Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

Carl at IsraelMatzav had two very interesting posts yesterday, and both can be described under the heading of "cooking the books".

The first relates to the inflated numbers that the Palestinians report in their census. The numbers are being challenged. Since American aid is given per capita, this has significance not only for Israelis, but for American taxpayers.

The second post is about a more local issue - the question of the trustworthiness of the election polls. It turns out that after a "sting" operation by Channel 10 tv here, their reporter found that the pollsters are filling out the forms themselves.

Interesting reading.