The Virtuosi: The Law and Large Numbers

The US budget, deficit and the ludicrous “Youcut” program (which has been rightly lambasted almost everywhere in the science blogohedron)

I just want to point out again, claiming that cutting NPR funding makes a dent in the US budget is similar to claiming you’ve moved closer to Orlando (while in LA) by crossing the room

…

In my undergraduate physics lab, the instructor had a mantra: “A number without context is meaningless”. Now, he originally meant the statement to be a lesson on how important it is to quote errors on your measurements, but I think I can adapt it to apply to giving out numbers like 7 billion without a sense of scale.

(I think the motivation for “cutting NPR” has less to do with budget than ideology, and NPR doesn’t actually get any direct appropriations from the government, but it’s still a nice example of scale)