CSO

These days it seems we are inundated with e-mail and statistics. Like e-mail, though, I believe many of the statistics we receive are just as reliable as those offers of riches from dying uncles in Nigeria. Perhaps it's my background in mathematics, in which I learned that with the right sample one could literally prove almost anything (e.g., see the headlines of any issue of the National Enquirer), but I definitely take most surveys and the conclusions drawn from them with a grain of salt. In particular, it seems common sense is frequently wanting in the interpretation of survey results. An example will illustrate the problem.