On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 12:12:53 GMT, Frogleg > wrote:

>On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 17:18:38 -0500, Nancy Young
> wrote:
>
>>... you know the rest.
>
>The usual quote is "There are lies, damn[ed] lies, and statistics,"
>variously attributed to Mark Twain who attributed it to Disraeli, and
>Churchill, who may have also used the phrase.
>>
>>I keep seeing all of these quotes, mostly here, about how many times
>>people eat fast food, how many Americans are obese, etc.
>
>Looking up the quote, I came across reference to a book titled "Damned
>Lies and Statistics" by Joel Best which looks pretty interesting.
>
>http://tinyurl.com/3cyjy
>
>The questions you ask are worth asking. Where *do* these numbers come
>from? How are they meaningful? Obviously the 'researchers' don't ask
>every single person (American?) how many times he/she ate in a fast
>food joint. What was their sample population? Urban? Rural? Age?
>Avaliability of alternatives? Many statistics are just re-pubished
>from dubious source. A lot of footnotes and references does not a
>truth make.

you might look at 'how to lie with statistics' as well.

your pal,
blake