background dioxin levels?

[ttweed@wildrockies.org (Tony Tweedale)]

  vivien was wondering about the uses of median and mean (arithmetic ave.)
  calculations in statistics.  in many cases, the median (arrange all your
  data points in order of their value, the one in the middle is the median)
  is more useful and less misleading than the mean,  tho the mean tolerates
  low n(umber of data points) better.
  
  simply, the median prevents skew of the mean from large value outliers.
  often one or two outliers can severly skew even a mean composed of large n.
  the further out, the bigger their effect.  obviously, reporting both
  paints the best picture.  there is a 3rd such value, less used, but i'm
  blanking it right now.
  
  He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts -- for support rather
  than illumination.    -Andrew Lang
  
  Discussion included the presentation of certain figures, and it was felt
  that the position of the decimal points could be improved.     -?
  
  The formula '2 + 2 = 5' is not without its attractions  -Dostoyevsky
  
  Lies, damn lies, and statistics -Benjamin Disraeli
  
  Politics is science with which I disagree.      -unknown
  
  
  tony tweedale