Comments on: Oh My God! 40% of Sick Days Taken on Monday or Friday!

By: tom

tom — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:13:49 +0000

Do you want to bet how many 'sick days' are left untaken when they are mandated by the government?

IIRC, one state (CA?) is looking into mandating that every shop with more than X employees grant a fixed number of sick days.
Sick days are just extra vacation days scattered on Mondays and Fridays...
tom

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:47:30 +0000

They do articles like this every year. They usually have the article that talk about how gasoline in the summer has less energy per gallon then in the winter, when it’s cold.

By: DKH

DKH — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:38:31 +0000

Maybe this is a sign that it would be a better idea for colleges to require statistics classes rather than diversity classes.

There seem to be two big groups (of the AZ Republic commenters):

1. Those that think the corporations are screwing them over.
2. Those that think the government is screwing them over.

There are others outside of the groups, but neither of these groups really comes out looking good.

By: Ed

Ed — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:33:08 +0000

I worked as an engineer designing gas pumps for years and find it difficult to believe that a gas pump is even capable of a error as large as 2.5%. What is not uncommon is errors that large and larger from the people who are appointed to check the pumps. In my experience they have little if any training.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:35:54 +0000

This misplaced anger at the oil companies is easy to understand. Americans have been told all their lives that they have a God-given right to cheap gasoline. Now that it's not so cheap, they feel they have to have a scapegoat, and politicians in both parties are eagerly stepping in to stir peoples' anger to avoid having to take responsibility for their own lack of action on energy issues the last 25 years.

I don't think most Americans understand basic economics - supply and demand and the ability of companies to price products. Do they really believe that after decades of $1 a gallon gas, the oil companies got together and conspired to raise the price to $4 a gallon, thinking no one would notice? Do they actually believe such a plan would be possible to carry out? It seems ludicrous, but I think that at the core, that's what most people think.

By: Josh

Josh — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:25:21 +0000

It’s usually fun to see reader comments attached to goofy stories like these… but in this case, it looks like the Arizonians have blindly bought into the story. Only a couple of commenters point out the mistake, and there are others who disagree! Very sad.

By: ErikTheRed

ErikTheRed — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 16:21:13 +0000

You could always write them a letter implying that half of their reportage is below average (although below median would be more technically correct, I suppose, but then again I suck at math). See if it gets the point across.