To understand statistics, you have to either know some statistics, or be willing to learn. It is it's own thing, the art and science of making data and observa

To understand statistics, you have to either know some statistics, or be willing to learn. It is it's own thing, the art and science of making data and observations into information. Yes newspapers and the regular pundits abuse it all the time, but don't pin that on statistics, pin that on those that abuse it with, or without (usually) knowing better. Statistics are unavoidable, unavoidable enough that much of our perception seem to make use of the same statistical calculations sciententists use, only without us having the ability to scrutinize its workings.