When Information Overwhelms Facts

SquareTrade, a company that sells warranties for consumer electronics and appliances, recently published a summary of the failure rates of notebooks/netbooks (n=30,000). This study was then disseminated by large technology websites: Jeff Smykil at Ars Technica, Electronista Staff, Vladislav Savov at Engadget, and Danny Allen at Gizmodo.

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Have you ever seen software that animates and compares data in an utterly useful yet also entertaining way? I hadn’t, until this presentation… At last year’s Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference, the Swedish leader of the organization Gapminder gave a fantastic talk. Here’s the video of “Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you’ve ever seen”.

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Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most live the longest.

— Larry Lorenzoni