Statistics warning! Continue with caution!

It's is always interesting to see how mathematics and statistics is used in "the real world".

When looking at the latest news item, it is worth questioning all the data and assumptions made. So many of us take claims made by scientist, pressure groups, politicians and educationalists far too seriously without questioning them.

There are daily medical and environmental scare stories in the newspapers, which when examined carefully don't stand up, or if they do not the the extent made by the original articles.

Always be skeptical, so check out some nice sites ...

The Skeptic's Dictionary

Bjorn Lomberg - The Skeptical Environmentalist : interesting how some groups reacted to this book (available at Amazon). Have an open mind and look for yourself, and also have a read of an interesting article by Ronald Bailey at ReasonOnline.

ReasonOnline is the online home of the magazine Reason, a collection of free thinking articles on a variety of subjects.

Bad Science is a regular column in the Guardian by Ben Goldacre, always an interesting read for the latest take on science claims.

Another very interesting site is Responsible Thinking.

Have fun ...