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Meet Norm. He's 31, 5'9", just over 13 stone, and works a 39 hour
week. He likes a drink, doesn't do enough exercise and occasionally
treats himself to a bar of chocolate (milk). He's a pretty average
kind of guy. In fact, he is the average guy in this clever and
unusual take on statistical risk, chance, and how these two factors
affect our everyday choices. Watch as Norm (who, like all average
specimens, feels himself to be uniquely special), and his friends
careful Prudence and reckless Kelvin, turns to statistics to help
him in life's endless series of choices - should I fly or take the
train? Have a baby? Another drink? Or another sausage? Do a charity
skydive or get a lift on a motorbike? Because chance and risk
aren't just about numbers - it's about what we believe, who we
trust and how we feel about the world around us. From a world
expert in risk and the bestselling author of The Tiger That Isn't
(and creator of BBC Radio 4's More or Less), this is a commonsense
(and wildly entertaining) guide to personal risk and decoding the
statistics that represent it.
'One of the most original writers around. He has profoundly
influenced my thinking.' Hannah Fry Why thinking in pictures? Short
answer: because the words seem to need help. If you sample the many
smart-thinking books to hit the shelves recently, they all promise
a smarter, more rational you, and it all seems just pages away. But
if the books are that good, why are there so many? And have they
succeeded in moving the dial of people's reasoning? Using
illustrations and photographs, Michael Blastland shows how pictures
can help put ideas to the test, making them vivid, showing them in
action. Part guide, part gallery, Thinking in Pictures is a
brilliantly original and witty introduction to smart-thinking - how
to use it and when to question it - for anyone trying to make sense
of a puzzling world.
Mathematics scares and depresses most of us, but politicians,
journalists and everyone in power use numbers all the time to
bamboozle us. Most maths is really simple - as easy as 2+2 in fact.
Better still it can be understood without any jargon, any formulas
- and in fact not even many numbers. Most of it is commonsense, and
by using a few really simple principles one can quickly see when
maths, statistics and numbers are being abused to play tricks - or
create policies - which can waste millions of pounds. It is
liberating to understand when numbers are telling the truth or
being used to lie, whether it is health scares, the costs of
government policies, the supposed risks of certain activities or
the real burden of taxes.
Is it safer to fly or take the train? How dangerous is skydiving?
And is eating that extra sausage going to kill you? We've all heard
the statistics for risky activities, but what do they mean in the
real world? In "The Norm Chronicles," journalist Michael Blastland
and risk expert David Spiegelhalter explore these questions through
the stories of average Norm and an ingenious measurement called the
MicroMort--a one in a million chance of dying. They reveal why
general anesthesia is as dangerous as a parachute jump, giving
birth in the US is nearly twice as risky as in the UK, and that the
radiation from eating a banana shaves 3 seconds off your life. An
entertaining guide to the statistics of personal risk, "The Norm
Chronicles" will enlighten anyone who has ever worried about the
dangers we encounter in our daily lives.
An exceptionally haunting memoir that also shows us what it is to
be really human. In a hardware store, Joe sits on a display toilet
amidst the throng of customers and wees, smiling serenely. He
thumps crying babies. He is amazed when the car he runs in front of
actually hits him. Joe is ten and mentally disabled. He's funny,
fascinating and maddening, and this memoir tells his moving story,
but also argues that until we know Joe's life, we can't understand
our own. Through philosophy, psychology and medical research, the
author explains how we are mind-readers, how we make sense of other
people and how we understand guilt and innocence, and shows that
Joe sets our humanity in sharp relief. But in that case, is Joe
part of it? The author who asks that outrageous question is Joe's
father.
The Strunk and White of statistics team up to help the average
person navigate the numbers in the news
Drawing on their hugely popular BBC Radio 4 show "More or Less,"
journalist Michael Blastland and internationally known economist
Andrew Dilnot delight, amuse, and convert American mathphobes by
showing how our everyday experiences make sense of numbers.
The radical premise of The Numbers Game is to show how much we
already know and give practical ways to use our knowledge to become
cannier consumers of the media. If you've ever wondered what
"average" really means, whether the scare stories about cancer risk
should convince you to change your behavior, or whether a story you
read in the paper is biased (and how), you need this book.
Blastland and Dilnot show how to survive and thrive on the torrent
of numbers that pours through everyday life.
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