Straight Statistics

Generali

nearlynew wrote: »

From their website............

"Straight Statistics is a company limited by guarantee, governed by a board of directors and supported by an Advisory Council. It is backed by a Grant for Research and Innovation from the Nuffield Foundation, awarded in December 2008".

They are funded by a quango, ergo, the government.

Yet more of our money being p1ssed down the drain.

The Nuffield Foudnation isn't a QUANGO, it's a private charitable trust set up by Lord Nuffield in the 1930s. They claim not to accept Government money although presumably as a charity they claim the usually available tax breaks like not paying rates (and I think charities get special treatment when it comes to VAT too).

Generali

PS While we're on the subject of statistics.

Which country has produced the most Men Singles Wimbledon winners?
What is the most dangerous animal in Australia by number of deaths caused? (-1 point for saying 'man').

StevieJ

Generali wrote: »

PS While we're on the subject of statistics.

Which country has produced the most Men Singles Wimbledon winners?
What is the most dangerous animal in Australia by number of deaths caused? (-1 point for saying 'man').

and what nationality has the highest employment rate in the UK

I will have a stab.
Aussie.
Jellyfish (I know you all love swimming), not sure if they are an animal.

Do you have malaria in OZ?

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

and what nationality has the highest employment rate in the UK

I will have a stab.
Aussie.
Jellyfish (I know you all love swimming), not sure if they are an animal.

Ooh, yours is a toughie, I'll have to find out. Would Scottish, Welsh, English and (Northern) Irish count as separate nationalities?

Both your answers are wrong I'm afraid mate. Jellyfish would count as an animal though and they're probably in second place thanks to the box jellyfish* and Irukandji - I guess 'creature' would have been a better word (ie not plants, fungii, viruses, bacteria etc).






*The symptoms to look for to identify a box jellyfish sting are 'leaves the sea screaming' and 'faints on the beach almost immediately'. You pour vinegar on the wound or wee on it(!) until the ambos turn up. Oh and don't try to remove the sting with your bare hands as there may not then be anyone concious to pour vinegar on your horrific stings!!!

StevieJ

Generali wrote: »

Ooh, yours is a toughie, I'll have to find out. Would Scottish, Welsh, English and (Northern) Irish count as separate nationalities?

Both your answers are wrong I'm afraid mate. Jellyfish would count as an animal though and they're probably in second place thanks to the box jellyfish* and Irukandji - I guess 'creature' would have been a better word (ie not plants, fungii, viruses, bacteria etc).

*The symptoms to look for to identify a box jellyfish sting are 'leaves the sea screaming' and 'faints on the beach almost immediately'. You pour vinegar on the wound or wee on it(!) until the ambos turn up. Oh and don't try to remove the sting with your bare hands as there may not then be anyone concious to pour vinegar on your horrific stings!!!

I guess it must be British then (head start I think), the Brits count as one nationality (I am talking about % of available population). My other guess is fly (of one sort or another).

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

I guess it must be British then (head start I think), the Brits count as one nationality (I am talking about % of available population). My other guess is fly (of one sort or another).

The answers are:

British (for the first 50-60 years there were virtually no non-British competitors)
The European Honey Bee (10 deaths a year). Most people with bee allergies are still more cautious of spiders than bees!

Generali

I reckon the answer to yours is British BTW or perhaps Irish.

Good website too. Very interesting.

StevieJ

Generali wrote: »

I reckon the answer to yours is British BTW or perhaps Irish.

Good website too. Very interesting.

Antipodean (You are lumped together) 86% of Oz/NZ (of working age) in the UK have a job, Brits 74% are in a job, other non-uk 68%.

That website is new and promising.

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

Antipodean (You are lumped together) 86% of Oz/NZ (of working age) in the UK have a job, Brits 74% are in a job, other non-uk 68%.

That website is new and promising.

Well we're a very hard working bunch!

I guess a large proportion of Antipodeans moving to the UK are doing the work-travel-work thing. I guess it also shows that work is available to most people if you're not too fussy about what you do.

I could have got work much sooner than I did over here if I'd been a little less choosy. In my circumstances, it was worth holding out for a while for a job commensurate with my experience. The funny thing is, I only got a decent job once I took any old thing to stop me getting bored! Still I made the right choice at the time even if with hindsight it was wrong.

Statistics are very much abused. There used to be a great column in the (Sunday?) Torygraph about statistics being misused and abused. The best column in a similar vein now I think is Bad Science in The Guardian about the misreporting of science and its misuse by Governments and other large bodies.

kennyboy66_2

Generali wrote: »

Ooh, yours is a toughie, I'll have to find out. Would Scottish, Welsh, English and (Northern) Irish count as separate nationalities?

Both your answers are wrong I'm afraid mate. Jellyfish would count as an animal though and they're probably in second place thanks to the box jellyfish* and Irukandji - I guess 'creature' would have been a better word (ie not plants, fungii, viruses, bacteria etc).


*The symptoms to look for to identify a box jellyfish sting are 'leaves the sea screaming' and 'faints on the beach almost immediately'. You pour vinegar on the wound or wee on it(!) until the ambos turn up. Oh and don't try to remove the sting with your bare hands as there may not then be anyone concious to pour vinegar on your horrific stings!!!

A Jellyfish stills comes under the animal kingdom. Other kingdoms would be plants,fungi, bacteria and proterazoa (single cells).

If you go to North Queensland, many of the beaches have bottles of vinegar left at certain points - although like Malaria, the best treatment is not getting bit in the first place.