Re: [asa] Creation Care

One of things that initially put me off when reading about global
warming was the suppression of the zero point on the graphs. Of course
you have to do it when the models are sensitive to small changes or the
graph becomes impossible to view. I found the best practice was in the
text under a graph to acknowledge "Zero suppressed to show small
changes" or some such. Log scales are hard for the general public to
understand and often are not appropriate in any case.

I always found "How to Lie with Statistics" a real gem both of things to
avoid so as to honestly present the data and for things to watch out for
when viewing others presentations. It appears that it is still
available from your favorite on line book pusher.

My copy seems to have been borrowed and never returned. Sigh

Dave

Bill Hamilton wrote:
> --- David Randall Gabrielse <r.gabrielse@att.net> wrote:
>
> Communication
>> between scientists and the public often involves simplifications that
>> involve translation to "english," as some would say, misuse of
>> statistics, and outright false claims. That was one of the small but
>> important messages at the Wheaton Climate Summit, organized around
>> Sir John Houghton's visit there: Evangelicals in particular ought
>> to obey the biblical mandate to honesty in their use of statistics,
>> but their record is no better than any other political group's.
>>
> Agreed. What I had in mind with my post was that perhaps the communication area
> is one where ASA can be especially useful. But we had better be honest and truthful.
>
> Bill Hamilton
> William E. Hamilton, Jr., Ph.D.
> 248.652.4148 (home) 248.821.8156 (mobile)
> "...If God is for us, who is against us?" Rom 8:31
>
>
>
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Received on Sat Jan 27 10:03:05 2007