When I was a small child, there was a kind of test we used to do on each other. You’d pick a buttercup, place it close underneath your friend’s chin, so as to catch the daylight; and if there was a yellow patch of light on your friend’s chin, it meant they liked butter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The test was almost always accurate. But think about it this way;- if 9 out of 10 children like butter and 90% of children get the yellow patch of light on their chin, even if the relationship between the two is completely random, you will get a correct test 82% of the time and a misleading test 18% of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Statistics are wonderful, but you have to know, and care, how to use them. Scientists take a great deal of care over this kind of thing, but not everyone is so careful, or knowledgeable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also, the whole process of doing the buttercup test is fraught with opportunities for bias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, just a bit of fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God of creation, When I was a small child, there was a kind of test we used to do on each other. You’d pick a buttercup, place it close underneath your friend’s chin, so as to catch the daylight; and if there was a yellow patch of light on your friend’s chin, it meant they liked butter. The … <\/p>\n
as you call your people
to be honest and just;
so give us grace to be
honest and fair with numbers:
help us resist the temptation
to skew them in our favour,
or to speak without understanding.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"