Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Footnote of the Day

Article here:
1 Real Social Scientific Data is a term of art here, which covers the broad category of ‘statistics that are sufficiently entertaining that I really don’t want to look at them too hard.’ This understanding of data is commonly applied (especially in the popular press, but often enough in academia too), although rarely acknowledged in explicit terms.

1 comment:

Mordy said...

To be distinguished, I imagine, from comments that aren't necessarily entertaining, but argue your point so vigorously that you don't want to look too closely at them. I think I'm more forgiving of entertaining statistics that slip through.