• It's interesting (and common) that the diatribe against the original article is turned into a gender flame war.

    The initial point of Paulos argument (and indeed some of his excellent books) is how misleading our gut instincts can be about statistics (leave it to that commenter to decide that he is derogoagory toward women).

    This same kind of discussion has occurred in other areas of medical screening too (hint: similar advice was given for other non gender related diseases as well), and in our "precautionary prinicple" driven society, the gut reaction is often wrong, and sometimes counter productive.

    When it comes to understanding the nuances of statistics, should I listen to a top mathematician in the field or a law professor... hmmm which to choose?

    ...

    -- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --