Media Studies and other things...
It’s one of my pet peeves that too many people are media-illiterate – and that they can’t understand basic statistics. So it was refreshing to discover that when I found the headline for this article on Bloglines (“Half of schools must do better” ) that they weren’t bringing up the old one about ‘Shock, Horror, Half our Schools are Performing Below Average’ – because, well, yes, they would – that’s what the average is all about – it represents the middle of the data set, so of course half the data set is going to lie below it. (Yeah, yeah, I know – if the average you’re using is the median – it may be slightly different if you’re using the mean, or indeed the mode). But no, statistically this article is fine. The double speak is however quite incredible:
“Ofsted inspectors found 49% of secondaries [schools] were rated no better than “satisfactory”, which is no longer deemed good enough.”
Er… so ‘satisfactory’ now means ‘unsatisfactory’? Excellent!
Moving on…
You remember I had resurrected Swatch because I was avoiding knitting socks? (Where has that sock-knitting mojo gone? – I have buckets of the most delicious sock yarn marinating in my stash, and I just can’t be bothered.) Well now I’m knitting mittens to avoid knitting Swatch:
Handspun BFL – v slubby and lumpy, but being stranded (and yes, I am knitting these flat, and yes, that does mean stranding on the purl row, and in fact it’s fine) these will be WARM, which is the main thing I’m after. (That and fitting, but I’m in that stage where I still firmly believe they will fit, despite not really following any kind of sensible pattern… )
And now I know what I’m going to knit to avoid the mittens:
2×100g of 4ply from Touch Yarns. It’s meant to be a shawl for Ruth, but I may simply cuddle it. Liz enabled me when I was at a low ebb – thank you Liz – this is perfect. I’m off to browse Ravelry for a shawl pattern…
six comments:
I know just what you mean; there’s a car ad at the moment (not having a a car in our family I have totally failed to register who the manufacturer is) but the advertisers are busy claiming tht (somehow or other) “it saves more energy than recycling X amount of carrier bags” (where X is an enormous number, natch). But surely the whole concern with carrier bags is bags going into landfill and people failing to re-use bags, not the energy involved in recycling bags? (Or am I missing something)The mittens look as though they will be super-cosy!
rosie () (link) - 17 October '07 - 21:37
Ah, but one should reuse bags so that there is neither recycling nor landfilling, and also not drive cars! That saves even more energy. Ah, also, no TV means even greater savings, plus you don’t have to watch ads!And btw, those mitts look great, and you must put the pink away until you have finished them, mustn’t you?
Mary deB () (link) - 17 October '07 - 22:41
I have got a wheel coming, Anne!!!!A Louet S10….so excited :)
Liz has been very kind to me as well…..she’s a star :)
Are you going to SkipNorth?
Hugs…
Love
Sarah xXx
Sarah () (link) - 19 October '07 - 01:50
Satisfactory is the new unsatisfactory, eh? I love statistics and doublespeak. They’re so beautifully vague.The mittens will surely fit! So snugly looking. And my, my. The mitten distracting yarn is so pretty.
Carrie K () (link) - 20 October '07 - 19:52
It’s always quite entertaining reading someone else’s paper on the train and then getting the giggles about crazy stats/comments etc!If you need any help using up the sock yarn…
Daisy () (link) - 22 October '07 - 13:44
Satisfactory is no more, is it? I am very glad that I am not the only one who knits stuff to avoid knitting other stuff.Dorothy () (link) - 23 October '07 - 22:12
