http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIDLIwlzkgY
Some interesting facts about the world and technology?
I got the overwhelming sense that there were a lot of assumptions made in the numbers presented in that video.
I also found that there were a lot of implied message. The most obvious one was the statement that the top 25% of students in India, as measured by IQ, was more than the number of students in the United States. They didn't give the IQ range or distribution of these 25% of students, nor showed how actual IQs compared between the two countries, but a lot of people would take this statement to mean India has more smart kids.
Quote from: Thorin on March 30, 2009, 11:28:39 AM
the top 25% of students in India, as measured by IQ, was more than the number of students in the United States. They didn't give the IQ range or distribution of these 25% of students
"Nearly 50% of people surveyed are of below average intelligence" ;)
Quote from: Darren Dirt on March 30, 2009, 11:50:20 AM"Nearly 50% of people surveyed are of below average intelligence" ;)
2/3rds of people will accept figures at face value on the spot!
I kid, but this thread made me think of something. I stumbled on a Useless Facts Generator yesterday and it had interesting bits of information on it. The nice thing about the site is that it had links to sources for each of the useless facts. That really stood out as an excellent example of the richness of the 'net even if some of the sources were a bit dubious.
tl;dr [CITATION NEEDED]