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From: Todd Miller <felsenmeer_at_tranquility.net>
subject: Re: [Paddlewise] PFD's
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 19:51:19 -0500
Nick Schade wrote:
>> Not that I disagree, but as one who occasionally does without his PFD
>> when
>> floating on the local pond with friends, I have to chime in :-)
>> Another
>> thing the "statistics" won't show are the hundreds or thousands of
>> times
>> that PFD-less boating has occurred with no incident at all.
>
>I am sure most of the bullets shot in Iraq didn't hit anyone. There
>must have been thousands or tens of thousands of times that a bullet
>fell to earth harmlessly. Shall we conclude that, statistically, war
>isn't that deadly?

Well, as I said above, I don't disagree with the original statement, which
noted that statistics don't show the number of times a worn PFD may have
turned a close call into a non-incident.  My point really was that you can
make just about any point you want using "statistics."  Including how safe
it is to wear (or not wear) a PFD.

To use your example, I suspect that by manipulating the right set of
statistics, it might be possible to demonstrate that war really *isn't* that
deadly.  (For the record, I don't support that particular assertion!)
------------------
"At that moment a black vessel
sailing on a cloud appeared
and carried off the man's spirit."

-Horace Beck, "Folklore and the Sea"
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