Geometry.Net - Math_Discover: Fuzzy Math

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Similar pages ABCNEWS.com Why fuzzy math Makes Sense in PoliticsNothing Wrong With fuzzy math. Sometimes Fuzziness Is Required When AnalyzingPolitics and the Economy Selfdescribed fuzzy mathematician
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/07/opinion/07KRUG.html

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City Claims Gov. Has Fuzzy Math
City claims gov. has fuzzy math By Deborah Eisner / Chronicle Staff Wednesday,February 5, 2003. The local aid numbers released last week by Gov.
http://www.townonline.com/cambridge/news/local_regional/cam_covcccuts02052003.ht

Extractions: The local aid numbers released last week by Gov. Mitt Romney's office tell one version of the story, but do not reflect the reality Cambridge will face over the next five months, city officials said. While documentation released by Secretary of Administration and Finance Eric Kriss show Cambridge's local aid cut to be about 0.8 percent of the city's budget, City Manager Robert Healy said that number is misleading. Cambridge will lose $750,229 in lottery funds and $1,975,167 in additional assistance funds, a 9.35 percent reduction in those to categories of state aid. Add in the $8 million in Chapter 70 funding the city receives, and the cuts amount to 6.3 percent of the city's total state aid package. The city was set to receive approximately $8 million in lottery funds and $21 million in additional assistance this year.
The End Of Fuzzy Math?
BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ NET WORTH The End of fuzzy math? Regulatorsshould force etailers to report costs like mainstream retailers
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_50/b3711096.htm

Extractions: There's another controversial accounting practice at Amazon and other online retailers that has received less attention so far. The issue is how companies should account for fulfillment coststhe expenses involved in buying and maintaining warehouses and paying employees who receive supplies and package orders for shipment. E-tailers' closest cousins, catalog companies and direct marketers, tend to put these expenses into a line on the income statement called cost of goods sold. But Amazon, drugstore.com Inc. ( DSCM The issue is particularly critical this Christmas season. While investors used to focus myopically on revenue growth at Net companies, they're now looking for companies that are on their way to profitability. With the capital markets closed up tighter than a drum, people want to know whether Amazon, drugstore.com, eToys Inc. ( ETYS Any variation in accounting practices can have an impact on gross margins. Amazon's gross margin will be about 24% this year, but it would be about 14% if it changed the way it counted fulfillment costs, according to analysts' estimates. Drugstore.com's gross margins would fall from 5% to negative 15%. And eToys' gross margins would drop from 20% to negative 7%. Understanding the effect on margins is critical, because ''fulfillment costs in this business are much higher than any of us expected,'' says Lehman Bros. Inc. analyst Holly Becker.
BW Online | February 18, 2003 | The Employment Numbers' Fuzzy Math
FEBRUARY 18, 2003 STREET WISE By Amey Stone The Employment Numbers'fuzzy math. Labormarket stats get a lot of attention, but don
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/feb2003/nf20030218_7066_db014.htm

Extractions: Investors have been reading the labor-market tea leaves more closely than ever lately in hopes of finding signs that the economic recovery is either gaining or losing momentum. In the past few weeks, this exercise has probably done them more harm than good. Even at their most accurate, labor-market statistics can't really tell you much about the future direction of the recovery because in an economy this large and dynamic, even the most efficient government agencies need time to collect and analyze data about who is working and who isn't. But that hasn't stopped market mavens from focusing in on employment releases. Those labor numbers have been particularly hard to interpret lately in an economy that's sending all kinds of mixed signals. News stories on Feb. 7 that the unemployment rate fell to 5.7% from 6% in January were particularly misleading. Here's the simple truth on jobs right now: The labor market has been flat for close to a year. The unemployment rate has wavered between 5.7% and 6%, with weekly unemployment claims around 400,000.
The Short Run
fuzzy math The Essential Guide to the Bush Tax Cut by Paul Krugman. Buy it onlineat Amazon Buy it online at Barnes Noble. Post your own review of this book.
http://www.theshortrun.com/reviews/Fuzzy Math/fm.html

