I find this rather disturbing.
Recent, people here have been arguing which cities/towns could be compared with A2.
But here, NY Times compares NY with A2. =|
Comforting to know that my new town is as safe as the city that features Harlem, Hell’s Kitchen, and the lower East Side. And weren’t we arguing recently over whether crime in AA was UNDERreported?
Now if only AA were comparable to NY in other ways . . .
Maybe this is a delusion of grandiosity, but I can’t help but wonder if the writer did his/her research by googling crime and Boston and stumbled onto the discussion on AAIO… (otherwise, why even think of Ann Arbor? And the timing is uncanny. Weird).
Its clear to me that the NYTimes, the Wash. Post, and the Chicago Tribune all look to AAIO for all of their crime stats.
AAIO is going global. You either need to install pop-up ads, or charge us all per page hit. Just think, if you raised enough money, you could move all of UMich to just outside of Boston, solving all of these overrated problems.
Okay, okay: See my disclaimer about delusions of grandiousity, you whipper-snapper.
A better hypothesis is that Ann Arbor is, in fact, the center of the universe. Yes, NYT reporters want to know what’s happening in that happening town. They don’t just pull that stuff out of a hat or by doing some random google search, no, siree, they have been watching Ann Arbor with baited breath. “Thank God New York beat Ann Arbor’s crime statistics,” they think to themselves. Pretty soon we’ll hear that New York has better Coney Island Franks, Pizza and Bagels. I hear that even Malcomb Gladwell’s new book will include a chapter entitlted, “Six degrees of Ann Arbor: How the tipping point finds its center in a town of little consequence”.
The funny thing is, you are probably right. Wouldn’t surprise me at all to find that the NYTimes reporter never left her computer screen while managing to complete the entire article. I stumbled across this site looking for articles about my company—is it that far fetched that this reporter looked up crime and AA, and came across AAIO? I don’t think so.
(The greatest secret about reporters is that they are among the laziest sons-of-bitches in the world, and will rely on the easiest source of statistics availible. But in this case, I’d bet that since they were taking their raw data from an index that lists both NY and AA, it was easy enough to just flip through a couple of pages. That, and AA is at the top of most alphabets…)
js
when i was younger, i chatted over the IRC and i wanted to be at the bottom of the namelist.
_ is one of the last character in ASCII. but sometimes, there were some monikers with _z and mine was _e. so, another _ would beat the _z guy. Therefore, __earth made sure I was at the bottom of the namelist.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/16/nyregion/16CRIM.html?ex=1386997200&en=4fc4c573e13bfd23&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND is a no-registration link.
posted by George on December 16th, 2003 at 1:58 pmhttp://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/16/nyregion/16CRIM.html? ex=1386997200&en=4fc4c573e13bfd23&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND is a link to the same article, sans registration. (via New York Times Link Generator
posted by George on December 16th, 2003 at 2:05 pmI find this rather disturbing.
posted by __earth on December 16th, 2003 at 10:19 pmRecent, people here have been arguing which cities/towns could be compared with A2.
But here, NY Times compares NY with A2. =|
Comforting to know that my new town is as safe as the city that features Harlem, Hell’s Kitchen, and the lower East Side. And weren’t we arguing recently over whether crime in AA was UNDERreported?
Now if only AA were comparable to NY in other ways . . .
posted by Nick on December 16th, 2003 at 10:35 pmMaybe crime in NY is underreported and A2’s overreported?
posted by __earth on December 16th, 2003 at 11:01 pmWell, the way to test that hypothesis is to see if the naked guy on the porch rate is higher here or in New York.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on December 16th, 2003 at 11:46 pmMaybe this is a delusion of grandiosity, but I can’t help but wonder if the writer did his/her research by googling crime and Boston and stumbled onto the discussion on AAIO… (otherwise, why even think of Ann Arbor? And the timing is uncanny. Weird).
posted by Anna on December 17th, 2003 at 8:21 amIts clear to me that the NYTimes, the Wash. Post, and the Chicago Tribune all look to AAIO for all of their crime stats.
AAIO is going global. You either need to install pop-up ads, or charge us all per page hit. Just think, if you raised enough money, you could move all of UMich to just outside of Boston, solving all of these overrated problems.
If you have an IPO, I’m in.
posted by todd on December 17th, 2003 at 11:23 amOkay, okay: See my disclaimer about delusions of grandiousity, you whipper-snapper.
A better hypothesis is that Ann Arbor is, in fact, the center of the universe. Yes, NYT reporters want to know what’s happening in that happening town. They don’t just pull that stuff out of a hat or by doing some random google search, no, siree, they have been watching Ann Arbor with baited breath. “Thank God New York beat Ann Arbor’s crime statistics,” they think to themselves. Pretty soon we’ll hear that New York has better Coney Island Franks, Pizza and Bagels. I hear that even Malcomb Gladwell’s new book will include a chapter entitlted, “Six degrees of Ann Arbor: How the tipping point finds its center in a town of little consequence”.
Love, Anna
posted by Anna on December 17th, 2003 at 11:42 amw00t! We are actually the ancient Greek!
posted by __earth on December 17th, 2003 at 12:09 pmHey Anna,
The funny thing is, you are probably right. Wouldn’t surprise me at all to find that the NYTimes reporter never left her computer screen while managing to complete the entire article. I stumbled across this site looking for articles about my company—is it that far fetched that this reporter looked up crime and AA, and came across AAIO? I don’t think so.
posted by todd on December 17th, 2003 at 12:30 pm(The greatest secret about reporters is that they are among the laziest sons-of-bitches in the world, and will rely on the easiest source of statistics availible. But in this case, I’d bet that since they were taking their raw data from an index that lists both NY and AA, it was easy enough to just flip through a couple of pages. That, and AA is at the top of most alphabets…)
posted by js on December 17th, 2003 at 12:44 pmjs
Todd — Heh. Yeah. I’m just thankful that I can be part of the magic.
JS — Being an avid googler, I can attest that laziness isn’t the exclusive domain of journalists.
posted by Anna on December 17th, 2003 at 1:15 pmBTW, just a random question:
_earth — how did you decide on that handle? I mean, earth, I get it, but why the _ right before it? Or why not _earth_ or e_rth or something?
posted by Anna on December 17th, 2003 at 1:19 pmwhen i was younger, i chatted over the IRC and i wanted to be at the bottom of the namelist.
posted by __earth on December 17th, 2003 at 5:19 pm_ is one of the last character in ASCII. but sometimes, there were some monikers with _z and mine was _e. so, another _ would beat the _z guy. Therefore, __earth made sure I was at the bottom of the namelist.
and 5 years later, the thing still stuck in my head.
posted by __earth on December 17th, 2003 at 5:19 pm