The Abused Probability (4)
This post is a pseudo-continuation of a previous post.
Do you know that an athlete's astrological sign is correlated to his or her achievement in the Olympic Games? After comparing the birthdates of every Olympic winner since the modern Games began in 1896, a statistician discovered gold medals really are written in the stars. And the news is published in Reuters, one of the most recognised news agency in the world!
Now, if you have some five minutes to spare, go ahead and read the news article in Reuters. Ponder about it for a while, and take a stand on the issue. Then read this reply in Good Math, Bad Math.
You would be amazed by just how easily we could be misled by abused probability, especially when it comes from some crackpot "authority" and published in the mainstream media.
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3 comments:
The irony of justifying the unscientific with scientific methods.
Wait, that sounds just like... PSYCHOLOGY.
Reuters suck lah. They've cut down heavily on the number of foreign correspondents they employ (numbering half a dozen, probably less) - who knows how they get their news nowadays.
Maybe it's all creative submissions!
^ bluez
LOL creative submissions. I should send one too. But I suppose my writings would be disqualified immediately for being hell boring.
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