Yep, it's been almost two months since I've updated this thing. I'd like to get back into a regular habit, but that darn GameCube is really sucking up the old leisure time.
Anyhow, since my last update, it's been pointed out to me that the statistic too good to be truewas, indeed, to good to be true. An anonymous commenter on that story directed me to this news story, which claims that The Economist was taken in by an old USENET hoax when it published this chart
in its May 15, 2004, issue. I don't know anything about the New Zealand National Business Review, but I readily admit that the chart just seems to smug and easy to be true. Real life is rarely that simple.
I haven't seen a retraction in the Economist, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one. My old standby for hoax-checking, Snopes, also has no mention of this story.
