----- Forwarded message from Gene Gallagher -----
There seems to be some misunderstanding in the press about a fundamental
difference between a sample of a larger population and a complete
census.
----- End of forwarded message from Gene Gallagher -----
Possibly, but I don't think the Florida situation is either. It, and
every election, and the decennial "census" for that matter, are
neither samples nor complete, but rather flawed attempts at a census.
It's not likely they can be modeled well by treating the result as a
large RANDOM sample, but I'm not sure I'd want to rule out ANY type of
statistical model.
It's only a fluke of the electoral college, the media coverage, and
the lawsuits that we are focussed on Florida. I would liken what is
happening there to the kind of tinkering with an out-of-control
process that Deming spoke against. What is needed is not more
tinkering but process improvement.
_
| | Robert W. Hayden
| | Work: Department of Mathematics
/ | Plymouth State College MSC#29
| | Plymouth, New Hampshire 03264 USA
| * | fax (603) 535-2943
/ | Home: 82 River Street (use this in the summer)
| ) Ashland, NH 03217
L_____/ (603) 968-9914 (use this year-round)
Map of New [EMAIL PROTECTED] (works year-round)
Hampshire http://mathpc04.plymouth.edu (works year-round)
The State of New Hampshire takes no responsibility for what this map
looks like if you are not using a fixed-width font such as Courier.
"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in
overalls and looks like work." --Thomas Edison
=================================================================
Instructions for joining and leaving this list and remarks about
the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES are available at
http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/
=================================================================
