Check your Facts!
I have long argued to my students in Ukraine that statistics are about the most easily manipulated thing in the world--especially when they are completely wrong. This excellent example from The Washington Post shows how we shouldn't be so quick to believe a stat, especially a stat that in some way challenges our faith.
My engineer friends should love this article. In Ukraine, at least in the Soviet Union, almost everyone who went to university became an engineer. Sometimes secretaries and mechanics were engineers. The term is much more guarded in the US.
I have a cold and Lena doesn't feel so great. I am glad the US calendar says summer doesn't come until June 21, the summer solstice. I was thinking about turning on the space heater tonight.
My engineer friends should love this article. In Ukraine, at least in the Soviet Union, almost everyone who went to university became an engineer. Sometimes secretaries and mechanics were engineers. The term is much more guarded in the US.
I have a cold and Lena doesn't feel so great. I am glad the US calendar says summer doesn't come until June 21, the summer solstice. I was thinking about turning on the space heater tonight.
posted by Kyivmission at 1:53 AM
1 Comments:
I remember your teaching to be weary of statistics. Interesting article.
I remember in second grade we all were supposed to stand up and tell the class what our parents' occupations were. I couldn't believe my ears when my best friend said her father was an engineer. I knew very well he was a driver. I guess that though "engineer" was nowhere near his title, this kind of freedom with the truth adds to the numbers of engineers in Ukraine.
Of course, my dad is an engineer. For real. Truly. Mechanical engineer. One of his projects was develping and building (and marketing) an "imitation caviar" maker. I remember we had 3 litter jars of this caviar in our fridge when he did the testing. The main ingredient was eggs, and I loved it. It was funny because our caviar was yellow because they did not want to use the expensive ingredient (whatever that was) that made it black until the very final stages of testing. Of course his new American job is in construction, and I continue craving my caviar.
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