A study in . . . whatever!

Today, a very dear friend of mine sent me the following web link: http://popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html

His comment: "Who does this kinda thing?"

I responded thusly:

Usually, university students do stuff like this. It used to be quite the project to collate such information but with the advent of software analysis tools, this kind of thing is merely a data entry problem these days. In other words, yours and my out-of-the-box Excel and Access software can both do this kind of mapping quite easily.

It should also be mentioned that most of the truly useful statistical information we rely on from day to day is generated by just this kind of university study and analysis. Not this particular one, of course; they do put out a lot of trash studies, too! Need I mention the study which was conducted several years ago which demonstrated the effect of cow belching and farting on the ozone layer?

As to the value of it, consider this little anecdote. When I was 16, between my junior and senior year, my family was uprooted by my father and we moved to Missouri. We had lived and had been raised in Northeastern Arizona. Note an inaccuracy in the map: We had grown up calling it "pop." Missouri, on the other hand, was in the habit of calling it "soda." Now you wouldn't think this would be a major issue. It certainly never occurred to us. But the minute someone heard one of us order a "pop" we dang near GOT popped upside the head.

This kind of information could be very useful in determining the best course of action in a given situation, even for such a seemingly innocuous study. By the same token, an inaccuracy such as the one I mentioned above, could prove disastrous. Our not knowing about it certainly proved as such!

--Wag--