Comments on: Fun with Statistics - Brother can you spare a medalion?

By: Ut videam

Ut videam — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:17:20 +0000

#11 - Damn straight. I was a dyed-in-the-wool DOS/UNIX guy, which was the only reason I stuck by Winblows for so long. OS X brought me around 2 years ago, and I’ve never looked back.

By: Brendon Carr

Brendon Carr — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 02:17:41 +0000

Apropos of #10 - Isn’t everything easier on the Mac? Honestly, I can’t understand why people continue to use Windows PCs. I’ve been using personal computers 30 years now and IBM-type PCs almost 20 years. I can build a PC out of a box of parts in 10 minutes and install any OS including BeOS, OS/2, Linux or Windows. But why would I want to, when Mac OS X works so intuitively and with such power?

But for seismic effect, nothing in the history of my experience with computers can compare to the thrill of seeing (and hearing) Psygnosis’ “Shadow of the Beast” on an Amiga 500 in 1989.

By: Ut videam

Ut videam — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 01:53:22 +0000

#7 - It’s easy on my Mac: Option-! or Option-?. On a Windoze PC, you have to either memorize an Alt+[4 digit code], pick it out on Character Map, or get a hotkey utility for diacritical marks.

By: michael

michael — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:11:08 +0000

Compadre, you’re assuming the beef is available at the same price globally, which is OK for a general comparison. But Koreans will work longer than Americans for their kilo of steak simply because they cannot buy cheaper beef.

¡Muchas gracias!

By: seouldout

seouldout — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:34:48 +0000

The Big Mac Index only measures purchase power parity, and even The Economist admits it’s far from perfect. Yet as a globally-consumed standardized foodstuff, that’s practically the same everywhere, and managed by one corporation, it’s hard to find a peer outside the fast food industry that provides a decent idea of how over/under valued a currency is. Me like Big Mac.

By: Sonagi

Sonagi — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:55:11 +0000

How do you get upside down punctuation marks on a keyboard?

By: The Western Confucian

The Western Confucian — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:37:57 +0000

#3 — Points well taken, but even more so, neither is the Big Mac “a globally consumed foodstuff, nor should it be.”

Pienso que voy a vomitar.

#4 — “¡No te olvides de la Argentina!”

De acuerdo. The best beef I’ve ever tasted.

By: SomeguyinKorea

SomeguyinKorea — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:21:43 +0000

Yeah, Sonagi. You beat me to it. 4.40$/h is darn good money in some parts of Mexico.

By: Ut videam

Ut videam — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:09:58 +0000

As long as we’re on the Spanish kick…

Beef consumption is best suited to countries like the US, Canada, and New Zealand, which are naturally endowed with grasslands to support cattle-raising.

¡No te olvides de la Argentina!

By: Sonagi

Sonagi — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:34:02 +0000

“Forget the Big Mac Index, this is how economies should bve measured.”

I disagree. Beef is not a globally consumed foodstuff, nor should it be. Beef consumption is best suited to countries like the US, Canada, and New Zealand, which are naturally endowed with grasslands to support cattle-raising. Korea, Japan, and most of China can’t even grow corn to make the feed that turns a cow’s stomach acidic, providing an excellent environment for dangerous pathogens like Ecoli.

Chicken is far more widely consumed than beef and thus would provide a more universal comparison.

Yo prefiero pollo.