Required for next meeting: January 23, 1996

• Two articles by John Bailar from Chances 8(1): ``How statisticians can help the news media do a better job'' and ``How the news media can help statisticians do a better job''.

Short project 4: essay proposal

In the Globe and Mail recently

• ``Soaring cancer rates slow down'' December 19, A1 and A6. Twenty five years worth of data on rates of cancer incidence, and death rates from cancer, were studied and reported on in Statistics Canada's quarterly magazine Canadian Social Trends. Trend curves for lung, breast and prostrate cancer are plotted. The sub-headline is ``Canadians getting message about healthier diet, better treatment, Statscan suggests'', although the body of the article points out that ``the extent of the relationship between poor diet and sedentary habits and cancer remains unclear''.
• ``Budget cutters thinking twice'' December 22, B1. The article states that governments in industrialized countries are starting to question the assumption that budget cuts would stimulate job creation and growth in the economy. One difficulty is, that without such growth, the budget cuts themselves are economically ineffective, as well as being politically unpopular.
• ``Hurdles facing black students studied'' December 21, A5. A survey of 334 black high school dropouts in four Ontario cities cite a variety of obstacles facing black students. This study author was Patricia Daenzer of McMaster University, for the Canadian Alliance of Black Educators. George Dei of OISE also published a study this week that surveyed the attitudes of 200 black and non-black students toward school. Both authors stress the need for a black-focus school, but this idea has been rejected by both the current and former education ministers.
• ``Teens likely to be targets of violence'' December 20, A7. A study released by Statistics Canada, titled Children and youth as victims of violent crime, found that while teen-agers made up 11% of the population in 1994, they accounted for 20% of the victims of violent crimes. Accompanying graphic.
• ``Male-female income gap widens'' December 20, A8. Women working full time earned 70 cents for every dollar earned by men in 1994, a drop of two cents from 1993. The change is attributed to wage gains by men in high wage industrial jobs recovered after the recession of the early nineties.
• ``A renegade doctor adds fuel to the childhood-vaccination row'' December 16, D1. This article gives a rather clear discussion of the issues involved in infant and childhood vaccination, where there is a small risk of quite devastating illnes from the vaccine to be weighed against the public health advantages of a vaccinated population.