Wednesday, June 20, 2007
.things that need to be done.
Database Design and Implementation
-common test
-exam
Animation
-project but not out yet
-exam
Rapid Application Development
-series of Written and Practical tests
-exam
Network Technology Project
-project report (minor touch ups)
Network Technology
-exam
Object Orientated Analysis and Design
-project (minor touch ups and understanding of project)
-exam
Innovation and Technopreneurship
-marketplace report (done)
-VoIP report (done)
-exam
Infocomm Security
-security policy report
-exam
National Education
-1k word pair essay
part 2 of yesterday's commentatory, if you havent read it yet, please read down first before this part.
-instant wealth and rebounding grades-
a man by the name of smith was walking home from work when he spotted a $5 bill on the pavement. he looked around, picked it up, and put it in his pocket. his other pocket already contained a $10 bill. smith smiled. "my wealth has increased by 50%".
unfortunately, the pocket that held the $5 bill had a hole in it. when smith got home, he discovered to his dismay that the $5 was missing. "thats not so bad" he said. "earlier my wealth increased by 50%, now it has decreased by only 33%. im still ahead by 17%.
another such case is when someone's test scores fell by 60% and then rebounded back up by 70%. such a claim succeeds, like the fictional mr smith, in making something out of nothing. if you listen to the numbers and dont thinik about them too much, it sounds like the state is doing a better job than ever. arent scores 10% higher now that they were?
lets take a minute to perform a simple experiment. take a test score of 80 marks. if 60% is gone, 60% of 80 is 48, thus 32 marks is left. rebounding by 70%, 70% of 32 is 22.4. the final mark you have is 54.4, which is a long way from 80 of which you first started with, in fact its only 68% of 80.
some people pile percentages adding or subtracting them indiscriminately to obtain favourable numbers. a time series of percentage-changes in a number can never be simply added up to get an idea of "where we are now". after all, each percentage change is based on a new number in the sequence.
-drunk, drugged, depressed, dangerous-
have you ever come acrossed a statement like this, a survey of traffic fatality statistics gleaned from various newspapers. the survey revealed the following startling numbers : 20% are caused by cocane, 25% are caused by marijuana, 50% are caused by alcohol, 35% are caused by sleepiness, 85% by speeding, 50% by smoking, 35% by suicide, 20% by mechanical failure.
how are such percentages possible? if the various categories did not overlap at all, one would expect the percentages to add up to no more than 100% but in this case, it adds up to 320%!! an outrages monstrocity of fatality.
- I contemplated at 11:03 pm
