this offensive in a way, for Sebastian County votes solidly in the red.
Ditto on the Nice Blog sir stuff.
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