Word: roote
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Root of the Matter
...Essay about "The Science & Snares of Statistics" [Sept. 8] reminds me of an observation by Sir Josiah Stamp (1880-1941), himself a player of the game: "The government are very keen on amassing statistics. They collect them, raise them to the nth power, take the cube root and prepare wonderful diagrams. But you must never forget that every one of these figures comes in the first instance from the village watchman, who just puts down what he damn pleases...
...rather implausible knowledge of orchids, pules equally obscure and unlikely reservoirs of genius. Perhaps the most extreme example in this regard is the moment when Poitier snatches a weed off the accelerator of the victim's car and, a knowing smile on his face, says "Osmunda, a fern root," Which is all very well and good in a Shamrock Holmes story...
...suffer on, patting these little bearded urchins on the back for having the grand old guts to get off the treadmill, to stand up against hypocrisy and immortality. And it is all very strange to see that at the root of the civil disobedience, and at the root of the test cases, is a lousy weed
...wage, transportation and other costs. But with industrial plants running at a slack 85% of capacity (v. last year's 91% peak), they also suspect business of using any pretext to raise prices in order to reap a windfall of earnings as the economy picks up. Reflecting this root distrust, Ackley recently took special pains to chide the rubber industry for following a strike-forced labor settlement that was "clearly out of line" with price hikes "even greater than the added costs of the wage agreement...