buter's BABY blog

So we've all heard that Britons are no longer drinking quite as much tea, now it seems the colonials are following suit with Australians no longer drinking quite as much beer. In fact according to this article at Reuters, Aussies aged 15 & up are consuming only 109.9 litres of beer per person in 2004, down from 114.6 litres in 2003.

..... waaaaaaaaiiit a minute. 15 and up?? What?!?!? There are underage drinkers who are drinking about 110 litres of beer every year before they are legally allowed to?

Anyway, apparently Aussies are drinking more of the wines and ready mixed spirits-in-a-can than ever before, but we still slog our way through about the same level of regular unmixed spirits-in-a-bottle.

Now I have a couple of things to say about this. (surprise, surprise!)
Firstly, I-don't-drink-beer. So someone, somewhere is drinking 220 litres a year to cover my lack of input.
Secondly, the results come from the Australian Bureau of Sadistics. As in, they come from maybe census data, or possibly from market research commissioned by the ABS and conducted over the phone, so you're talking about results from only those people who actually answered. And generally speaking, lots of people hang up on market research surveys (especially conducted by people from NESB). How do we know that the results aren't skewed by some other socioeconomic force that dictates who actually answers these things? Oh right, we don't.

Which brings me to my final point:
Most people use statistics like a drunk guy uses a lamppost.
As in, for support, not for illumination.
(no, that's not my quote, here's a source)

See you when the mud dries.
(a quote from my mate Pete - apt as it's finally raining)