Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

[Barry Karr <SkeptInq@aol.com>]

Skeptical Inquirer Electronic Digest, December 4, 2000

 Visit the CSICOP and Skeptical Inquirer Magazine website at
 http://www.csicop.org. Receiving over 200,000 hits per year, the CSICOP site
 was rated one of the top ten science sites by HOMEPC magazine. Send comments
 regarding SI DIGEST to editors Matt Nisbet at mcn23@cornell.edu and Barry
 Karr at skeptinq@aol.com.

 In this edition of SI Digest:
 --ABCNEWS.COM: Mathematician John Allen Paulos* on Ties and Coin Flips
 --ABCNEWS.COM: Paulos on How and What to Count
 --ABCNEWS.COM: Which is Better at Counting? Man or Machine?
 --ABCNEWS.COM: Paulos on the Mathematics of the Election

 *NOTE: Temple University mathematician John Allen Paulos is a CSICOP Fellow.

 --ABCNEWS.COM: MATHEMATICIAN PAULOS ON TIES AND COIN FLIPS

 For the full column, go to
 <http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/WhosCounting/whoscounting.html>

 [Dec. 1 — The Florida election is essentially a statistical tie. As I’ve
 written in a previous column, the number of votes in dispute in this
 election is many times greater than the difference in vote totals between
 the candidates and so the election might reasonably be settled by a coin
 flip. Since such a decisive coin flip is unlikely to occur, we should
 ideally avoid the appearance of dredging for votes in Democratic counties
 (although they are the source of almost all the reported irregularities) and
 hand-count all the counties...]

 --ABCNEWS.COM: PAULOS ON HOW AND WHAT TO COUNT

 How and and What to Count

 For the full text of the article, go to
 <http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/closevote_paulos001120.htm
 l>

 [Nov. 20 — The belief that we can simply count the votes in Florida and
 award the election to the candidate receiving the plurality of them may be
 unfounded....]

 --ABCNEWS.COM: MAN VS. MACHINE, WHICH IS BETTER AT COUNTING?

 Man vs. Machine
 Which Is Better at Counting? Neither, Say Statisticians

 By Amanda Onion
 For the full text of the article, go to
 <http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/ELECTION_counting001116.ht
 ml>
 [Nov. 15 — How do you ensure an accurate count? For a statistician, the
 answer is simple — count as many times as possible and then take the average
 of each result...]

 --ABCNEW.COM: PAULOS ON THE MATHEMATICS OF THE ELECTIONS

 Calculating the Results

 For the full text of the article, go to
 <http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/WhosCounting/election_math001112.htm
 l>

 By John Allen Paulos
 Special to ABCNEWS.com
 [Nov. 13 — Is there anything left to say about the torrent of vote numbers
 and exit polls that have washed over us the last couple of days? A few
 random observations come to mind....]

 --------------------------------

 SI Electronic Digest is the biweekly e-mail news update of the Committee for
 the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP.)

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