Friday, August 04, 2006

Statistics clutter a corner of

our morning newspapers while we put our legs up

on a couch and read lazily...


(first two links via indianwriting)


When your happy and you know it clap your hands.


58,000 rape cases pending trial in India.


la la la la la la la la la


China slaughters 50,000 dogs.


'sing a song of six pence pocket full of rye'



50 million girls in India are missing because of female infanticide.

tring tring tring old king kole had a merry old soul.........


In 1999, a total of 1,35,771 cases of crime against women were reported.


'Mary Mary Quite contrary how does your garden grow?'

The Bombay Blasts killed 44 people.
The Delhi Blasts killed 59 people.
The Varanasi blasts killed 20 people
The death toll in Lebanon is 800.

AISHWARYA RAI INJURED HER LEFT TOE.
This is another story about the alleged war going on between Bachchan and SRK, there’s nothing official about this war and the stars in question, Bachchan and SRK have always gone all out to deny it.

Source :Apunkachoice




So,

what

do

statistics

mean
to
YOU?

12 comments:

Prasoon said...

Pick up The Hindu from tomorrow or read it all at www.hindu.com - alternatively for new - rush through CNN-IBN - NDTV or even Reuters India.. donot forget OutlookIndia in case you need nice news again..

well, in case you're interested in tech or world news, write back - i shall help but plz plz plz dont pick the same sources u have been through.. no ToI for sure please..

he he he.
pretty unnecessay stats there otherwise.. err what was Jolie's child's weight n height.. ah I need the ToI :P

Y? said...

hmm not claiming these sources represent the epitome of good journalism but am sure they aren't lying. and that wasn't the point of my post.:-I
but yeah if you want jolie's height and weight go to TOI..

Still Searching said...

They're beginning to mean nothing actually.. we have stopped getting horified now.. the mind is numbed, and we accept everything with a sigh..

btw, lifeasithappens.. u soo need to get back to India if u miss TOI's bullsh*t!

unforgiven said...

They can mean everything and nothing, depending on what they are.

Usually, its best to ignore numbers. Leave them to the mathematicians.

zoxcleb said...

what was this post all about? me very confused...

Y? said...

@unforgiven: yeah , i remember a math teacher telling me the superlative thing was lies,damned lies and statistics

@zoxcleb: yeah glad you asked i dont think i was clear enough..was just trying to say how we
1) are just either completely numb to shocking statistics as Ruchika said
2) or try to distract ourself from the largeness of the problem- escapism
3) ignore them completely and dwell on trivial things like ahem most of the media today.
sheesh did i sound like a third grade indian text book i this comment ?
sorry:P

Anonymous said...

Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything.
- Homer Simpson

While you sip your morning cuppa, it helps you figure out the odds that you will not be killed by some religious fanatic on your way to work, or raped by a sex starved maniac on your way back. If your chances are good, you get to cover up your indifference with hollow braggings about the "spirit of the city" and focus on other pressing matters such as Aishwarya's broken toe. If they are not, well, you turn into a statistic.

Vogon Interpreter!! said...

well maybe im just another critic of the times we live in..
(y?..the gurrul ;)) sure hit the nail on the head.. :) u said it gerll!!
it is definitely (cruelly)funny how we can dissociate ourselves from the loss of human life or any trauma by converting every tragedy into a statistic.. shown using pie charts and bar graphs.. or even just plain numbers...and wht ever else we can churn out to make a catastrophe look like a lesson in statistics...and teh paper more colorful.. where a valuable "life" becomes a single digit to add to the count..
all their hopes their dreams.. their lives.. yet unlived.. will just be a count++... to the number... on the page..
i guess our minds now just register the numbers we see and try not to think of the human element involved in it.. after all if 50 millionn girl children are missing thanks to female infanticide the newspapers would rather rather have a front page article tht compres it with how much it is in other countries and a colorful chart howing where we stand.
Afetr all it helps the page look more appealing... and yeah the advertisement below tht one would sure draw more eyeballs... maybe i should show the advertisers the preview without ads and then charge a premium.. for th slot :D...
oh!! what times we live in.. "I want to change it".. shuoldnt we all want to..

Vogon Interpreter!! said...

Oh one more thing that i forgot to mention..
the TOI>> IMHO i call it "Butt wipe" the best use that paper can be put to... just a collossal waste of printing ink.. and yeah i hope its lead free... afetr all we use it for more than reading :)

Y? said...

@anon: yea , very well put. :) who be you?
@vogon: yes, journalism and advertising team up to do terrible things , hide terrible things

i'll have another one said...

its amazing when you think bout just what we live with day in and day out...sensless murders and rapes are on the rise everywhere..yet we jump at the chance of getting out and living sans barriers...guess our main defense and survival mechanism is a stiff cocktail of neccesity and the undyieng belief that nothing bad will happen to us (call it denial if you will)...if we really stop to look at the statistics, we'll stop living..

by the way, the whole mix of stats and nursery rhymes is some of the most macabre piece of writing ive come across..real hard hitting stuff..great

Y? said...

@pranavbal: yeah you are right really if it wasn't for good old denial we'll all own nuclear shelter tunnels or somethin and stay there.