Extractions: Buy it online at Post your own review of this book. Click here Review A professor at Princeton University, Krugman is the author of several novels and an economics textbook. At the same time he writes a bi-weekly column for the New York Times. Krugman chides in this work "On a more personal note, this book offers me an opportunity for a longer form of discussion that can't be squeezed into 735-word columns in the New York Times ." -Daniel Hicks
Salon.com Politics | Mitch Daniels' Fuzzy Math
Mitch Daniels' fuzzy math The Bush budget director has a little problemwith the truth. Editor's note With this column, we are
http://www.salon.com/politics/col/spinsanity/2002/02/12/daniels/

Extractions: By Brendan Nyhan Mitch Daniels was an unusual choice to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Bush White House. A former political operative and pharmaceutical executive, he was tapped for the position last year despite a lack of experience in the intricacies of the federal budget. Since then, Daniels has become a key figure in the administration , helping design policies and pressing publicly for their enactment.
Texas School Districts Reject Fuzzy Math Textbooks -- Major Defeat For Statewide
POLICY ACTION UPDATE Vol. 3. No.12 May 24, 1999. Texas School Districts Rejectfuzzy math Textbooks Major Defeat for Statewide Systemic Initiative.
http://www.tppf.org/pau/1999/pau052499.html

Extractions: Texas School Districts Reject Fuzzy Math Textbooks Major Defeat for Statewide Systemic Initiative According to an analysis of recent math textbook selections, Texas school districts have overwhelmingly rejected the latest fad in math instruction. Sometimes called fuzzy math, whole math, and new new math, textbooks based on this pedagogical approach received only 4% of the textbook orders for second grade math, 2% for fifth grade math, and 5.6% for seventh grade math. Ironically, those promoting this approach refer to it as standards-based math. This rejection is particularly significant given the fact that this instructional approach was heavily promoted throughout the state by the Texas Statewide Systemic Initiative (SSI), with funding from the National Science Foundation, operated by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin both publicly funded by tax dollars. We are happy to see this educational fad bite the Texas dust. Fuzzy math has been shown to hurt children academically, especially disadvantaged and minority students. Thanks to discerning textbook committees in our school districts, parents can breathe a sigh of relief, commented J. C. Bowman, TPPF Director of Research. Parents should watch for signs that their children are enrolled in standards-based math programs when students: Direct their own learning; work in groups to teach one another; construct their own math language, facts, and computations; are not taught or required to memorize facts or formulas; are taught to use calculators as the first and primary form of computation; and, are taught that deriving correct solutions lacks importance.
Texas School Districts Reject Fuzzy Math Textbooks Major Defeat
Press Release Texas School Districts Reject fuzzy math Textbooks Major Defeatfor Statewide Systemic Initiative For Immediate Release, May 24, 1999.
http://www.tppf.org/pr/1999/pr052499.html

Extractions: San Antonio According to an analysis of recent math textbook selections, Texas school districts have overwhelmingly rejected the latest fad in math instruction. Sometimes called fuzzy math, whole math, and new new math, textbooks based on this pedagogical approach received only 4% of the textbook orders for second grade math, 2% for fifth grade math, and 5.6% for seventh grade math. Ironically, those promoting this approach refer to it as standards-based math. This rejection is particularly significant given the fact that this instructional approach was heavily promoted throughout the state by the Texas Statewide Systemic Initiative (SSI), with funding from the National Science Foundation, operated by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin - both groups publicly funded by tax dollars. We are happy to see this educational fad bite the Texas dust. Fuzzy math has been shown to hurt children academically, especially disadvantaged and minority students. Thanks to discerning textbook committees in our school districts, parents can breathe a sigh of relief, commented J.C. Bowman, TPPF Director of Research.
Fuzzy Math In D.C.
fuzzy math in DC. by Paul A. Strassmann Computerworld January 8, 2001I first learned of the federal government's hedonic evaluations
http://www.strassmann.com/pubs/cw/fuzzymath.shtml

