The target of one of Tim Blair's five-minute hates on Wednesday was fellow journalist Peter FitzSimons. FitzSimons' crime? He said there had been an estimated 100,000 civilian deaths in Iraq. Now you could quibble that the Lancet study measured all excess deaths rather than just civilian ones though since the vast majority were civilian deaths, this isn't that big a deal. Blair, however, calls FitzSimon's "stupid" and links to Andrew Bolt's train-wreck of a critique. I suppose that Bolt's isn't the worst of the critiques out there, but with Fumento around the competition is very very stiff.
Blair writes:
FitzSimons is famously sensitive to criticism, which may be why his non-sport columns aren't linkable.
There may be a similar explanation for the fact that critical comments are banned from Blair's blog.
Blair continues:
And paint, to cover Fitzy's house with charming peace messages.
If I had some paint, I'd write this formula on Blair's house:
s/√ n
That's the formula for the standard deviation of a mean. Notice the divided by √ n part? That means that as n, the sample size, gets bigger, the standard deviation and the sampling error gets smaller. Unfortunately Bolt just doesn't understand this because he writes:
But the survey techniques they used to give clearly wrong figures in Fallujah are the same ones they used in the other 32 clusters of households that they interviewed elsewhere in Iraq.
Don't worry kids! If you fail maths at high school, you can always get a job writing for the Herald-Sun or the Bulletin.
Standard errors, changing standards, standard nonsense. It's called blogging lite, just another day in the oxygen free suburb of Spleenville. Quoting or linking to Bolt as a factual reference? He might as well refer to a Japanese schoolgirls diary.
Tha's unfair, Phil. There are millions of Japanese schoolchildren who know more about science than Bolt or Blair.
Ok, how about him referencing the oeuvre of Paris Hilton instead?
It's a tough order, but I think I've got the link for you: 'Simple Life' Denies Deer-Poaching Claim:
Paris Hilton's reality show "The Simple Life" is disputing allegations that a deer was illegally killed so that it could be gutted by the socialite and her sidekick, Nicole Richie.State officials said the deer was killed Tuesday night and they believe it was to be gutted for the show. Investigators are looking into accounts the deer was shot by someone firing a gun from inside a car.
And since Tim Blair can't help himself in giving a free kick to animal activists (even if these ones have badges), guess which side he'll take. Just like every other thread on Spleenville, it's a reprise of that old Kenny Everett film "Godzilla versus Bambi" - and you KNOW who wants to be Godzilla...