By Biko Agozino
Following the embarrassing showing of Nigeria at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, a Nigerian sports official proudly promised that the country will do better at the London Olympics by aiming for four medals or double the number of medals won in Beijing. Only four? Given that a Chinese official announced that the goal of his own country was to achieve 100 medals, I was surprised that the Nigerian official had such a low ambition for our own athletes. But after the London show of shamelessness by the Nigerian delegation, I stand corrected because that official knew something that I did not know about the lack of seriousness in the country regarding strategic preparedness for excellence in all fields.
The Guardian editorialized on August 16, 2012, and I opined as much on my Facebook page during the games, that the Sports Minister should do the honorable thing and resign before he is sacked for such a mediocre record after spending more than two billion naira to parade as one of the best dressed delegations. President Jonathan was reported also by The Guardian as calling for a retreat to plan the reorganization of sports in the country and to discuss the causes of the disastrous records of Nigeria in sporting contests recently. Here, I offer a few tips:
From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Cc: leonenet <leonenet@lists.umbc.edu>
Sent: Thursday, 16 August 2012, 9:51
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A Very Brief Comparison Between Rasmussen And The Other Polls
All well and good but that does not make Romney a favorable candidate. Neither does it wipe out
the extra-judicial violations of Obama on the international arena.
Dr. Gloria Emeagwali
www.africahistory.net<http://www.africahistory.net/>
www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali<http://www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali>
www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>
________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Abdul Bangura [theai@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2012 10:33 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
Cc: leonenet
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - A Very Brief Comparison Between Rasmussen And The Other Polls
A Very Brief Comparison between Rasmussen and the Other Polls and Why Rasmussen Has a Slight Edge Methodologically
Abdul Karim Bangura
As the respected EcoPoliticalEcon (http://ecopoliticalecon.com/2012/05/10/rasmussen-gallup-different-poll-results/) points out, the first, and most obvious, difference between the polls is that the others, such as Gallup, use a sample of American adults while the Rasmussen Poll samples likely voters. Likely voters have different and stronger opinions than randomly selected adults.
Rasmussen uses a Random Digit Plus One telephone survey. While it does not include cell phones, it compensates for this by using an online survey tool. Most adult voters with cell phones also have land line phones. Younger voters who only have cell phones, a very small number who actually vote, are captured via the online survey tool.
The other polls' methodology is slightly different. They also use a Random Digit Plus One telephone survey that includes a minimum quota of cell phone respondents.
All of the polls weight their data to better reflect the overall population in terms of race, gender, age, and party, as well as other factors. They also, as a rule, phrase their questions in as unbiased a manner as possible.
The choice of spread for all of the polls is a 95% confidence interval: i.e. there is a 95% chance, or we are 95% confident, that the true value of support is within the stated interval. So for very large samples, the mean of the sampling distribution is represented by a normal or Gaussian distribution, and the associated z score is 1.96 for the interval. All of the polls also use a margin of error of +/- 3.
Thus, comparatively, the Rasmussen Poll has a slight edge over the other polls in determining the actual voters' preference in an election.
--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment