World Festival Parade at Mayo High School

I had the opportunity this past weekend to go to the Rochester International Association's 36th Annual World Festival at Mayo High School. I could only stay for a few minutes, but I did get a chance to look at the various booths from all the different countries and talk with some of the people there. I also was lucky to be there (with my camera) for the Parade.

Here (at bottom of this post) is the first part of the parade. For the middle and end of the parade, scroll down to the next post. I have learned that I can't put a video up on the blog that is too long or too big. It just won't work. So, the easiest thing was for me to start and stop my camera and have a few short videos. Not the best, but a quick solution for now. When I get the time, I'll read the manual and find out how to edit my videos to make them just the right size.

The parade starts with someone, perhaps from Scotland, playing the bagpipes. I wish the video was all in one posting so that you could hear all of the song, but perhaps you will recognize it anyway. Many people are playing drums and it is interesting to see the different drums from the different countries.

I did have the opportunity also to see some young dancers from Ireland. That was interesting and very impressive. One can only imagine how much they practice to get to be that good! On Friday night there was the talent show which would have been really fun to attend, but alas, I was not able to make it to that portion this year. Next year I will have to save the date on my calendar for sure!

World Festival Parade - Second Part

Here is the middle portion of the parade.

World Festival Parade - Third Part

This shows the last part of the parade and is a little bit longer than the first two videos.

World Festival France

I was only at the World Festival at Mayo High School for a very brief time, but I took a few photos of the table about France. Scroll down for another photo and then also a short video of the whole display about France.

World Festival France

Here's another photo of the table about France.

World Festival France

Here is just a short video of the France table. In the background you can hear Scottish bagpipes.

Zumbro River Cafe

Zumbro River Cafe has been open for a short time now. It's right next to Dunn Bros, in fact they share the same entrance, share the same kitchen, and surprise! are owned by the same people who own Dunn Bros.

I read a recent article in the Post Bulletin by Jeff Kiger -- "Heard on the Street: Zumbro Cafe Opens Next to Popular Coffee Shop". So tonight seemed like a great night to check out the new restaurant and let someone else do the cooking and wash the dishes.

Are Federal Workers Overpaid?

Today is just another average day. As I was checking my email, this was one of the stories that popped up in Yahoo! news. Here's a link to it from the AP:

FACT CHECK: Are Federal Workers Overpaid?

It's an interesting story, so you should go read it. It says the average Federal worker earns more than the average worker in the private sector. Ah, but here's the catch. They're comparing "Apples and Oranges" and that never works.

For example, the article notes that a "disproportionate number of federal employees are professionals, such as managers, lawyers, engineers and scientists." Many of the lower paid federal jobs such as clerical or service jobs have been outsourced to private sector.

So of course, on the average, scientists would make more money that someone working in the mail room.

But when you compare salaries of comparable jobs, such as lawyer to lawyer, it is often the case that the private sector pays more than the Federal Government. And the more that continues, the more likely the best people will leave government jobs and go to the private sector. That's good for them, but perhaps not so good for all of us. We should want our brightest people working for us. That just makes sense.

But here is why I even put this posting about Federal Workers here. It immediately reminded me of my 7th Grade Math teacher, Mr. Gustafson. He was a neat guy and a good teacher. He talked about a book way back then that I still remember and in fact I purchased that book a few years back.

That book is "How to Lie with Statistics" by Darrell Huff. Now don't stop reading just because you think you don't like statistics. This is a short book and really interesting. You can still buy this book and you should consider it. You can read the book in one evening and it is important when you think of all the statistics thrown at us every day. We make decisions based on those statistics and we should be interested in making good, sound decisions.

The whole point of the AP article about fact checking the pay of Federal workers was in the use of "average". (Note the title of my blog: Mean, Median, Mode, Just an Average Blog.) You can use averages to get an idea of the whole picture of something, but you need to do it in a mathematically meaningful and honest way.

Here's a few more links about the book, "How to Lie with Statistics" by Darrell Huff.

Book review by Jim Loy that lists the chapters in the book.

Barnes & Noble information to order this book.

Now, go buy that book and read it. Or if nothing else, take everything you hear about averages with a grain of salt. Otherwise you might be tempted to believe me when I say that, on the average, my blog is the best blog on the internet.