How to Lie with Statistics

A Synopsis of How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff When most people hear or read a statistic, they quickly have to decide if the numbers listed are valid or invalid. It is usually assumed that the author of the statistic is knowledgeable in the field to which the statistic pertains. However, on many occasions, the statistic is false, due to the author’s wording. Darrell Huff’s novel How to Lie with Statistics is a manual that can help individuals catch these lies. The novel allows readers to solve marketing ploys and dismiss certain statistics as faulty.The first chapter focuses on bias. The book states that all statistics are based on samples, and these samples have bias. This means that no matter what the reader will have a biased opinion. This bias is spawned from the respondents replying dishonesty, the author choosing a sample that gives better results, and the availability of data. Huff uses a survey of readership of two magazines, which had refuting results . This is because, due to the readers’ personal biases, they answered the survey dishonestly.This example closes the chapter, teaching readers to always assume that the sample has a bias. The second chapter focuses on averages. It states that there are actually three types of averages: mean, median, and mode. Mean is the arithmetic average. Median is the name given to the midpoint of the date. Finally, mode is the data point that occurs the most often in the data. Thus, the type of average used can alter the results of the statistics. The next chapter explains how sample data is chosen to prove certain results.Many marketing campaigns use this technique. They choose sample sizes that give their wanted results. Huff’s solution is that one must determine if the information is a discrete quantity or if a range is involved. The following chapter discusses errors in measurement. It explains two measures for measuring error: Probable Error and Standard Error. The probable er ror uses the error in the measuring device used to measure the error in the measurement. The standard error is the standard deviation of the sampling distribution of a statistic.Chapter five explains how to manipulate a graph in order to show the results one wants. For example, if one was using a line graph to show a 10% climb, they could remove the unused parts of the graph to make their results seem more extreme. The next chapter discusses how two-dimensional images can deceive readers. A picture may be increased in all dimensions, making it seem much larger than it really is, giving the impression of a greater increase. Chapter seven focuses on the semi-attached figure.Simply put, if one cannot prove what they wish to prove, they can merely prove something else and then give the impression that these two things are the same. Huff uses cold medicine as an example. A pharmacist wants the reader to believe that their medicine cures the cold, but instead the label reads that the medi cine kills 32, 132 cold germs. The pharmacist then hopes that the reader makes the assumption that because the medicine kills such a high number of germs, then it cures the cold. Huff is therefore teaching not to assume.The following chapter focuses on cause and effect. Huff stresses that readers must ask for when certain data was collected and if the amount of data was adequate for the entirety of the experiment. Chapter nine teachers readers how to ‘statisticulate’, meaning how to manipulate readers by using statistics. This chapter is essentially a list of what to look for when determining the validity of a statistic. Huff explains various tricks, such as measuring profit on a cost price and how income calculations mislead by using children of a family as the average.The final chapter instructs readers on how to talk back to a statistic. Huff emphasizes that readers must ask who the author his and how did he come to collect the knowledge listed in the statistic. Also , he encourages readers to question if someone changed the subject of the statistic. Finally, he explains that one must be able to understand the data presented, and if it does not make sense, then it is most likely untrue. Overall, Huff assists readers in how to determine if a statistic is valid or invalid. Though the book was published over fifty years ago, these methods are still in use.

