--- In [email protected], "sparaig" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In [email protected], new.morning <no_reply@> wrote:
> >
> > http://istpp.org/crime_prevention/voodoo_rebuttal.html#note1
> > 
> > Someone brought up the name Maxwell Rainforth so I pulled up this
> > article. Some interesting points.
> > 
> > However, look at the graphs. In the link. See how many flaws you 
> > can find in his argument?
> > 
> > Among some -- reaching conclusions based on: 
> > 
> > Comparing a five year graph with a one year graph.
> > 
> > The five year graph is averaged. look at HRA scale. Much lower 
> > than 1993 scale, as would be expected -- crime growing over 
> > time. But the averaging cancels out variations in each year. 
> > Without comparing the individual 1988-1992 annual graphs, with 
> > their inherent fluctuations, to the 1993 graph, his argument 
> > is baseless. The fact that he does not do that annual to annual 
> > comparision makes me assume he is hiding "the obvious" -- 
> > annual variations will be much greater than a five year
> > averaged one and disprove his point. 
> > 
> > And of course, eye-balling, as he is asking us to do, is always 
> > good to confirm reasonability of statistical findings. But it 
> > is not in iteslf a statistical conclusion. He manually "centered" 
> > temperature on top of crimes. Lots of lattitude in that to make 
> > it look "good". Thats why statistical regression is used to find 
> > the "best" fit, not an eyeballed fit. 
> > 
> > And look at march, may and oct  of 93. These months also have 
> > crime to temperature variations, although not as big as the DC 
> > project. What explains those variations. Unaccounted factors. 
> > As may well explain the DC variation.
> > 
> > And later, he dismisses a doubling of the murder rate during the
> > course from 10/mo to 20/, as an "outlier". Thats convenient. 
> 
> It was an outlier within the course itself. It was a one-week 
> aberration due to a gang fight that saw 10 deaths in one 
> incident, IIRC.

Yeah, new...it's perfectly legitimate to "not count" an
anomalous event like *that*! What are you *thinking*?
If you bitch about something as miniscule as disregarding
data because it doesn't fit the all-important expectations,
why you could set a precedent. And that precedent could
pose problems when it comes time to splice in several
extra frames of someone at mid-hop to show the expected
result of "hovering." And we all *know* how bad that 
would be for the fate of the world! People would think
that hopping was all that was going on and not flock to
these all-important courses. What are you *thinking*? You 
must be one of those "anti-TMers" we hear so much about 
here.

:-)

More seriously, I think new has made the point that one
can "interpret" "science" to show anything one wants.
That's one reason I've never been impressed by the "TM
science." It is "belief-driven" as opposed to truth-driven.
There is no desire to show what really happens, only
what is *expected* to happen.




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