Extractions: January 8, 2001 I first learned of the federal government's "hedonic" evaluations of IT budgets during budget reviews in 1992, when a Pentagon financial examiner noted that the Defense Department's requests for 5% annual increases in IT spending would actually be 22.8% in the first year and much more in following years. Such large jumps, the analyst suggested, would be unacceptable. I checked the math. It was numerically correct. The large gains were generated on the basis of tables from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis, so that the 5% for 1993 became 22.8% after adding a 17.8% implied annual cost reduction. The White House evaluated IT spending using "inflation-adjusted" comparisons. So a proposal for 5% salary increases would be OK because it matched the government's official "inflationary index." But proposals for computers were different, using a "hedonic deflationary index." This would boost the worth of computer hardware above its cash costs using the numbers indicated on the chart below. Hedonic, derived from the Greek language, means "of or pertaining to pleasure." My budget examiners told me that "hedonic" was an economist's way of saying that customers would be deriving more pleasure from equipment that's better and cheaper to purchase. Checking the supporting data, I found that government economists used a mix of declining wholesale prices for desktops and laptops, plus unit costs of disk memories and printer performance statistics, to come up with indicators that reflected the decreasing cost and increased performance of hardware. So a 700-MHz desktop costing $3,000 would actually be twice as good as a 350-MHz desktop purchased for the same amount.
Article | The 'Fuzzy Math' Bath
The New York Sun. The fuzzy math Bath March 12, 2003. Nothingabout fuzzy math makes much sense from a teaching standpoint.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_nysun-fuzzy.htm

Extractions: Site Navigation Support the Manhattan Institute Scholars' Articles M.I. Issues Rebuilding New York Education Reform Welfare Reform Crime Reduction Faith-Based Initiatives Barriers to Building Social Entrepreneurship Legal Reform Digital Economy Medical Progress Race and Ethnicity Latin American Initiatives Recent and Past M.I. Events Subscribe to City Journal Board of Trustees Staff Directory Links M.I. Book Catalog Internship Opportunities Join email updates The Fuzzy Math Bath Come on, I need someone to take a chance. Who can start the puzzle? It wasnt working. Wed gone. through six straight wrong answers, and now the children were tired of feeling lost. It was only October, and already my fourth-grade public school class in the South Bronx was demoralized. Day after day of going over strange, seemingly disconnected math lessons had squelched my students interest in the subject. Look, I began, sighing deeply. Math isnt half as hard as you all probably think right now. A few children seemed relievedat least I wasnt just denying their problem. There are different ways to teach it, I continued. I dont want to do this either . . . so were not going toat least most of the time. I was thinking out loud now, and many of the children looked startled. We can use these math books when we need them, but Im going to figure out different ways to teach you the most important things.
Fuzzy Math: Archive Entry From Brad DeLong's Webjournal
Moment on Economics, and on Other Topics as Well DeLong's Home Page « Global Dispatches Main Journal Page The Soft Patch » January 31, 2003 fuzzy math
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/archives/001522.html

Extractions: DeLong's Home Page Main Journal Page January 31, 2003 Fuzzy Math Mickey Kaus: Paul Krugman gloated a few days ago that "Mr. Bush's approval ratings have plunged over the last two months."... Since the first Gallup poll after the election (when Bush rose a bit), the total swing has been 17 points. Not a "plunge"... If a 17 percentage point decline is not a "plunge," what would be a plunge? 34? 51? 68? A world in which a 17 point decline is not a "plunge" would seem to me to be a world in which a 4 point decline is a "rise." Clearly Mickey Kaus has been taking lessons from Mitch Daniels. :-) Trackback Comments If you decline 17 points from (say) 75 percent, that's a decline of more than twenty percent within two months. So, how are similar drops over comparable reported? When (for example) stock markets lose over twenty percent of their value within a couple of months, do financial publications religiously refrain from using the word "plunge"? But I don't imagine that hacks like Kaus ever invest five seconds asking themselves such questions.
Fuzzy Math II: Archive Entry From Brad DeLong's Webjournal
Main Journal Page Business Week's Howard Gleckman Bangs His HeadAgainst the Wall » January 31, 2003 fuzzy math II Andrew Sullivan
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/archives/001523.html

Extractions: DeLong's Home Page Main Journal Page January 31, 2003 Fuzzy Math II Andrew Sullivan: In the last two months, Bush's approval rating has declined from 66 - 62 percent (ABC News...); from 63 to 57 percent (Zogby...); from 64 to 60 percent (Gallup); from 60 to 55 percent (Newsweek...) ... well, you get the picture. Some polls show a steeper decline - NBC News' poll shows a slip from 62 to 54. But if you average it all out, the drop is probably around 3 - 4 percent.... [Krugman's] column headline? "Credibility Problems." Yep. He got that right. But the average of -4, -6, -4, -5, and -8 isn't "3 - 4." It's 5.4. Can't we have a rule that somebody be able to average five numbers before they are allowed to post on the internet? :-) Trackback
TheStreet.com: Delving Into The Fuzzy Math At Inktomi
Delving Into the fuzzy math at Inktomi By Adam Lashinsky Silicon ValleyColumnist Originally posted at 410 PM ET 5/23/01 on RealMoney.com.
http://www.thestreet.com/comment/siliconstreet/1439217.html

