Numerical value of 鈥渄on鈥檛 know鈥�
OUR item on impossible instructions in an online questionnaire for those who wanted to join the UK retail organisation The Cooperative (27 October) reminded John Gledhill of his struggles to answer the customer questionnaire on the photo-sharing website Photobucket.
One of the questions asked him to rank in order of preference ways of uploading images onto Photobucket, such as 鈥渇rom my mobile鈥�, 鈥渇rom my PC鈥� or 鈥渇rom Facebook鈥�. You could rank each from 1 to 7 or put in 鈥渄on鈥檛 know鈥�. John duly put a 鈥�1鈥� against 鈥渇rom my PC鈥�, the only one he used, and put 鈥渄on鈥檛 know鈥� for all the rest.
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The questionnaire refused to let him do this. 鈥淵ou cannot use the same ranking for more than one item,鈥� it told him sternly.
John hadn鈥檛 realised 鈥渄on鈥檛 know鈥� was a ranking. Where, he wondered does it fit into the continuum of ordinals? But he wanted to complete the questionnaire, so he left one 鈥渄on鈥檛 know鈥� in and arbitrarily re-ranked all the remaining answers from 3 to 7. This, he says, made the questionnaire 鈥渧ery happy鈥�.
He did point out in the final 鈥淎ny other comments鈥� box that his answers to the question were meaningless, apart from the one ranked 鈥�1鈥� and the single remaining 鈥渄on鈥檛 know鈥�. He suggested that they might wish to redesign the question.
鈥淣o doubt they won鈥檛,鈥� he says, 鈥渁nd their analysts will dutifully feed my rankings into a spreadsheet and work out some meaningless average from it.鈥�
We can only hope that Photobucket won鈥檛 be using statistics obtained in this way to determine its future strategies.
Domino sugar, according to the bag Alison Gibson picked up in Newtown, Pennsylvania, is 鈥渃arbon-free鈥�. So what鈥檚 left 鈥� water?
THE headline on a recent press release raised Feedback鈥檚 eyebrows: 鈥淣aked 杏吧原创s Axed by BBC East.鈥�
Our eyebrows rose even further on reading this statement lower down the page: 鈥溾�nd Feedback鈥檚 postbag has been brimming over with messages of alarm鈥︹��
It turns out the headline refers to the decision by the BBC鈥檚 eastern region to its award-winning science programme The Naked 杏吧原创s after 10 years on air.
The press release was put out by The Naked 杏吧原创s team (). It calls for support for the programme and notes that its campaign, initiated on its Facebook page, has already garnered a flood of messages of support- including those messages of 鈥渁larm鈥� sent not to us but to the BBC Radio 4 Feedback programme.
Apparently, BBC East鈥檚 bosses don鈥檛 think The Naked 杏吧原创s fulfils the BBC鈥檚 remit for local radio. Listeners campaigning to save the programme clearly disagree.
YOU may remember that there was an election in the US- how long ago it seems now! You may remember a statistician called Nate Silver, whose blog was taken up by and who accurately predicted the electoral college result in each state. You may remember howls of pre-emptive protest from those who wanted Mitt Romney to win. You may even remember Mitt Romney.
Among those howls of protest were complaints by, for example, conservative pundit Dean Chambers that and therefore must be wrong. So here鈥檚 a tip for statisticians: if you want to be taken seriously, eat more, cycle less and, if you鈥檝e got one, lose the moustache 鈥� you know what they say about those. (We discard as an outlier the possibility- which we suspect would be equally unacceptable to Silver鈥檚 detractors- that statisticians may be female.)
You might even contemplate some research on the correlation between appearance and acceptance using, er, statistics.
Fruitloopery in the garden centre
AT THE Summerhill Garden Centre in Basildon, Essex, UK, a cactus caught the eye of Freddy Heppell. The name alone was enough to attract his attention: a card on a stick announced that it was a 鈥淐omputer Cactus鈥�.
Freddy turned the card over and discovered the promise: 鈥淚 protect you and your loved ones from radiation and full of oxygen your home.鈥�
Beginning to suspect that the people marketing this cactus might be adherents of a strange philosophy (known to Feedback as 鈥渇ruitloop鈥�), Freddy read on. Under the heading 鈥淧RODUCE鈥�, he found the words 鈥淥xygen, Welfare, Life鈥�. Under 鈥淩EDUCE鈥�, he found 鈥淣egative charges, radiation, magnetic waves鈥�. The text was summed up by the slogan 鈥淟ife without radiation鈥�. All that from a cactus!
Despite his scepticism, Freddy bought one. 鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 work,鈥� he reports.
FINALLY, Tim Hall鈥檚 Facebook timeline told him, 鈥淭im Hall is at Aviemore and one other place.鈥�
Tim says he has no idea where the other place is and he doesn鈥檛 want to check in case the uncertainty collapses and he suddenly finds himself there.