On Sat, 27 Nov 2004, William Chops Westfield wrote:

> On Nov 27, 2004, at 12:23 PM, Tom B wrote:
>
>> A recent BBC programme  quoted the alarming statistic:
>> 
>> "Forty per cent of extremely premature babies have significant learning
>> disabilities" .
>> 
>
> Horrible.  I bet about 50% are below average intelligence as well!
> (What IS the incidence of learning disabilities in the general population?
> And what does 'significant' mean?)
>
> Seems like everything is identifiable, quantifiable and treatable these days.
> Pretty soon I'm sure they'll have the occasional occurrence of genius
> completely wiped out...

What would you rather be told, that 60% are of average or higher 
intellignece or that 40% are of below average intelligence ? Imho they 
should put a course along the lines of 'lying with statistics' or 'how not 
to be mislead by government published disinformation before elections' 
into primary schools.

Peter
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