January 21, 2013

Seasonal units of measurements

Stuff says (complete with cute photo)

The birth of a rare Nepalese red panda baby, weighing not much more than a tomato, has thrilled Auckland Zoo keepers.

Hmm.

pandasize

Especially given all the fuss last year about New Zealanders’ ignorance of vegetables, perhaps “weighing a bit less than an iPhone” would be more informative.

 

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Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »

Comments

  • avatar
    Chris Hughes

    Not only does the weight of the fruit in question vary withcu;tivar, palnt nutrition and health status and fruit ripeness, it also varies with location. There was a UK attempt at inflation indexinf by pricing in Mars Bars – which (alas) are now as variable in size as fruit.
    Why not do something original and accurate and give the size of the new animal in SI units?

    12 years ago