HOW MANY RABBIS DOES IT TAKE TO REACH ONE CONCLUSION?

Now here's one of my problems -- so much improbable information, I can never reach any impeccable conclusion. Which conjures up in my mind these wise Jewish rabbis sitting at the West Wall, each one "on-the-other-handing" the others. After a few hours of exhaustive theological give-and-take, the only thing left is to break for tea...!

Look, it was a given that ever since statisticians [ Rabbis or otherwise! ] got computers, they would keep generating a gazillion new studies. That's fine. Only not when each new study triggers another new study which totally contradicts the first new study. We've all seen the on-again-off-again reports about coffee...salt...dairy... aspirin ... vitamins,,,red wine...white wine...and risque women [ actually there is no statistical study on risque women, only some occasional improvised hands-on experiments ].

But now enough is enough...! Now the prestigious New York Times reports another new study that contradicts the last new study about the Internet. Just when we were beginning to believe the Internet allows us to slip into our own little cocoon of fellow thinkers/zealots, this new study says No! The new study claims the last study was wrong. The Internet is actually the "ideal marketplace of ideas" for thinkers/zealots of all kinds

Come to think of it, this new study rejecting the old study is simply returning to that even older study by Al Gore which claimed after inventing the Internet, he pronounced it "the finest tool democracy has ever had." He may be right. At least until the next new study currently being planned to investigate exactly how democratic risque women on the Internet really are...!