One often hears statistics such as deaths from scuba diving being
approximately equal to mowing lawns. Are these statistics based on the
population that regularly engages in these activities or the total
population?

Obviously if one does not scuba dive their risk of dying from this
activity is zero. So using the total population to calculate the death
rate for activities practiced by a very small proportion of the
population would depress those rates tremendously.



"Don Freeman" wrote in message ...
"Keenan Wellar" wrote in message
...
in article , Dave Manby at
wrote on 8/10/04 4:31 AM:

Statistically lying in bed is by far the most dangerous thing you can do
as the majority of people die in bed!

I think perhaps "cause of death" and "location of death" are getting
confused here!

His point exactly, gaving a very good example of how faulty cause-and-effect
reasoning can lead to invalid conclusions.

"Alex Horvath" wrote in message
om...
One often hears statistics such as deaths from scuba diving being
approximately equal to mowing lawns. Are these statistics based on the
population that regularly engages in these activities or the total
population?

If the person making the comparison didn't qualify the quoted statistic, and
cite the source, it is pretty much meaningless. Most of what you hear
otherwise may even qualify as urban legends.

IE: donkeys more dangerous then airplanes:
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/donkey.htm

85% of statistics are made up.

Source UK Guinness Television advert advertisement.


(I guess you would have to see the ad. to know that the ad was made up
of statistics all of which were dubious)



In message , Don Freeman
writes

"Alex Horvath" wrote in message
. com...
One often hears statistics such as deaths from scuba diving being
approximately equal to mowing lawns. Are these statistics based on the
population that regularly engages in these activities or the total
population?

If the person making the comparison didn't qualify the quoted statistic, and
cite the source, it is pretty much meaningless. Most of what you hear
otherwise may even qualify as urban legends.

IE: donkeys more dangerous then airplanes:
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/donkey.htm



--
Dave Manby
Details of the Coruh river and my book "Many Rivers To Run" at
http://www.dmanby.demon.co.uk

Dave Manby ) writes:
85% of statistics are made up.

by defintion 100% of statistics are made up.
a statistic is not the data but a number computed from the data.

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Alex Horvath ) writes:
One often hears statistics such as deaths from scuba diving being
approximately equal to mowing lawns. Are these statistics based on the
population that regularly engages in these activities or the total
population?

Obviously if one does not scuba dive their risk of dying from this
activity is zero. So using the total population to calculate the death
rate for activities practiced by a very small proportion of the
population would depress those rates tremendously.

It might explain why my former neighbour never mowed his lawn.

On the alien UFO cause, since in the USA all non-citizens are officially
"aliens" and non-citizens do paddle there, there must be some non-negative
probability of a kayker in the USA being killed by one. How much white
does there have to be in white water before a kayak is considered airborne?

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William R Watt National Capital FreeNet Ottawa's free community network
homepage: www.ncf.ca/~ag384/top.htm
warning: non-FreeNet email must have "notspam" in subject or it's returned

"William R. Watt" wrote in message
...


On the alien UFO cause, since in the USA all non-citizens are officially
"aliens" and non-citizens do paddle there, there must be some non-negative
probability of a kayker in the USA being killed by one. How much white
does there have to be in white water before a kayak is considered
airborne?

And considering the shape of some whitewater boats I've seen they could
definitely qualify as unidentifiable.