Why Do People Like Scarry Movies

For years people have been scared by horror movies and they continue going back. Alfred Hitchcock once said, â€Å"drama is life with the dull bits left out. † Why do people like to watch other people get hurt and die while being scared enough to make them jerk in their seat? Movie goers like horror movies because people in general have dull lives. Males just use it as a opportunity to get close to their partner, while females like to get scared while in the presence of their â€Å"man. † Every day people simply get up, go to work, and come home for supper before going back to bed. People believe that their lives are boring. That is why horror movies are popular. Movie goers like to be able to see blood, guts, fingers and toes, while having the ability to simply walk away. People in general want to have suspense in their lives but want to be able to turn it off. As for men, they like to be frightened as well as women, but most of all men like the sex appeal of horror movies. Almost every horror movie made in the last 20 years has a young attractive female actor running around mindlessly. If men were not attracted to this, then producers obviously wouldn’t make movies this way. Men would also rather take their partner with them to see these kinds of movies. Men know their â€Å"female friend† will want to cuddle up! Women on the other hand want to have the fear factor but want their partner to be by their side. Most women movie goers will NOT watch a horror film alone. They want to feel the protection of their â€Å"man. † It allows them to be scared while feeling secure at the same time. Men of course don’t mind this at all. They planned on it! Most horror movies are made for the viewing age of 17 – 30. The people in this age group still enjoy going out on the weekends to get away from the pressures of school and work. Horror movies give excitement and suspense in the lives of movie goers. It presents trust between partners when the girl jumps in her seat and clenches the arm of her boyfriend. It makes men feel strong as if they are protecting their partner. Horror movies allow movie goers to have a little bit of the real world while knowing they can go home and rest comfortably in their own bed.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Nutrigenomics

Advantages and Disadvantages of Nutrigenomics The word â€Å"Nutrigenomics† is a combination of nutrition and genomics. Nutrition is about the relationship between food and health; genomics is the study of entire genetic makeup of an organism and how they are expressed and regulated. Therefore, nutrigenomics is a field which concerned about the relationship between diet and gene expression by describing the approach to nutrition and human health that studies the implication of genetic differences in human response to food and how food alter the gene expression, biochemistry, metabolism and promotion of health (Elliot R, 2002). In other words, nutrigenomics is the study and application of gene and nutrition interaction. Besides, nutrigenomics also provides a basis for understanding the biological activity of food components (Rawson N, 2008). In addition, nutrigenomics has also been described by the influence of genetic variation on nutrition by correlate the gene expression with a nutrient’s absorption, metabolism and how it is eliminated from our body. In nutrigenomics, nutrients are seen as signals that are detected by a sensory system in the cell that tells the body cells about its environment (diet). Once the nutrient interacts with such system, it alters the gene, metabolite production and protein expression in depending on the level of nutrient it detected (Afman and Muller M, 2006). Hence, different diets will elicit different patterns of gene, protein expression and metabolite production. Such patterns of effects have been referred to as dietary signatures, where they are examined to investigate how homeostasis is influenced (Afman and Muller M, 2006). There are many ways on how nutrigenomics is useful to improve quality of life. Firstly, nutrigenomics define the causality relationship between specific nutrients and diet on human health by determining the mechanism of the effect of the nutrients or diet to human body. Besides, nutrigenomics helps to facilitate prevention through dieta ry modification when the diet-related diseases are detected in early stage. Nutrigenomics also allows the examination on how nutrients affect the genes present in the human genome. With all these reasons, nutrigenomics promotes and improves the understanding of people on how nutrition influence metabolic pathways and alter the homeostatic control in our body. Moreover, nutrigenomics is also able to demonstrate the impact of bioactive food compounds and its effect on human health, which should lead to the development of functional foods that will keep people healthy based to their individual needs. Then, this will further prevent development of chronic diet-related disease such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity and Type 2 diabetes mellitus. In addition, nutrigenomics also involve in finding markers of the early phase of diet-related diseases. At this phase, intervention with nutrition approach can restore patient’s health. Once a marker has been found and measured in an indi vidual, the stage of susceptibility of the person to develop the diet-related diseases can be quantified and personalized dietary recommendation can be then given to that particular individual and further improve his or her quality of life. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the lifestyle diseases and it is the most common cause of death all over the world. In Malaysia, about 30% of deaths are caused by CVD (WHO, 2009). There are many factors that can lead to CVD. For example, elevated low density lipoprotein (LDL) level, low level of high density lipoprotein (HDL) and high level of total cholesterol. Diet has a significant effect on CVD. However, long term health benefits can be obtained from dietary proteins and bioactive non-nutrients, called phytochemicals, which could be either integrated into the diet or be part of the food itself. One of the foods that can be used to reduce the risk of getting CVD is soybean. Soybean contain soy protein and it contains phytoestrogens whic h bind to estrogen receptors in the body. Besides, soybean also contains high level of Isoflavones. There are three major isoflavones in soybeans which are genistein, daidzein and glycetein. Isoflavones have a non-steroidal structure. However, they possess a phenolic ring that enables them to bind the estrogen receptor and act either as estrogen agonists or antagonists (Makela et al., 1995).

