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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935
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 Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 8:40 am Post subject: |
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The phone call opened with something like, "We're conducting a poll. Do you support eliminating fossil fuel consumption to protect the earth?"
"No."
"Do you agree that fossil fuels drive catastrophic global warming?"
"No"
Click.
I would bet a good fin that if I had said "yes" to both questions I'd have heard the REST of his questions.
OK, I'll explain: He wanted only AGWA/green energy zealots in his poll. I've gotten similar opening questions regarding politics, pot, renewable resources, dams, and more. I gotta start thinking faster and answer those filter questions the way they want so I can confirm or disprove my suspicions. |
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uwindsurf
Joined: 18 Aug 2012
Posts: 968
Location: Classified
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 10:34 am Post subject: |
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| isobars wrote: | The phone call opened with something like, "We're conducting a poll. Do you support eliminating fossil fuel consumption to protect the earth?"
"No."
"Do you agree that fossil fuels drive catastrophic global warming?"
"No"
Click.
I would bet a good fin that if I had said "yes" to both questions I'd have heard the REST of his questions.
OK, I'll explain: He wanted only AGWA/green energy zealots in his poll. I've gotten similar opening questions regarding politics, pot, renewable resources, dams, and more. I gotta start thinking faster and answer those filter questions the way they want so I can confirm or disprove my suspicions. |
The REST of the questions are probably predicated upon an affirmative response to one or both if the first two questions. If you respond in the negative to one or both of the first two questions, there are no other questions to ask. If you don't like the manner in which the poll is designed, create your own. |
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coboardhead
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
Posts: 4303
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 11:39 am Post subject: |
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| Or get caller ID |
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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 12:01 pm Post subject: |
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I guess I have to explain even further. Hell, yes, the rest of the questions are based on whether my first two answers reveal my biases. Heaven forbid their poll subjects actually include conservative, informed, thoughtful, science-based, and/or rational individuals, lest it tilt their results in the direction opposing their desired outcome.
In polls where they weren't smart enough to filter the "opposition" with questions like that, they used to keep asking the same question over and over using slightly different words in the hope of soliciting a "Yes", at which point they quickly introduced a new question. They finally figured out that it took less time to winnow out the opposition up front rather than try to confuse them with baffling sentence constructions later on. The defense lawyer in federal court tried the latter trick on me once, too, and it cost her client -- the U.S. Air Force -- a seven figure judgement. Just like some pollsters, she threw several negatives -- I counted at least six before losing track altogether -- into one question and demanded a yes/no response.
"Sorry, Ms. Smith, but I honestly got lost in the negatives. My answer is ..." and over her objections I gave her a full declarative sentence minus all the obfuscation.
"No further questions, your honor." |
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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 12:06 pm Post subject: |
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| coboardhead wrote: | | Or get caller ID |
That is no longer of use. It's too easy to spoof (i.e., spammers can display anything they wish in your Caller ID), many legitimate calls show only "private caller" or "U.S. West", and the Mayo Clinic's fax system has been making prank calls intermittently for years. |
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techno900
Joined: 28 Mar 2001
Posts: 4162
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 1:35 pm Post subject: |
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iso said: | Quote: | | That is no longer of use. |
That's why there is voice mail. I never answer an unknown caller. |
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beaglebuddy
Joined: 10 Feb 2012
Posts: 1120
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 2:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Who has a land line phone anymore? |
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MalibuGuru
Joined: 11 Nov 1993
Posts: 9300
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| Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2015 2:13 pm Post subject: |
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| I even got a call from "Grandma"...... |
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isobars
Joined: 12 Dec 1999
Posts: 20935
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| Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 5:15 pm Post subject: |
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| techno900 wrote: | iso said: | Quote: | | That is no longer of use. |
That's why there is voice mail. I never answer an unknown caller. |
You will when you're expecting calls from multiple hospitals about your surgery AND radiation AND metastases scan, from your builder about your ongoing kitchen remodel, from your urologist about your bladder cancer, from the IRS about the tax refund a Russian hacker stole, and much more ... in the space of one week. Voice mail is FAR too unreliable for any of that.
| beaglebuddy wrote: | | Who has a land line phone anymore? |
Sailing buddy Jim lives 6-8 miles away in the same "city" of 300,000 people. He's on AT&T, I'm on Verizon, we both have state of the art smart phones. Our cell phone conversations are almost useless strings of "Huh? Say again? What? You're cutting out. I can't heaaarrrrr you ..." in both directions. It's not acceptable for serious communication. I almost never carry my cell phone except when I go sailing and need wind data; I'm not that willing to be others' slave (e.g., the telemarketer who refused to stop calling me and said my only escape is not answering MY phone. He got an earful of my Freon boat horn). My cell phone often goes untouched for weeks to months in the winter. Besides, the first telemarketer or politician who calls my cell phone had better hope I can't lay hands on him. To guard against that, only three people on the planet including my wife-- not even my doctors or medical travel agency or my builder -- have my cell phone number legitimately, and I STILL get some spam calls. A few more and I'm changing my number.
Don't get me started on cell phones.  |
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swchandler
Joined: 08 Nov 1993
Posts: 10588
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| Posted: Fri Jun 05, 2015 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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"Who has a land line phone anymore?"
I do. I've never have owned a cellphone, and that's saved me tons over the years. |
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