Hang on, checking my desktop abacus. Okay, 59+35+26= ... Wait a minute ... We're not going to talk about global warming or Climategate or sharks sweating in the oceans or polar bears wearing Snuggies or Eskimos bartering fish for refrigerators. Global warming takes a back seat here to unintentional comedy.
On Fox and Friends, they showed a poll. Polls usually add it up to 100. As in 100%. Not this time. So excited was Fox to claim that scientists have cooked the Earth-getting-cooked numbers, they had an apparent Super Poll that went to an unprecedented 120%. If only it was on purpose.
Take that mathematics! Point to hilarity!
UPDATE: I'm not sure how this math became so mashed up, but the actual poll that Fox was trying to reference can be seen here. It's question number 3 that's in question. Apparently someone lumped the "very likely" and "somewhat likely" in together, then put in some of the other numbers and left out others to get the magical 120%.
Stumble This
Reddit!
Yeah! Fuck Math!
Boo yeah! Correct addition is for pussies!
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
Charles Wentworth Dilke (1843-1911).
Historical quotes? I need to start implementing those...
JW
Did you know that 44.625% of statistics are made up right on the spot?
What a bunch of maroons.
Maybe this math was done by the same guys who decided the hadron collider was failing because it was sabotage by someone from the future ? ya think?
The second comment here explains where the screwup occurred.
http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/comments/fox_math/#c
"Fifty-nine percent (59%) of Americans say it's at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data to support their own theories and beliefs about global warming. Thirty-five percent (35%) say it's Very Likely. Just 26% say it's not very or not at all likely that some scientists falsified data."
The "at least" part confused the math-challenged graphic artists at Fox News.
I think the same dude working the calculator is the one that doesn't know his "D" from his "R".
http://crooksandliars.com/logan-murphy/shocking-fox-news-labels-disgraced-re