Contemporary Modern Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6250 words

Contemporary Modern Art - Essay Example The essay "Contemporary Modern Art" discovers the modern art. New York is a city of museums, a sight that can be most overwhelming at the best of times. MoMA, the museum of modern art is among the very best of modern museums in the world today. Started in the 1920s by visionaries like John Rockefeller, New York became the hub of the modern art world when the Nazis were taking control of Europe. Initially, MoMA promoted the works of modern artists like Pollock, Warhol, and Arbus, but with time, the museum has grown and has a collection of over 150,000 paintings, sculptures, and photographs. The museum continues to expand even today. The museum has an outstanding collection of photographs from artists of the eras gone by and contemporary. Some of the best photographs can be seen here, including some brilliant portraits by Diane Arbus. Museums preserve noted works of artists. Many such seminal works in the modernist canon base their work on the female nude: Manet’s Olympia, Cezan ne’s Grand Bathers, Picasso’s Demoiselles of Avignon, Henri Matisse’s Pink Nude, Henry Moore’s Reclining Nude. The project of questioning art object’s in relationship to the gallery centers around several assumptions: There is something worth displaying; There is a specific context for display. The cramped basements of museum reveal reputations lost and names forgotten, a storehouse that reminiscence works once given prominence, now no more than an enthusiasm of a specialist or just a historical curiosity. Museums are intended to bring to life a past history to the visitor, therefore in more than one way, the countenance of the museum where arts are displayed, should have prominence too. Galleries such as the Musee d' Orsay and the Tate Galleries in Liverpool and Millbank in London are part of urban regeneration packages, sited in disused industrial buildings, obsolete railway stations, warehouses and power stations. The eccentric nature of the buildings is complimented by remarkably similar displays across the institutions. This is why one gets to sense the presentation of modern art in puritanically regulated white-walled rooms with strategically placed spotlights and humidity monitors, analogical to all modern art galleries across the globe (Meecham and Sheldon, 2000, p.198-99). Museums are the spaces in which histories and the fixtures and fittings of meaning are installed. There is no dearth to the kind of exhibits available across a diverse spectrum of museums globally. The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the first museum to devote itself exclusively to modern art, was founded in 1929, the year in which the stock market crashed and America witnessed the Great Depression. It has been the most influential modern art museum, not just in terms of design and display but in the definition of the art that would be considered modern.

Unit 9 Project Social Problems Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Unit 9 Project Social Problems - Research Paper Example ‎ Causes of domestic violence may be many which include the high consumption of alcohol by the partner or some sort of mental illness. Since family violence is not limited to just physical or oral harassment, it may also consist acts such as unlawful imprisonment, stalking, endangerment etc. Family violence is illegal and can be claimed under the different acts imposed by laws. According to the government, family violence is applicable despite the race, religion, culture or sexual differences. It simply defines the acts under which one partner holds power and control over the other forcefully. There are many types of family violence and the ones that exceed a certain limit may go to the court under special orders (Wilson, 2005). The family violence is a social problem that may directly relate to two members of the family, one who is performing the violence and the other who is undergoing the violence. There may be more than two members of the family who are undergoing the violence, but generally there may be only two. Most of the cases show that family violence is done by the husband onto the wife, and sometimes the children. Women have long been the victims of family violence. However, there may also be violence against men yet rare. The perspective of the partner perpetrating the violent acts may be many, but may not be justified. There are many theories that explain the cause of family violence. Some of the general characteristics of the perpetrator that are recorded may be the psychological theories, the mental or the social theories. These theories may include the theories in a wide range like the external factors influencing the perpetrator as well. Psychological reasons explain the person’s state of mind or behaviors such as sudden burst of anger, poor self-esteem and many other factors. Jealousy also causes anger and uncontrollable urge of taking violent actions. Jealousy often develops

