Thursday, September 14, 2006
Data Doubts
UK officials say that about 13% of young men in England have Chlamydia. Not really shocking, but kinda distressing considering how easily it can usually be treated. These sorts of numbers are always suspect though, given low reporting rates.
The celestial object which forced astronomers to strictly define a 'planet,' thus stripping Pluto its status as such, has been officially named Eris, after the goddess of chaos. The name seems appropriate, but I kinda liked its old name, Xena.
The 'obesity epidemic' is clearly happening, but lots of people blow it out of proportion. For instance, I simply do not believe that there are more overweight people on Earth than there are undernourished. For starters, there's some overlap between those groups, and secondly we have no good definitions for either.
The celestial object which forced astronomers to strictly define a 'planet,' thus stripping Pluto its status as such, has been officially named Eris, after the goddess of chaos. The name seems appropriate, but I kinda liked its old name, Xena.
The 'obesity epidemic' is clearly happening, but lots of people blow it out of proportion. For instance, I simply do not believe that there are more overweight people on Earth than there are undernourished. For starters, there's some overlap between those groups, and secondly we have no good definitions for either.
