0:01 - time it took me to grab the remote and change the channel as soon as they showed Paula Cole in a close up. (Sometimes HDTV is NOT the way to go.)

I doubt that 9,000 people is a statistically significant sample in China. And what about the other 32 percent? Do they want their countryman to sign elsewhere, or did they just die from eating tainted food?

I'll admit, the minute and a half of silence almost made me go looking for a good commercial somewhere, but I believe it was Joe Buck that said it - worth the wait. I have no idea who Paula Cole is, but I have definitely heard that butchered. Often. And she nailed it.

To Tim in NY. Actuarially speaking (I am one) the size of the population from which a sample is taken doesn't alter the statistical significance (accuracy) of the sample results. That said, there will be a bias that the sample selection is probably not representative of the entire population (my guess is that votes were disproportionately from urban not rural areas) hence there will be a bias from that - but again, not due to the fact that 'only' 9,000 people were sampled.

Thanks for getting me straightened out on that, MikeC. It's been a long time since I took statistics in college, and I promptly forgot everything I learned after the final exam. Maybe they should change that old saying about Frenchmen to, "9,000 Chinese can't be wrong."

I am also an actuary/statistician and somewhat disagree with your statements MikeC. The size of the sample relative to the population does not alter what the final result is expected to be, but it does alter how variable one sample could be from the actual true proportion. Choosing a smaller sample size makes it less likely the estimate is close to the true proportion. Personally though, I think what they did is enough to get a reasonable estimate, especially since we use only about 1000-2000 here in the USA for presidential elections with a +/- error of 3-5%. Must say this has been fun though... never thought I'd talk real statistics on a sports website.

Mike C, dd, Tim:

Could you guys keep it down a bit? It's hard for me to come up with cheap cracks about the size of Barry Bonds' head with you guys going on about this math mumbo-jumbo. I'm all confused.
-- Thanks, Pete

Sorry Pete. We were just trying to throw so much math your way that your head would swell up and you'd have a good excuse for when people keep bugging you about the hat.