We hoped that they would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm's way.

NPR: State of the Union: Democratic Response Text

But the real measure of the accuracy of my predictions is to look at all of the predictions, not just a small subset of them.

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For example, researchers in Arizona are using real-time kinematic global positioning systems, an ultra-precise version of GPS that can measure positions with sub-inch accuracy levels, to control weeds in cotton fields with steel cultivators.

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Improper sampling could also impact the accuracy of common methods used to measure the performance of the predictive coding tool being used.

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Two telescopes positioned 100 metres apart, for example, can then be used to measure the position of a star with the same accuracy as a single 100-metre telescope.

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According to Teruyuki Kato, the project's leader, this arrangement can measure a buoy's vertical motion with an accuracy of a few centimetres, which will pick up dangerous tsunamis in the open ocean where they are mere ripples on the surface (they rear up into killer waves only when they reach the shallows).

ECONOMIST: New ways of tracking these killer waves may help save lives

To suggest that we can measure carbon dioxide reservoirs or carbon dioxide flows with the accuracy required of these percentages, an accuracy required if we are to infer our efforts at carbon dioxide abatement are a success, is another sort of pollution: smoke and mirrors.

ECONOMIST: The benefits of CCS

The UK was close to the top of the league on one measure of success rates - although the exact figures provoked controversy over their accuracy and were withheld from the conference.

BBC: UK fertility services lag behind Europe