* Posts by Crellin

5 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Feb 2011

Download data versus piracy claims: the figures don’t add up

Crellin
FAIL

Or

The other possibility is they took a small sampling set deliberately from a section of population thats statistically more likely to be pirates, high school pupils for example. And then upscaled the results to form a "statistic" (I place it in quotation marks because any "statistician" doing that deserves to be beaten to death.......... with probability distribution tables). I don't know if they've done this, haven't seen an indepth breakdown of the analysis and the data that generated it.

Although, to be honest it looks like another attempt by the industry to prop up a lame business model, and a stubborn refusal to kill the business model. Seriously, whats the problem with trying to create Streaming services, like many UK channels have done. Has no-one in Australia/USA worked out that if you give the people a legitimate way to watch the programs/listen to the music, that it stands a good chance that they will? Or that you can do whats know in broadcasting as "advertisements" to raise funds to do such a system/make money?

Sheila's Fails? The statistics of biological risk

Crellin

Why not?

Why not base the insurance premium on average distance travelled per annum?

Why do I suggest this? Thats because female drivers are only less likely to have an accident in a given time period, not in a given amount of geographical distance covered. When you consider distance, the effects change. Under 20, males are about 20% more likely to crash than a female, 20-35 there is no difference, and over 35 the female drivers are statistically more likely to crash in any given distance.

Surely this would be fairer, men who on average travel less statistically have fewer crashes, and women who travel more statistically have more crashes. So wouldn't a system where you have bands based on average distance be fairer, to both genders?

How you would go about implementing it I honestly don't know.

Boffins demand: Cull bogus A-Levels, hire brainier teachers

Crellin
FAIL

Need more teachers?

Theres something I've encountered, as a graduate (possessing a B.Sc (Hons) in mathematics), which I don't know how widespread it is.

I would like to go into teaching, I have attended open days at University's, obtained all the flyers, leaflets and booklets on the courses. But theres a problem, to go and study for a PGCE I need (or at least according to all the institutions whose courses I've browsed the requirements for) at least 1 days classroom observation. Now thats the hard part, schools and colleges won't even bother replying to you, let alone consider the request. Which means I can't study for a PGCE, which means I won't go into teaching.

I can understand that schools/colleges have a moral and legal duty to protect their pupils/students from outsiders, but surely its overkill if you don't even respond to requests, instead of responding and getting a check on the applicant. I mean, if this problems nationwide, then maybe its not a shortage of candidates but a failure to even consider the applicants and an application process that is self defeating (you must have classroom experience to be a teacher, but you must also be a teacher to get classroom experience).

It seems to me the majority (well actually, all the teachers I know) come exclusively from the SAS program (where undergraduate students spend time in schools) and outside of that the way into teaching is barred (or at least heavily barricaded to dissuade potential teachers).

Perhaps the real issue isn't the lack of teachers, but the failures of the current recruitment system?

'Tree Octopus' proves journos no smarter than 13-year-old Americans

Crellin

Bad science and vandalism

I'm guessing that the "researchers" (dare I call them this for their lapsidasical approach to science?) probably vandalised the wikipedia page about the hoax to increase its plausibility to the group. Without a vandalised page I'm fairly certain your average schoolchild of the internet generation would quickly discover that its a hoax (seen as its often a bugbear of teachers that pupils resort to wikipedia so readily).