Visitors - Come on in and say hello!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Fun with Statistics!

I have always hated numbers...one of the reasons I hate my current job because it's all about numbers, all the time. I had a stats course in college as a requirement, hated it and didn't do so well, and I had to use the stats in the following class "Research Methods" which was all about using stats in research, interpreting graphs, etc. Hated it.

I really wish I had enjoyed it because stats can be really funny. So I'll just pass on the fun other people had with numbers. Mantilla twitch to Father Joe for this one:

Facts to ponder:

(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.

(B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year are 120,000.

(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.

Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services.

Now think about this: [Guns]

(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000. (Yes, that’s 80 million.)

(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.

(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188.

Statistics courtesy of the FBI.

So, statistically, doctors are approximately 9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Remember, “Guns don’t kill people, doctors do.”

Fact: Not everyone has a gun, but almost everyone has at least one doctor.

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat.

We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!

Out of concern for the public at large, we have withheld the statistics on lawyers for fear the shock would cause people to panic and seek medical attention…

12 comments:

Russ Rentler, M.D. said...

I never killed anybody(that I know of) :)

Adoro said...

Tiber Jumper ~ Coming from you, I completely believe you. But when you go to work...BE CAREFUL!

:-)

Anonymous said...

I'm posting this at work.

Unknown said...

Houston, I think we have a problem here with our math:

(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000.

(B) Accidental deaths caused by physicians per year are 120,000.

(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.

Most people don't understand the imporance of that number.

Practically speaking, those statistics state that one out of every five physicians cause an "accidental death."

I don't know if they mean "cause a death" or one out of ever five five physicans has a patient die while under their care.

There is a huge difference in the way that data is presented.

swissmiss said...

Of course, these numbers don't count the babies or others intentially killed.

Xavier Martel said...

Adoro,

I ran a similar analysis after the Virginia Tech shootings and the tirade of Nikki Giovanni:

Nikki Giovanni Control

Cheers!

Anonymous said...

girl...what aren't you good at?
it is so hard to believe you are having a hard time finding meaningfuul and gainful other employment.
i think the folks in the frozen north need to have their brains thawed-out.

Adoro said...

Tara ~ Did you work today? Do the doctors still love you? I'll bet the nurses do! (Hope you didn't post it where patients could see, though....)

Ray ~ OK, I'm a Catholic geek but you're a Math geek! LOL. Don't point those things at me....it doesn't make any sense! This entire post required someone else's interpreation because no way could I have posted this!

swissmiss ~ Well, that's normally excluded, esp when humor is being used. But you're right...I can't explain the mathematics but since abortions are performed by "doctors", well, the states for them would be far over the top!

XM ~ Who is Nikki Giovanni?



Uncle Jim ~ As it states in this post...I'm not good at math. I hate numbers, they don't make sense to me, and I struggle with them constantly. They get in my way at work and when I'm completing a supplement, esp. when something has gone wrong at the shop, I have to call my team leader because I try to do all this accounting to make the numbers match (for any auditors who might look at my files), and I'm always in a panic and near tears. I hate numbers. They are the bane of my existance.

When I took the ACT for college, I got 95th percentile in Reading/Comprehension, other stuff was similar, and I hit "70" for math.

I had to take remdial math in college - they tested as part of the app process, and I didn't even qualify until sophomore year to take the "appropriate" required math class. And I struggled to get a "C" in that.

I hate numbers. Make them go away so I can live a peaceful existence.

Hidden One said...

Good thing infinite isn't really a number, or God's infinite characteristics would be annoying.

;)

Adoro said...

Oh my goodness! The very idea of "calculating" infinity is enough to give me nightmares!

I did once prove that there is a God...via 10th Grad geometry.

I passed. With a D.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I did work today, posted in recovery where only doctors and nurses are--doctors and nurses found it amusing. The docs I work with are very cool--with intact egos.

And speaking of statistics--there is a high correlation between people who breathe oxygen and people who die--the correlation is 100% deaths to 100% those who breathe--guess we should stop breathing!? LOL

Adoro said...

Tara ~ LOL! You just reminded me of a devastating statistic I learned in my EMT class several years ago, and I think it's still true.

DID YOU KNOW!? - The cause of death for EVERYONE is - get this - CARDIAC ARREST! We're all going to die of HEART FAILURE! The Death Certificate for all of us is going to read of some version of "heart failure", and there we'll be .....dead. Apparently because of Doctors and Lawyers, but not so much guns. Because our hearts quit first.

This is quite shocking! Imagine...EVERY SINGLE DEAD PERSON'S HEART QUIT ON THEM!

Oh, the horror!