hysteria

Oct 24 15:27

...and put bars on your windows

By: Ciarán Tags:

A companion post to this one from six months ago. This time, the RTÉ news site tells us about the 50% increase in murder rates between the three months just gone and the same period last year. Now, while all murder is abhorrent etc., there really is nothing useful to come from citing statistical differences over small numbers. I suppose it's just not as wonderful to say that in the relevant three months last year 14 people were murdered but this year it was 21.

I'm not saying it's a trivial figure: I just think the presentation is designed for impact not information.

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Apr 25 16:13

Stay Indoors!

By: Ciarán Tags:

According to this piece on the RTÉ news site, entitled "Figures Show Rise in Abductions," if you live in Ireland you should be very very afraid. Apparently "Garda statistics show that the number of abductions increased by 50% in the first three months of this year compared to the same period last year."

The rise in abductions in the first quarter of this year, from six to nine, means that you suffer an appalling 0.00021% chance of being kidnapped. As opposed to the far more acceptable 0.00014% chance in the same period last year.

What an informative headline. I'm heading for my bunker.

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