World Statistics Day

World Statistics Day

Did you know? I didn't. The people at StatsCan know!
I had so much fun teaching math in my 25 years of teaching. I'd take photos of the lessons, or ask students to, and could post them on the class web site for kids who were home sick.

This news makes me sick:

Census long form: Tory government is making a mistake

Jul 17, 2010

"Last week, Minister of Industry Tony Clement was given the task of defending the government's decision to eliminate the mandatory long-form version of the census and move those questions to an optional survey." 

How can we be afraid of numbers and statistics?

At the time, Tony Clement was our politician in Parry Sound-Muskoka. He's been taken to task for his G8 spending, lately. "It's only money," I've told both my accountant husbands! Great line, too bad he cannot use it. It's OUR money!

While the rest of the world celebrates, we Canadians have politicians who do not want us to be gathering information on what is going on in our country. Why do you think?

Perhaps, they don't want to be evaluated? If we can track their success in digging us out of this economic mess, you'd think that would be a good thing.

If we can't count them, we can't count on them, I say. Tracking our socioeconomic progress is important in a democracy.

I have written a couple of posts on the importance of tracking data on who we are, what we need, what we are missing, and who needs help. This is especially true for those who cannot or will not speak up for themselves in other ways. Many of our immigrants come from countries where you cannot speak up.

You can't have your cake, and your long form census, too. The fooferah from our government in trying to dump the long-form census is appalling. Tony Clement stating its lack of importance. (I think he was just the messenger, but I sit to be corrected.)

The lies from John Baird, in the 1000 email per day complaining about it. It was 20 or so a year, they tell us. These are only statistics, too. OK, lies. But an interesting number!

With family members keen on science (my daughter is a hydrogeologist) and math (I taught math, hubby was an auditor at one point)....

The debate at our dinner table quickly devolved.

How do you celebrate World Census Day?

There is a secret password to get in. NAME:  (pi = = 3.141592...)
T. said have cake, a sampling thereof...
Definitely not a Tea Party.Maybe a case of 2-4s.

Obviously pie would be better. With all determining the radius of said  π .
J.B. said, a sampling of  π .


Decorations: lots of glitter balls,
with a sphere calcuation = (4/3) r³

Party favours inside those cylinders = b h = r² h

Survey of everyone's reactions.
Using the short, not the dreaded long form.

Or you will recieve hundreds of thousands of protests destroying Canada's credibility at the UN.

And protesters prearrested (for conspiracy before the act) on $100,000 bail, and rearrested for attending lectures/debates.

Alex Hundert Arrested After Speaking at Ryerson University

So it may be better to count the hours towards a pleasant evening with your favourite little number in this democracy we call Canada.