Liars, damn liars, and statisticians only eclipsed by politicians.
In my former occupation I attempted to teach very basic statistics to our production line operators. I considered using individual weights but knew that there would be no accuracy with that data, so we used height. Data was still highly suspect but it was good enough for the 3 Ms.
A year later people would tell me they enjoyed the class but didn’t remember one M from another.
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Mean, to medium, takes mode,
by magic, makes money, in mistaken abode,
statistically speaking, state numerically fracturing,
methode Minnesota, Mining & Manufacturing
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Hmm!
Unfortunately, it’s fairly common to see parents making sure that their children are wearing a PFD in small craft, yet they will not. In many cases it is because local laws require children under a certain age wear them, but in many cases they feel that only children need them. They use the thousand excuses that you always hear about PFDs. They don’t stop to think that if a boat capsizes, they may well need to be wearing a PFD to then help their children rather than concentrating keeping themselves afloat. This becomes even more critical in cold or rough water.
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This cannot be over rated. There will be no rescue if the rescuer(s) are dead. Puts a new perspective on it.
I posted this in another thread but see the relevance here.
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I was a lifeguard in my youth and the skills we had to learn to pass the test I still use every time I go swimming. I consider myself a great swimmer and can do all the tasks in the article with no problems.
However, that being said, I also know what it feels like to capsize in a boat while wearing a PFD. We were in the water about 45 minutes before help arrived and even though I’m a great swimmer, I really think things would have turned out differently had I not been wearing my PFD. It was also summer so the water was a comfortable temperature but 45 minutes in the water with no PFD probably wouldn’t have ended well for me.
My Nitro is my PFD. 
OK, that sucks as one as when I go into the drink in deep, moving water, it’s a PITA to get me, the canoe and the paddle where I can stand up. I can go into deep still water in a non ww canoe, swamp it, swim around, right it then get back into it fine. But that water’s still. Any moving water my pfd is on. Moving and deep is the double whammy.