Posts by linger
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Hard News: Reassure Me: cannabis,…, in reply to BenWilson,
A stratified sample is one in which there are fixed quotas for certain defined subgroups. But we need to distinguish two possible types of stratification, used for different purposes.
The first has the aim of ensuring those groups are all represented, usually in order to facilitate subsequent comparisons of those groups. For such a purpose, minorities should be over-represented to reduce the uncertainty in estimates based on subsamples. Such a stratified sample is “representative” in the sense of ensuring diverse representation, rather than in the sense of accurately reflecting overall population statistics.
The second type of stratified sample design is to ensure statistically fair representation of some groups that would otherwise be underrepresented by normal sampling methods, because they are harder to contact or less likely to respond to requests. Here the quotas are based on the proportions of each group in the population, so the final sample should accurately reflect the wider population. (In this case, there may be no intention to compare the subgroups.)
Presumably the second use is more what you have in mind?N.B. Whether the sample is random is a separate issue. It is possible to fill each subsample quota by random selection from its target subgroup population, though in practice a networking approach may be necessary for group classifications for which membership is less easily externally verifiable/ publicly available.
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Note Bridges' cynical attempt to head off any chance of a wider-scope "reeferendum" by trying to limit the discussion to high-end medical extracts.
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I particularly enjoyed the comment "neither 'advice' nor 'reality' " (regarding Miles' incorrect assumption that Australian law applied to use as well as manufacture).
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increased in proportion […to…] Maori Roll enrolments
Isn’t that already the system in place?
Each five-yearly Māori Electoral Option determines the number of Māori electorates for the next one or two elections.
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It isn't clear that MPs necessarily "betray their electors" by leaving the party for which they were elected. The "electoral contract" may be mediated by the party, but to the extent that a list MP has sufficient individual support to have contributed towards the party support, then the "contract" is (also) between the electors and the individual MP.
Moreover, that "contract" needs some protection against the possibility of a party suddenly changing direction after an election sufficiently to alienate its own MPs, whether list or electorate (cf. Jim Anderton vs. 1980s Labour).
The problem is simply that for list MPs (unlike electorate MPs) we have no reliable way of apportioning that support between party and MP. -
Hard News: Harkanwal Singh: What really…, in reply to mark taslov,
Is “migrant worker” someone who has come to NZ short-term for work, or someone following a job from place to place within NZ? In either case, it’s not clear we can generalise from their behaviour to the “culture” of a nation or of their current workplace.
Better evidence for "workplace culture" would be coworkers’/supervisors’ response to that behaviour. -
Note the potential for abuse involved in connecting these dots:
early assertive social interventions based on statistical data
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“convicted” on a balance of probabilities
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Hard News: We are, at last, navigating…, in reply to Michael Meyers,
the Minister was “just taking advice”
equates to, just taking the advice she wanted to hear,
and ignoring all evidence to the contrary. -
Hard News: Protecting privilege in Epsom, in reply to Russell Brown,
the local residents are quite capable of scaremongering themselves
though as the local residents constitute the largest concentration of Act (in effect, Seymour) voters in NZ*, that is not necessarily an independent data point.
* ignoring DWTS (or did people just vote to prolong his embarrassment?)
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Hard News: Loops and Diamonds, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Not impossible if the power is diverted to propellers, though the end result would barely be recognisable as a bicycle, cf. the entirely human-powered Gossamer Albatross in 1979.