I'm skeered.

I'm skeered of your graphs

I forget that too Beth and I think the same thing. TKO is safe for us, but it's funny how you don't realize that the whole world can peek in.

Todd, I'm doing OK, thanks for asking. I'm sorry to hear you're having more problems. I hope everything is OK. When should you know the results? Keep us posted.

BTW, Todd, you have waaayyyy too much time on your hands! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

Nothing to be skeered of. Linear regression is good for the soul. I prefer exponential curves simply because they are more interesting, but linear regression is fun too.

Beth, are you ignoring me? I honestly want to help you with the OC situation.

Hi Faithful,

No, I would never ignore your kind offer. I somehow missed it yesterday. I had to go back and look for your post. I have sent you an email and thank you so much.

Beth.

You are welcome! Editing your posts is probably the easiest or you can email one of the mods.

Hope you're doing OK Beth.

You can email me too if you just want to vent and talk. I'll help as much as I can.

Well, y’all are just begging for punishment. Again, I fired the fair warning shot across the bow, but to no avail. The silence is deafening.

One of my favorite books is entitled “How to Lie With Statistics”. One of the examples of poor statistical analysis and conclusion is the case of the man who drowned in six inches of water. How is that possible? It was a very long pool with the deep end at seven feet and a shallow end of one/half inch. The shallow end was long enough to bring the average to six inches. Is the claim correct? Yes. Is it misleading? You bet. Such misapplications of data are common in our information driven world. You tell me your platform and what you want to “prove” and I can develop the statistical evidence to support your case. This is exactly how the Global Warming crowd has used information.

Do you know the ratings of American cities? Have you ever studied the changes from year to year? The top ten are constantly changing. How can a city be in first place one year, and seventh place the next? Let’s see, did traffic improve? Unlikely. Maybe the cost of living decreased? Hmm…when was the last time that happened? No, what changed were the measurements and interpretation. Again, what do you want to prove?

I will give you a great example of this. There is a publication entitled “Places Rated Almanac”. It was written by two gentlemen who live in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts. When it comes to climate, they claimed they had a better system. They first determined what the ideal temperature is. They concluded that it is 65 degrees F. Really? Let’s see, one could arrive at a 65 degree daily average through many different routes. San Diego may have normal highs of 68 and lows of 62. That doesn’t sound too bad to me. Or, it could be a combination of 80 degree F daytime highs and 50 degrees F nighttime lows. Either way, you get to a 65 degree F average. Incidentally, the way they measured deviations from their perfect 65 was interesting. For temperatures above 65, the ratings were extremely punitive; below 65, well no big deal until it got very very cold. To them. Personally, my ideal temperature would be 72 degrees F. The fact that we are encourage to set our thermostats to 68 degrees in the winter and 78 degrees in the summer strong suggest that the ideal temperature lies between those two numbers. So, I wondered why these gentlemen used 65 degrees. That was how I discovered that they lived in Boston. 65 degrees is a heat wave in Boston. Interestingly, Atlanta was number one in climate east of the Mississippi.

Here is another example of poor statistical interpretation and analysis. There is a group called Sperling which produces Best Places info for Money magazine. Mr. Sperling contends that it is not humid weather which bothers us; it is hot and humid weather. He asks the rhetorical question: have you ever heard of anyone complaining about cold and humid weather? ToddAC raises his hand but is ignored. I love, absolutely love, hot and humid weather. I absolutely hate cold weather. The examples go on. Almost all housing data today uses average cost of a single family residence in each area. The problem with this approach is that a typical house in Boston is very different from a typical house in Atlanta. Coldwell Banker developed a great tool for comparison purposes. Relative real estate costs only truly matter to those who are considering relocation. That is typically the ubiquitous middle manager. They determined the cost for a defined home in many markets across the country. Once the house type and size are isolated, then the comparison makes sense. If anyone is curious about the report, it can be found at the linked website below.

http://hpci.coldwellbanker.com/hpci_full.aspx

Hi Todd!

No I can’t, but I prefer the _ above the * anyway! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

If anyone will try to put a non-alphanumeric character in the display name now, the following message will appear:

You can only have alphanumeric characters in your display name. Special characters are not allowed because this allows users to spoof other display names. You may use the _ character to represent a space.

So that’s why I’m stuck with a _ now! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I would have preferred to have NO symbol after my screen name at all, but since that screen name already exist (the previous one of which I’ve lost the password long ago) it is not an option.

Well, Suzet with a _, do you want to discuss linear regression analysis? How about Chebyshev's Theorem? How about binomial distributions? Chi-squares?

Anybody? Geez some group.

Todd,

I don't know what all those things (linear regression analysis, Chebyshev's Theorem etc.) are, so there's no way I can engage in such a discussion with you, but you're welcome to explain to me what all those "big words" mean! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Good morning TKO,

Hope all is well.

Todd, I'm hoping good news for you after your all day "visit" with your Drs. That must have been a fun day. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/pfft.gif" alt="" />

Not much new with me. Just time flying by. The boys & I watched A Charlie Brown Christmas last night. They all, including my 15 year old, wants to watch as many Christmas specials as we can find. Sweet really.

Off to work with 4th graders today, should be fun.

Nice day to all!

P.S. I'm going to try for pictures today during my lunch break. The gallery was finally finished being set up last night.

Hi Nams,

Yeah, it was loads of fun. Hope to hear something soon.

That is really sweet about your 15 yo wanting to watch as many Christmas specials as possible. I cannot believe that I didn't see the Charlie Brown Christmas special

Good luck with the fourth graders.

The French have bombed Central African Republic, a small country in central Africa. It has no air defense systems. Have the French set themselves up for yet another military defeat? Methinks so.

Morning all TKO'ers. Busy with work for a few days. Just wanted to say Hi.

When I got to the school I was asked to switch for the day & work with special needs preschoolers. At first I wasn't looking forward to it but figured they needed the coverage there more so I did it. I actually like it. There were two aids who were fantastic & some of the kids were sick so we didn't have too many kids. Kinda fun.

I've taken pictures which I will try to upload now.

OK, the pictures are here:

http://www.msnusers.com/namspotteryphotos

Some are repeats, just one shot better than another. The pieces that are centered in the photos are mine.

The first few photos are before glazing, then glazed. The color of the glaze before a piece is fired is not the same as it is once it has been fired. Ignore the messy studio photos. I wanted to be sure I got some photos so I took some just after I took the stuff out of the kiln.

Beautiful work nams! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Hi Nams,

Your work really is beautiful. I still love that red dish with the sweeping sides. I can just picture that one full of live pine, pine cones, bright shiney ornaments etc. It would be a beautiful decoration for Christmas and then my fruit dish after that.
Yes, I have plans for your dish.

Thank you Nams for your comments the other day. You gave me a lot to think about. Also, I found a large segment on MB that addresses email EA's so I have been reading there a lot. Apparently it is pretty common these days.

I wish to help my best friend if I can. Her comment worried me too. I know about all the dating sites and that is how they work. But, I think when you meet that way there is a screening process first. She met him on a site similiar to ours. I now understand why it's not recommended to email the opposite sex on here.

Must think about sleep. Retail is a very long day anyway and is exhausting at Christmas time. Plus, tonight I went to a celebration for our Cross. Hopefully we are going to be allowed to keep it. A lot of us have worked long and hard for that. Hope today is a good day for you.

Goodnight. Beth