2012-12-05
2009-08-03
post/154963175
America makes nothing except weapons- Boing Boing
It turns out that it’s not only TechCrunch authors who confuse rates of change with quantities. This post, by Cory Doctorow, initially quoted Jon Taplin:
We have so hollowed out our industrial plant that the only thing we are now producing is weapons of war
At least, unlike TC, BB have the decency to correct the misinterpretation, and even flag it with the word “UPDATED” in their title.
The total numbers are better than the percentage changes: The US “remains primarily a civilian economy. Military now takes 8% of all durable goods, up from 3% in 2000.”
2009-08-02
Google Maps don’t lie…
… but Techcrunch do. By leading his story with the default view (change in greenhouse gas emissions, 1990-2006) rather than the actual emission figures (as shown here)
Erick Schonfeld managed to construct an argument that somehow Sweden and Canada were causing more climate change than the US, despite their lower per-capita emissions (and of course far lower populations). He went on to ignore (and ridicule) comments pointing this out, despite being the sort of site you’d expect to champion the idea that the audience might know better. (via gilest)
Ben Ward’s call to stop interacting with TechCrunch - and both its major editors - makes more sense all the time.
2009-01-31
post/74624481
Why did nobody tell me there was a decent quality version of 2lmc’s favourite video ever on Vimeo? (via Simon, who seems to prefer a newer video.)
