Nucacids wrote:
I’m not sure how one ignores the fact
that the vast majority of scientists depend on a continual stream of
government money.
This may also explain another
difference between scientists and the public:
“Just 40% of scientists agree that
“when something is run by the government, it is usually inefficient and
wasteful”; a majority of the public (57%) agrees with this statement.”
I really wonder how accurate polls really are, especially when the
choice of answers is not nuanced.
At home we typically get 1 to 4 junk calls a day, at least it seems
that often. Typically wrong numbers for a local business with a number
close to ours, charitable solicitations, fake surveys wanting you to
buy something and some few legitimate surveys.
Frequently we get more junk callers in a day than calls we want.
Putting my name on the do not call list simply made our number
available to more junk callers.
Mostly when surveys call or send mail I decline but sometimes I try to
answer. However if the range of options is bad, the caller gets pushy
or the survey has no answer like "no opinion" I simply pick random
answers or answers close to the opposite of what I really think, since
none of the answers fit. In that way I hope to destroy the
statistical significance levels and validity of their poll. Most of
the time the polls about what TV we watch never have an answer that
fits us. For the last winter Olympics we got satellite but once the
games were over I did not find enough programs that were worth watching
to justify $40 to $50 a month. Over the air gets so few stations (no
PBS) and reception is so poor (due to apartments between our house and
the transmitters) that usually I do not keep the system working since
it is fragile.
Dave W
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Received on Wed Jul 15 10:36:31 2009