"I gather, young man, that you wish to be a Member of Parliament. The first
   lesson that you must learn is, when I call for statistics about the rate of
   infant mortality, what I want is proof that fewer babies died when I was
   Prime Minister than when anyone else was Prime Minister. That is a political
   statistic."

   "You know how dumb the average guy is? Well, by definition, half of them are
   even dumber than that."

   "Statistics in the hands of an engineer are like a lamppost to a
   drunk-they're used more for support than illumination."

   "Numbers are like people; torture them enough and they'll tell you
   anything."

   "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics."

   "A statistician is a man who comes to the rescue of figures that cannot lie
   for themselves."

   "First get your facts; then you can distort them at your leisure."

                                 ...............

   Ahhhh.... statistics. So easy to love and hate all at once!

   Cheers, Barry

   P.S.  Thanks also to John Macdonald and one of our French translators,
   Emmanuel Araman, who also pointed this out to me.
     _________________________________________________________________

                              GAZETTE MATTERS
     _________________________________________________________________

     * [42]Linux Gazette: checking in from India
            ____________________________________________________

Re: Linux Gazette: checking in

   Thu, 30 Dec 2004 13:52:39 +0530
   Ben Okopnik ([43]ben from linuxgazette.net)

   I hadn't sent this to TAG - it was a semi-private query - but, for general
   info, I was checking in with all our Indian correspondents: 

     * [44]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/mathew.html
     * [45]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/sunil.html
     * [46]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/kapil.html
     * [47]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/shuveb.html
     * [48]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/pramode.html
     * [49]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/sayamindu.html
     * [50]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/shekhar.html
     * [51]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/ramankutty.html
     * [52]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/krishnakumar.html
     * [53]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/ashwin.html
     * [54]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/rajith.html

     * [55]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/pai.html
     * [56]http://linuxgazette.net/authors/raghu.html

   I  sent the message out last night; so far, the first five people have
   responded. My best hopes and wishes go out to the rest, and to all. 

     [Breen] Thanks for that, Ben. Please let us know as you hear from more of
     our Indian friends.

   I surely will, Breen. So far, we've got Vinayak's name to the five who had
   responded previously; Sayamindu Dasgupta's address bounced, but I found a
   phone number for him at [57]http://peacefulaction.org which he listed in
   his  author profile. He's OK; seems he's in Kolkata (West Bengal), and
   everything is all right there. 

   Folks, please keep them on your good wishes list or in your prayers, as
   appropriate. It may be a small thing in the face of something this huge,
   but... it's something. As Pramode said, "there are still human beings alive
   who  can  feel  the  sorrow in another person's eyes - that's the only
   consolation." 

     [Ben] Are you all OK? I'd appreciate a response if you get a chance. I'd
     imagine that many others here are just as concerned; I think that a lot
     of people may just be... too stunned by the magnitude of this to come up
     with a coherent response, and unsure of their own degree of connection to
     you all. Me, I figure that we're all human beings - and that no man is an
     island. 

     My heart goes out to you and all your countrymen in this difficult,
     terrible time. 

     [Kapil] Thanks for checking. Yes. It is truly a devastating event here.
     Relief agencies are doing what they can but every bit counts.

     I'm going to be letting people around here (northern Florida) know that
     they can contribute to the Red Cross/Crescent India, and am going to send
     a contribution myself. [sigh] Sunil mentioned that there's now another
     warning out. 

     [Kapil] The strange aspect of the tragedy is that people in Chennai who
     were more than about 500 metres from the coast were almost unaware that