An excerpt from the Freakonomics Blog:
What do American drivers, the children of Lake Wobegon, and termites have in common?
They are all above average.
Here’s what a regular reader called LLP pointed out in an e-mail:
There is a TV ad running here in Southern California for a pest control company. It states that “the average termite eats 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” so your million dollar home is at risk.
This got me thinking that the idea of average is on the upper limit — which does not make sense since no termite can exceed the maximum time alloted in a day or a week.
This reminds me of a spot in a recent USA today, which stated a treatment for cancer can kill, on average, 70 to 100% of healthy brain cells before the cancer remits.
No kidding.