[baldeagle]

"1 in 5 said they had gotten emotional support from a friend in the past week, compared with 4 in 10 women." -TFA

There was no need to change the demoninator - it was done to confuse people by having them compare 1 vs 4. It's hard to take the rest of the article seriously when they game the numbers to manipulate people so obviously.

I feel like there is a real problem here, even if it is played a little too hard for the article. I do a lot of parenting but am lucky that my college friends all married and reproduced around the same time. So now instead of 12 people hanging, gaming, and BSing, we have 30-40 people in a glorious mob of activty. Thing is - the kids kinda entertain themselves reducing the parenting load for everyone. And everyone know how each family does stuff, so any 'random' adult can provide guidance or escalate to their parent. I don't know how I would do it without the group - likely I would try to build one from my kids new friends without the 20 years of common history.

[staticman2]

>>>it was done to confuse people by having them compare 1 vs 4

I think it's more likely it was done that way because they were paraphrasing their source which wasn't consistent:

"Four in 10 (41 percent) women report having received emotional support from a friend within the past week, compared to 21 percent of men." https://www.americansurveycenter.org/research/the-state-of-a...

[baldeagle]

Thank you for that awareness. I didn't look at the source before jumping to conclusions. :)

Still, that is mightly close to 2x, and a little bit of rounding would have made the message clearer (and likely stayed within the error bars of the original paper (which I did not read))

[kridsdale3]

I honestly believe most journalists actually don't understand fractions. I often see a sentence that uses whole fractions when talking about statistics and percentages right next to each other.

[ToucanLoucan]

Always makes me think of how in America the 1/3 pound whopper was beaten in the market by the 1/4 pounder from McDonalds, and when surveyed people responded that the 1/4 was bigger.

Education needs a lot of work around here.

[mjevans]

Maybe it could start by requiring ads to prominently include a non-fractional representation of the size as well. 'quarter pounder (0.250Lbs)' and '1/3rd pound (0.333Lbs) Whopper' - though IMO I just hate charbroiled generally.

[ToucanLoucan]

I like the charbroiled fine but BK is mediocre IMO. The smells that come out of those restaurants write checks that the food just cannot cash.

That said, while I'm usually inclined towards any policies that I feel will annoy marketing, I feel it's pretty straightforward that 1/3 is bigger than 1/4 with a very basic amount of reasoning. I'm frankly shocked at how many people struggle with it.

[pixl97]

Not sure if my tastes were less refined when I was young or if the quality of everything at BK is just trash now. I remember back in the days of the 99 cent whopper they were pretty good and at least flame broiled tasting.

[ToucanLoucan]

I mean they're fine. That's the description. They aren't gross, they aren't disgusting or whatever and if someone wanted to get one I'd probably be amenable? But like... it smells so good. And then you get it and it's just... eh. It's fine.

[4rt]

I read this just a minute ago:

> A Yorkshire horse fair nearly a century old may not be able to go ahead this year as it runs out of options for places to hold it.

> Lee Gap Horse Fair has been taking place in some form in West Ardsley since 1136, making it 887 years old. Since 1995 the horse trading fair has taken place on Baghill Green fields off Heybeck Lane.

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/historic-hors...