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Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Science, technology & engineering
In today’s data-driven world, maths is a weapon wielded by banks,
insurance companies, tech firms, and government agencies. These
organizations use sophisticated algorithms to calculate odds, make
predictions, uncover patterns, manage risk, and optimize actions. And
they treat you as another number to crunch along the way.
Robin Hood Maths explains the mathematical methods these companies and
agencies use to manipulate and profit off of you. It’s easy to assume
these algorithms are too complex to even understand, let alone use for
yourself. But maths professor Noah Giansiracusa makes the compelling
case that anyone can use these same methods, without any special
training or advanced knowledge. He offers simple hacks and streamlined
formulas for beating the number crunchers at their own game.
With Professor Giansiracusa as your guide, you’ll learn how to use
maths to rescue your credit score and make better investments, take
control of your social media, and reclaim agency over the decisions you
make every day. In a society designed to take from the poor and give to
the rich, maths has the potential to be a powerful democratizing force.
Robin Hood Maths gives you the tools you need to think for yourself,
act in your own best interest, and thrive.
Andrew T. Still, the founder of osteopathic medicine, reveals how
he matured into a medical pioneer from humble beginnings in the
rural frontier of the United States. Beginning with his upbringing
in rural Missouri, we witness how Still became accustomed to
practicality at a young age. At the time he was a boy in the 1840s,
the area he and his family lived in was barely settled - many basic
public amenities such as hospitals and schools simply did not
exist. Still's father became the local doctor, and would introduce
his son to the medicine. The outbreak of the American Civil War in
the 1860s disrupted the young Still's apprenticeship in medicine
and surgery, although he gained valuable experience treating sick
and wounded soldiers as a hospital steward. During and after the
war, Still was astonished at how ineffectual so many medical
techniques were - this, coupled with researches and a further
course in medicine, spurred him to create the science of
osteopathy.
The extraordinary life of Bernard Lovell began before the First
World War and his story encompasses many of the great events of
last hundred years: the Second World War, the invention of radio
astronomy, the space race, the Moon landings, the exploration of
the Solar System, the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis and the
defence of Britain against nuclear attack. It can now be revealed
that he was also a spy. "He ranks as one of the great visionary
leaders of science," Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, said of
him. The great radio telescope which Lovell built became and
remains one of the most important scientific instruments in the
World. The Jodrell Bank Observatory and the Lovell Telescope have
held their place at the frontier of research for fifty five years.
This book seeks to explore succinctly and accessibly Lovell's life
and achievements in the scientific and political context of the
time. His legacy remains great, as can be seen from the extensive
media coverage and personal tributes that his death in 2012
attracted all over the world. With the seventieth anniversaries of
many wartime events in which he played a crucial role, as well as
the recent declassification of information relating to his
activities as an agent in the Cold War, this biography is sure to
have a broad and timely interest.
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