Facepalm-worthy Quote (Don’t Know Much about Samples and Probability Edition)

May 26, 2012

Comments

“We’re spending $70 per person to fill this out. That’s just not cost effective,” he continued, “especially since in the end this is not a scientific survey. It’s a random survey“—Representative Daniel Webster (R-FL), during his speech against the American Community Survey (which I discussed previously here).

If one knows anything about scientific surveys, it is the randomness of the sample that makes them scientific.

To quote Mr. Gumby: my brain hurts.

(h/t: LGM)

5 responses to “Facepalm-worthy Quote (Don’t Know Much about Samples and Probability Edition)”

mantis

May 26, 2012 at 9:53 pm

See, in a scientific survey, you pick the people who respond, so you can get the outcome you want. Science!

With a random survey, who knows what you’ll get? Very unscientific.
Gromitt Gunn

May 27, 2012 at 4:14 am

I really hope he’s not on any committees dedicated to education. Or science. Or the funding thereof.
JKB

May 27, 2012 at 8:42 pm

Hey, he’s been reading about those climate “scientists” and that is how they do it. They work to take the random out of their data.

Also, randomness does not make surveys scientific. It removes bias and provides some empiricism but it is not science as it is practiced by the exact sciences.
G.A.

May 28, 2012 at 5:34 am

If one knows anything about scientific surveys, it is the randomness of the sample that makes them scientific.

ladies and germs, I give you the theory of evolution in a tie dyed eggshell…
grumpy realist

May 28, 2012 at 4:52 pm

@G.A.:

So which of the two steps involved in evolution do you disagree on? Mutations or natural selection? That’s what the theory of evolution is, just those two steps repeated over and over and over.

I guess you don’t believe in the existence of antibiotics-resistant bacteria?

According to you, they shouldn’t exist.