Extractions: Tellium Take a small comment buried in the most recent 10-Q of Inktomi INKT :Nasdaq - news Securities and Exchange Commission that it is changing the accounting treatment for its investment in Saratoga, Calif.-based AirFlash , a privately held seller of software for wireless technologies. Inktomi owns about 29.4% of AirFlash, which once was trying to position itself as a provider of mobile commerce (or m-commerce) services. Until the first calendar quarter of 2001, Inktomi had recorded its stake in AirFlash 12.7 million shares valued at 95 cents each under "investments in equity securities." According to the company's filings, Inktomi now has "determined that a more appropriate accounting treatment is to record the investment as goodwill and amortize it on a straight-line basis over 60 months." In other words, rather than record 29.4% of AirFlash's losses on a quarterly basis, Inktomi will subtract about $2.4 million per year from its bottom line as amortization of "goodwill" associated with the AirFlash investment.
Fuzzy Math In Arms Reductions
fuzzy math in Arms Reductions. With so many weapons in storage, saying that each countryhas reduced its arsenal to a maximum of 2,200 warheads is fuzzy math.
http://www.cato.org/dailys/01-18-02.html

Extractions: January 18, 2002 by Charles V. Peña Charles V. Peña is a senior defense policy analyst at the Cato Institute. Candidate Bush pledged that he would unilaterally reduce the U.S. strategic nuclear arsenal if he became president. Last November, President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin both declared that the United States and Russia would reduce their nuclear weapons by roughly two-thirds over the next decade, leaving each side with no more than 2,200 warheads. While not a formal agreement, this was considered a milestone in strategic relations between the two countries, swiftly achieving deep weapons cuts that could not be agreed to by a prior decade of formal negotiations. What got lost in the shuffle, amidst all the good news, was a statement released by the White House that changed how those weapons would be counted from "weapons" to "operational nuclear weapons." Now the Nuclear Posture Review reveals that many of the warheads, bombs, and missiles included in President Bush's promised nuclear reductions will be retained and kept in reserve, i.e., they will not be operational nuclear weapons and thus not count towards the 2,200 maximum. As such, they will be available for redeployment and potential use. This is an accounting sleight of hand, bad arms control, and bad policy. The primary rationale for retaining more weapons in reserve is as a hedge against some unforeseen future threat. The perceived need for a reserve seems to reflect the thinking of many conservatives and military officials that Russia could one day again become a nuclear rival or that China could pose a future nuclear threat. But such thinking runs counter to the joint statement issued by Bush and Putin during their November 2001 summit meeting: "The United States and Russia have overcome the legacy of the Cold War. Neither country regards the other as an enemy or threat."
Does The US Nuclear Posture Review Use Fuzzy Math?
Does the US Nuclear Posture Review Use fuzzy math? POLICY FORUM Thursday,February 14, 2002 1200 pm Featuring JD Crouch, Assistant
http://www.cato.org/events/020214pf.html
Fuzzy Math
August 1623, 2001. news. fuzzy math. On Aug. 8, Knight RidderInc. chairman Tony Ridder came to town to address his beleaguered
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/081601/news.mediab.shtml
Count, Recount, And Fuzzy Math
Count, Recount, and fuzzy math. Commentary. Successive counts (often made bydifferent people) may yield different results. This is called fuzzy math.
http://www.siam.org/siamnews/01-01/fuzzycount.htm