Strategic business analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Strategic business analysis - Essay Example Moreover, the improvements in infrastructures and technology contributed to the development of several motorcycles producing firms. In India, Hero-Honda is a household name when it comes to motorcycles. Obviously, the name suggests that the company was once composed of two independent motorcycle manufacturers. Gradually, the economic situation and several aspects paved for the merger. At present, the company occupies the top spot in terms of market share. Although it appears that the decision to merge was strategic in nature, some observers consider other reasons for the decisions. The complexities of strategic cooperation and collaboration make the situation an interesting point of analysis. The discussion will concentrate on the nature of the Hero-Honda partnership and its perceived benefits and drawbacks. This is determined through the comparison with Hero-Honda and among its competitors. The financial position of the company will serve as evidence of the success that has become the prime motivation of Hero-Honda to pursue higher goals. Honda traces its roots from Japan, which houses the likes of Kawasaki, Suzuki, and Toyota. These companies are world-class automotive manufacturers and embraced by majority of the automotive consumers. Honda is recognised as one of the leaders in the motorcycle industry. Its operations expand worldwide and have 437 subsidiaries scattered across the globe. The branch located in India is one of the largest. From its humble beginnings, Honda quickly made a huge impact with its cutting edge technological advancements and top notch motorcycles. Also, Honda's concern to the environment and the society where it operates is being admired. The product line of Honda ranges from small scoters to massive vehicles. For years, the development strength of Honda has made the company upbeat with the changes in the industry. Surprisingly, its unconventional approach in dealing with its clients has provided the company with increased benefits. The goal of Honda is to produce with unparalleled quality and to continue its improvement in the future. Honda aims to thrive in a society where the customers demand its existence. Honda revolves around the notion of respect to individuals and the promotion of three joys: buying, selling, and creating. The management principle seeks to maintain global viewpoint and the assurance that only the best products will be provided to customers. More important, the prices of Honda merchandises are lower than the competition and provide the highest level of customer satisfaction. 1.2. Hero Cycles Hero is centred in the philosophy of commitment, teamwork, and foresight. Even before India's independence of United Kingdom, Hero was already starting to make a name. The initial step was to sell bicycle parts and the plan expanded after a few years of operations. Unfortunately economic stagnation paralysed the progress of the company. Since the plan was to expand, Hero started moving in different areas and began the process of manufacturing bicycle parts. Then, Hero proceeded with the production of bicycles. The Guinness Book of Records certified Hero Cycles as the largest producer of bicycle in the world. The company controlled 48% of the market in India and Hero continued to hold the lead in the industry. The managers of Hero are known for their meticulous planning. The strategy of Hero was to focus on the strength and prevent the weaknesses from making strong impacts. The simple

Music in the Baroque Era Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Music in the Baroque Era - Research Paper Example Before getting into details about the factors that shaped the development of Baroque music, it is significant to know the basics of Baroque music. First of all, one must know that the Baroque music, as agreed upon by most researchers and critics, is used to refer to music that was composed during the time period of â€Å"1600 to 1750† (â€Å"). This cultural and artistic movement originated in the Western European region, mainly Rome, and then extended to other parts of the world such as baroque art in â€Å"Latin and South America† as well as architecture in â€Å"Ethiopia and America†. Basically, Baroque music can be defined as music that aims at evoking â€Å"emotional states† by the process of â€Å"appealing to the senses, often in dramatic ways†. Although Baroque music primarily refers to the music that was developed during the Baroque era, it is characterized by several other qualities in addition to the time period of its origin. These qual ities include â€Å"grandeur, sensuous richness,† drama expressed through movement and tension as well as â€Å"emotional exuberance† (1). Furthermore, this artistic style of movement often tended to â€Å"blur distinctions† between various artists, thereby uniting all kinds of musicians through the divine atmosphere generated by music. The origin as well as the development of this type of music finds its roots in the movements based on â€Å"Catholic Counter- Reformation,† thereby using its prime characteristics of â€Å"overt rhetoric and dynamic movement† in order to express the â€Å"self-confidence†.