Playing With Statistics
TheWizard
Join Date: 2002-12-11 Member: 10553Members, Constellation
Join Date: 2002-12-11 Member: 10553Members, Constellation
<div class="IPBDescription">What can you make the numbers say?</div> I was just playing with some statistics to see if I could make any fun factoids for this election. It is often interesting what you can come up with though sometimes you surprise yourself. Please do not take this post too seriously as it is using statistics. I wanted to see how the numbers would play out.
I wanted to get an idea at what rates US soldiers were getting killed in Iraq and what sort of perspectives you can put 'numbers' in. I hate using the word number when what I am really referring to is a courageous human being. We have recently surpassed 1000 soldiers killed in Iraq (combat and noncombat casualties) Though I am not exactly sure what the number is up to at the moment. I assume people latch on to this number because it is big and round and makes an impact. Nevertheless,
<b>There have been more homicides in California this year alone than US soldiers killed in Iraq.</b>
This brings up the comparison of how we are focusing on the trouble spots in Iraq while ignoring the complete picture. Imagine what impression we would get of California if Compton was all we saw on the news.
EDIT: I have something to add. I did not realize this at the time but thre have been 1214 total soldiers killed since the end of major hostilities in Iraq. This includes Coalition troops. This is major as the end of major hostilities was March 20th 2003. This means that: <b>Less troops have been killed in Iraq in 1yr and 6 months than the homicides in California in One year.</b>
Or an even more rigid statistic: The homicide count for Los Angeles alone in 1 year is rougly equal to the total soldiers killed in Iraq since March 2003.
IMO that really puts a perspective on things.
source: <a href='http://icasualties.org/oif/' target='_blank'>Iraqi casualty count</a>
I wanted to get an idea at what rates US soldiers were getting killed in Iraq and what sort of perspectives you can put 'numbers' in. I hate using the word number when what I am really referring to is a courageous human being. We have recently surpassed 1000 soldiers killed in Iraq (combat and noncombat casualties) Though I am not exactly sure what the number is up to at the moment. I assume people latch on to this number because it is big and round and makes an impact. Nevertheless,
<b>There have been more homicides in California this year alone than US soldiers killed in Iraq.</b>
This brings up the comparison of how we are focusing on the trouble spots in Iraq while ignoring the complete picture. Imagine what impression we would get of California if Compton was all we saw on the news.
EDIT: I have something to add. I did not realize this at the time but thre have been 1214 total soldiers killed since the end of major hostilities in Iraq. This includes Coalition troops. This is major as the end of major hostilities was March 20th 2003. This means that: <b>Less troops have been killed in Iraq in 1yr and 6 months than the homicides in California in One year.</b>
Or an even more rigid statistic: The homicide count for Los Angeles alone in 1 year is rougly equal to the total soldiers killed in Iraq since March 2003.
IMO that really puts a perspective on things.
source: <a href='http://icasualties.org/oif/' target='_blank'>Iraqi casualty count</a>
Comments
Anyhow, yes, I'm being too serious. I shall try to think of some.
Further looking at California, some very rough math tells me that in that state, there is roughly one police officer (counting state and local) per 500 citizens, while in Iraq there is one US soldier per 192 citizens.
Don't ask me what the Hell that means, though. It just seemed like a neat thing to calculate.