XPost: comp.mobile.android, misc.phone.mobile.iphone   
   From: spam@nospam.com   
      
   Xeno wrote:   
      
   >> Marketing and politics takes advantage of people's emotions & intuition.   
   >   
   > Distracted drivers using cellphones cause accidents.   
      
   Be careful when comprehending what I said, and not what you _think_ I said.   
      
   Rain causes accidents.   
   A good economy causes accidents.   
   Construction causes accidents.   
   Hot coffee causes accidents.   
   Crying babies cause accidents.   
   Driving while upset causes accidents.   
   Scratching your ass while driving causes accidents.   
   ... (list goes on forever)...   
      
   The question to ask is where in that list of infinite things that cause   
   accidents, is where you'd put cellphones, and, then... why didn't doing   
   that have _any_ effect whatsoever on the accident rate?   
      
   What you want if you are a politician or a lawyer or an insurance company   
   is to talk "accidents" (the more sensational the better).   
      
   But what you do if you are a scientist is talk accident rates.   
      
   If you want to talk accidents, then I can prove anything you want me to   
   prove simply because I can find a bacon cheeseburger which caused an   
   accident.   
      
   What you have to show is the _accident rate_ did "something" before,   
   during, and after the meteoric rise in cellphone ownership percentages.   
      
   And you can't.   
   Not without picking _only_ lawyer web sites, or insurance web sites, or   
   political bullshit web sites (particularly from police agencies wanting   
   more money), etc.   
      
   But try to find a _single_ USA accident rate set of reliable data that   
   covers the time period from _before_, during, and _after_ cellphone   
   ownership has skyrocketed that shows _any_ effect whatsoever of cellphone   
   ownership on accident rates.   
      
   Without that data, you're just guessing.   
   I don't know if I mentioned it yet but intuition is a terrible thing.   
   --   
   Note I don't talke use rates - not because it's not important - as it is -   
   but the problem is that useage is an unknown. We only have good data on   
   ownership percentages. Not on usage rates while driving.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)