[geeks] What desk toy or "tchotchke" says "geek" to you?

[Mike Meredith]

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 18:03:57 -0500, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> I can't come up with it, 

Then perhaps you shouldn't make unsubstantiated and insulting claims
about other countries. 

> Then you get a cop to tell you the arrest and conviction rates in the
> same area.

And the average policeman has an accurate figure for the number of
arrests she's made in the past year ? Not very likely is it ?

> If the arrest and conviction rates are several times higher than the
> reproted numbers, then the reported numbers are wrong.

I presume you mean arrest *numbers* there ? What about arrests where no
crime has taken place, or where multiple arrests are made for a single
crime ? Or where a single arrest is made for multiple crimes ? Or the
fact that the police given better tools are catching more criminals ?
There is no direct correlation between the number of crimes and the
number of arrests.

> That's what I saw, and so I have my doubts about what is published in
> some countries over there.

Given your methodology for doubting the figures, I doubt you know enough
to come up with a genuine criticism for the figures in other countries.

> In Hampton, VA years ago the mayor told the public:
> Get the idea?

A politician lied ? Oh dear! Well it's hardly new, and has no relevance
on crime figures.

> Of course, I suspect that what you are being told is probbably not in
> agreement with any hard numbers, if they were properly collected.

"As to whether the numbers themselves are 'cooked' ... well it seems a
bit unlikely. Not only are UK violent crime rising, but if they were
cooked, there would be a huge scandal about it. The UK government is
notoriously 'leaky' and out of the thousands of statisticians involved,
some would surely whistle blow about the numbers being cooked."

(from an earlier email)

> The book "How to Lie with Statistics" is a good read to help with
> that.

Sounds like a good read, although I suspect it won't tell me much I
don't already know.

> > 'other governments lie so ignore their figures' and 'somebody told
> > me it's bad in Europe so it must be so'.
> 
> I didn't say that, you did.

I shouldn't have put it in quotes, or should have emphasised that I was
rephrasing what you wrote, but that's pretty much what you said.