Can you trust statistics? Anyone who watches the tv news or reads the papers every morning is bombarded with facts and figures, most of which are selected to prove a point. As a schoolkid I once had a maths leasson that illustrated how the display of statistics can affect your perception of the result.

The latest statistics about crime are in the news. Murders are down by 17% to a twenty year low, despite the shock horror stories about knife wielding kids stabbing crowds of teachers to death. What is on the rise, according to the figures quoted, are burglaries, shoplifting, and pickpocketing.

There's an internet cafe not far from where I live. I don't go there too often, there are cheaper ways to log on, but last night the need to access the internet cropped up and the library was shut. The owner pointed me to a screen beside the aisle and during my hour of surfing the world wide web, one of the other customers nipped out fairly sharpish. Didn't think too much of it at the time. I did later when I discovered a five pound note had left the confines of my pocket. I'm beginning to trust statistics a whole lot more.

Software of the Week

My latest experiment in the world of computing is a utility I picked up from the internet. It's a freeware text editor specially designed for story writers, and whilst the interface is a little dry and unwelcoming, it does the job well enough. What I discovered by chance though is that it can access a speech engine, so I can have my work read back to me by a virtual Steven Hawking.

Unfortunately for some reason "Microsoft Sam" doesn't record any sound on my system so I'll have to spare you a recording of the first two paragraphs of my epic science fiction tale... Hope you're not too disappointed...