Mark - I promise to keep my political opinions to myself. And I won't have ANYTHING to argue about if you guys keep taking my side of the banter about bias in statistics! Don't make me start talking about how dependable nubers are.... smile

Glenn - Don't suppress those disagreements. Didn't your mom tell you that suppressing your feelings is bad for you!!?? (Also, running with scissors is bad.) I would enjoy hearing your views.

There is a wonderful book about bias called "In A Different Voice" by Carol Giligan. She makes a strong case about how many of the things we see and do contain invisible bias that truly directs the outcomes and conclusions around us - mostly unseen. Its a good read and worth the trouble. I wish statistics were ONLY used by scientists who understood them - but they aren't. The daily papers are pocked with tables and graphs, assertions and conclustions filled with numbers snatched from some well-meaning number cruncher.

Here you go: "80% of college students are on drugs, 62.5% of men secretly want to learn ballet, 50% of fourth graders are on diets, and a clear majority of people in Kansas believe the world to be flat." "Without the math or math references, these comments are just silly. With the magic of the numbers in the them, they invite scrutiny and evaluation. If I see one I want to believe in there, I will. (I KNEW Kansas was dangerous!!)

Please rescue me from the linear/sequentials of the world who want our understanding of people to come from math. As a cancer patient in treatment, I began to feel like a bucket with an interesting bug in it. So impersonal, so wrenching, so humbling to be the bucket.

Blood counts, cc's of this and cc's of that, rads, and hours, and pounds and calories. It was hard to be more than my numbers. I accept the importance of the numbers (steady Nelie)and appreciate their role. But those numbers didn't then, and don't now explain my experience. If you only saw the numbers, you didn't really see me. You could know my numbers and still not know what happened to me. Look at how we sign our names here....

Counting drinks means little more. Need a statistic to support your social drinking? Here is a good one: "85%", or need a statistic to justify not drinking? I have one for you: "91%". Contact me if you do not see the number you need, we have others in stock and available on short notice. Tom

SCC BOT, mets to neck, T4.
From 3/03: 10wks daily multi-drug chemo,
Then daily chemo with twice daily IMRT for 12 weeks - week on, week off. No surgery. New lung primary 12/07. Searching out tx options.