I have no data, but if they were weighting the country by population, not by land area, I would consider the usage reasonable. --Michael On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 1:39 PM, Hans Havermann <pxp@rogers.com> wrote:
Approximately six days ago, news organizations began reporting that, according to the United Nations, "one-fifth" of Pakistan was under water. Since then, the one-fifth has appeared again and again with assorted modifiers: up to, about, at least, etc. Looking at the Earth Observatory pictures...
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=45200
... I am having a hard time seeing the reality behind that fraction. I've been unable to find the original UN source of the stories and I don't see a lot of skepticism out there. Perhaps by the "country" of Pakistan is meant something other than geographical shape but that is never explicitly stated. Anybody care to wade in?
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