At times, with complex calculations, statistics are presented by NASA as a measure for deciding whether to go ahead with a mission that is inherently risky.

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According to my calculations on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve, employment in business management and finance during the past 20 years correlated negatively at a moderate magnitude with changes in the interbank interest rate.

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The two researchers did some calculations--this field requires a black belt in statistics--and discovered that the probability that two people might have identical lists of movies with the same ratings is tiny.

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However, John Williams, an economist at Shadow Government Statistics, thinks those numbers are grossly understated given the changes in CPI calculations.

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Demand Equal Pay for Women is just a page of data, though its developers have done some of their own calculations on top of the public data, and the site has some good statistics: closing the gender pay gap, they say, would add half a trillion dollars to the consumer economy.

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But he said the watchdog's calculations were based on what he considered "the most authoritative source" of national statistics on the subject from the Treasury.

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According to its calculations, the construction industry contributed 8.5% to GDP in 2008 (the Office of National Statistics weighting is a more modest 6.1% of GDP).

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