Daily Random Thoughts

Baxil [bakh-HEEL'], n.

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March 17th, 2010

06:20 am

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Daily Random Thoughts

(via LoudTwitter)

13:34 @lupabitch Speaking of which, I recently told Kady that she needs to make pagan-themed ice cream, starting with the flavor "butter P-con" ;) #
13:47 Semi-regular reminder: I use Twitter as a bounce to my Livejournal, to write 140-character, one-off thoughts that I otherwise wouldn't post. #
13:47 If you've friended baxil.livejournal.com (yay!), or read it via RSS (yay), then following me on Twitter means you'll read duplicates (boo). #
14:03 The 2010 Census form asks for both age and M/D/Y birthday. Dear US gov't: May we have statistics on how many Americans can't do basic math? #
21:15 IPod shuffle just put Duran Duran's "Ordinary World" after Great Big Sea's "Ordinary Day". Despite name overlap - now there's a mood swing! #
21:23 (Seriously, my iPod is In A Mood right now. I didn't even know I owned that much breakup music :-p Time to fast-forward to "It's My Life.") #

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(9 comments | Leave a comment)

Comments

From:	ceruleanst
Date:	March 17th, 2010 01:49 pm (UTC)

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"Rocky Rede"

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From:	baxil
Date:	March 17th, 2010 07:23 pm (UTC)

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"Heathen Bar Crunch"

(Also, 10 Baxil Points. :))

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From:	noahbrand
Date:	March 17th, 2010 05:33 pm (UTC)

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Well, the census is designed for maximum compliance, to get the best possible count of our nation's citizens. This means making it AWFULLY idiotproof.

Example one: the letter they sent out a week in advance saying "You're going to get your census form soon--please fill it out and mail it back. Call this number with any questions." Republicans decried this as wasteful, despite the fact that the last time it was used, it saved hundreds of millions of dollars by increasing the rate of properly returned forms by about 6%.

Example two: Question one on the census specifies that it's asking you to count all the people physically living at your address for any reason. Question two asks if there are any people at your address you might not have counted, listing several examples spelled out in the instructions to question one. It's basically like this:

1. Please read these instructions, and provide us an accurate number.

2. You didn't read the instructions on the last question, did you?

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From:	baxil
Date:	March 17th, 2010 07:26 pm (UTC)

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Which is fine as far as it goes! Accurate counting is great.

All I'm saying is: Whoever's filling out the census is supposed to put both the age AND the birthdate (including year) of all residents. Since the age can be trivially derived from the birthdate, it should be a simple matter to collect statistics about what percentage of forms have an age/birthdate mismatch. As a math geek I would love to see this (especially by demographic region, etc) to see if it's high enough to be significant.

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From:	natetg
Date:	March 17th, 2010 07:54 pm (UTC)

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Considering the staggeringly huge sample size, it's almost certain to be significant.

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From:	arethinn
Date:	March 17th, 2010 08:55 pm (UTC)

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butter P-con

I don't think coating the attendance of a Pagan con in butter is approved by the FDA, Surgeon General, or anyone interested in personal hygiene.

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