> the English is appalling
The reason is that the article is a poor Russian to English translation. http://habrahabr.ru/post/217545/
In fact most of the articles on that site are translated from that Russian community blog without any reference to the original authors, the design and structure are also copied and in fact that's not the first English clon of habrahabr.
In fact it's a good thing that someone translates those posts, as habrahabr is a really big community and sometimes there are articles which provide unique information that can't be found in English. But at least they should reference original authors and mark the posts as translation.
Re:How to Lie With Statistics
by marmarlade on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @10:51AM
(#7977284)
Yeah, I assumed as much but didn't make the time to investigate. Shame to hear that it's without attribution, and thanks for doing the work to find the original!
Unfortunately, I regularly see that kind of articles on HN and reddit. It's that kind of feeling: "Hmmm. It seems that I've already read that."
Re:How to Lie With Statistics
by stackcollision on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @09:19AM
(#7976762)
To be fair, based on some of the other statements I've seen attributed to Churchill, I wouldn't be surprised if he had actually said that.
Re:How to Lie With Statistics
by perrocontodo on Wednesday July 02, 2014 @09:14AM
(#7976747)
Seems to me that my man "KlauS" ran the text through Google Translate. Couldn't finish it.
That aside, as Winston Churchill said (or rather, as Nazi propaganda claimed he said even though he never did - which is quite apt in this context), "I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself."