Lübeck and EHEC

Brrr. The news has been full today of some restaurant in Lübeck at which 17 of the EHEC victims had eaten. One of the victims has died. It was the weekend we were in Lübeck. I scoured Twitter and the 'net, looking for the name of the restaurant. I wanted to know if I needed to worry.

Of course, if they publish the name and this is not the cause, they've ruined the restaurant's reputation. But shouldn't the public have a right to know which restaurant it is? A very thorny question.

Luckily, the evening news has no qualms. They didn't mention the name, but the camera showed the name, and they interviewed the owner, who was distraught that his patrons should be so sick. It is a wonderful restaurant. And we didn't eat there this time.

I do hope they soon find the root cause of this - can't be having Spain and Lübeck mad at the same time.

How long is 120 days?

The German media reported widely on Obama's stopping the Guantánamo processes for 120 days. But they reported widely varying numbers, and were confused about when it was done. Some reports were that this was what he signed first on that first day. Others had it being what he did on his first full day.

On the way to an appointment I heard the 4 months being reported on the radio. On the way from there to work this had dropped rapidly to 4 days. On the way home it was 3 months. On the evening news it was 120 days.

I have a suggestion: reporters should report on exactly what is being done or written, and not try and do fancy calculations themselves, innumerate lot that they are. And maybe they can start a course on Mathematics for Journalists in the schools of journalism.

Hot topics would be

• Conversion factors and units of measure
• The difference between a million and a billion
• The meaning and magic of decimal points
• How to lie with statistics