Extractions: search: Breathes there the publication with soul so dead that it hasn't run an article on the tragicomedy-or perhaps the farce-known as USA Election 2000? The recent turmoil involved counting, recounting, butterfly ballots, the very rules as to which ballots were to be counted, legal challenges, decisions, and further appeals. The nation desperately looked for an "exit strategy," and the proposed exit strategies themselves came under litigation. The tightness of the race reminded me of the incredible "butterfly phenomenon" of chaos theory. Here we have experienced the phenomenon. A butterfly flapped its wings in Florida, and the whole country was affected. All these events reopened for me philosophic thoughts about what I've for a long time called "fidelity in mathematical discourse." The controversy was about applied mathematics: simple counting-the place where mathematics was born. At the dawn of mathematics, notches were cut in a stick. This was followed by special symbols, which, in turn, led to arithmetic rules. Counting was a physical act done by humans. It became clear early on that when the objects to be counted were too numerous, say 2000 or 3000 jelly beans, the physical process could not be carried out with anything like the absolute fidelity required by the Platonic vision of mathematics. This asserts that there is an answer and only one answer. In the case of Election 2000, we were asked to count to one hundred million or beyond. From start to finish, thousands and thousands of people and machines were involved in the process.
Drug Policy Alliance: “Fuzzy Math” In New ONDCP Report
Home News fuzzy math in New ONDCP Report, fuzzy mathin New ONDCP Report. Weds, Feb 12, 2003 Using new accounting
http://www.lindesmith.org/news/02_12_03fuzzy.cfm

Extractions: Recent polling by Peter Hart Research Associates shows that nearly two-thirds of Americans want treatment, not incarceration, for nonviolent drug offenders and the 2003 Drug Strategy Although, the 2004 Drug Control Budget (which accompanies the Strategy) is yet to be released, an analysis of the summary budget numbers outlined in the Strategy revealed that by hiding the costs of incarceration, military activities and other known costs of the drug war, the Office of National Drug Control Policy was able to bring their enforcement to treatment ratios more into line with public sentiment. Last year, the Office stated it spent 33% of the drug war budget on drug treatment and prevention activities while 67% went to law enforcement and interdiction. This year, despite making no substantive spending changes, the Office claims to be spending 47% on drug treatment and only 53% on law enforcement activities. In addition, the office appears to inflate its numbers by including alcohol treatment, which by law is specifically excluded from their scope of responsibilities. The Drug Czar Distorts the True Cost of the Federal Drug War The Drug Czar Distorts the Amount Spent on Treatment vs. the Amount Spent on Law Enforcement
Dmusic.com | Michael Greene's Fuzzy Math?
Michael Greene's fuzzy math? Posted by AdminBill Evans in Bill'sCorner on March 1, 2002 at 915 AM Printable Printable Version
http://news.dmusic.com/article/4542

Extractions: During the broadcast of the Grammys Wednesday evening Michael Greene, the controversial CEO of N.A.R.A.S. Gave a speech (most often refered to as "the rant") on the evils of filesharing. How it was destroying the industry. I wasn't watching, and at some point through the evening I got a call from a friend, who knows I follow things where the industry attacks the fans and artists, "Are you watching this?" "NO" I replied. "Turn it on NOW!" was the response before they hung up. I found the remote and switched to CBS, and on the screen was Michael Greene and he was giving his lecture on filesharing. In fact, they had hired 3, as he described them "college age students" to download MP3 files for the past two days. He went on to say that the three had downloaded 6000 files in the past two days. He went on to point out how this was destroying the music industry "one download at a time". Something just didn't seem right, but I couldn't put my finger on it.
Dmusic.com | Michael Greene's Fuzzy Math?
DMusic.com Article http//news.dmusic.com/print/4542. Michael Greene'sfuzzy math? Posted by AdminBill Evans in Bill's Corner on
http://news.dmusic.com/print/4542

Extractions: During the broadcast of the Grammys Wednesday evening Michael Greene, the controversial CEO of N.A.R.A.S. Gave a speech (most often refered to as "the rant") on the evils of filesharing. How it was destroying the industry. I wasn't watching, and at some point through the evening I got a call from a friend, who knows I follow things where the industry attacks the fans and artists, "Are you watching this?" "NO" I replied. "Turn it on NOW!" was the response before they hung up. I found the remote and switched to CBS, and on the screen was Michael Greene and he was giving his lecture on filesharing. In fact, they had hired 3, as he described them "college age students" to download MP3 files for the past two days. He went on to say that the three had downloaded 6000 files in the past two days. He went on to point out how this was destroying the music industry "one download at a time". Something just didn't seem right, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

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