The Strunk and White of statistics team up to help the average person navigate the numbers in the newsDrawing 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 way...

Darrell Huff runs the gamut of every popularly used type of statistic, probes such things as the sample study, the tabulation method, the interview technique, or the way results are derived from the figures, and points up the countless number of dodges which are used to fool rather than to inform.

“Clever, surprisingly fast-paced, and enlightening.” —ForbesMost new products fail. So do most businesses. And most of us, if we are honest, have experienced a major setback in our personal or professional lives. So what determines who will bounce back and follow up with a home run? What separates those who keep treading water from those who harness the lessons from their mistakes?One of our most popular business bloggers, Megan McArdle takes insig...

A witty and razor-sharp look at the many ways our individually rational decisions can combine into some truly weird collective results—and some hilarious and serious ways to fix just about everything.Economics is no longer the “dismal science” dreaded by college freshmen. In recent years, a band of economists has broken away from the charts and graphs of college textbooks, and begun to explain ordinary behavior in plain and often entertaining English. Steve Landsbu...

Before Freakonomics and The Tipping Point there was this classic by the 2005 Nobel Laureate in Economics."Schelling here offers an early analysis of 'tipping' in social situations involving a large number of individuals."—official citation for the 2005 Nobel PrizeMicromotives and Macrobehavior was originally published over twenty-five years ago, yet the stories it tells feel just as fresh today. And the subject of these stories—how small and seemi...

We find risks everywhere--from genetically modified crops, medical malpractice, and stem-cell therapy to intimacy, online predators, identity theft, inflation, and robbery. They arise from our own acts and they are imposed on us. In this Very Short Introduction, Baruch Fischhoff and John Kadvany draw on the sciences and humanities to explore and explain the many kinds of risk. Using simple conceptual frameworks from decision theory and behavioural research, they examine the scienc...

"Clear, balanced, and lively." -- Steven Pinker, bestselling author of How the Mind WorksARE YOU AFRAID OF THE "RIGHT" RISKS?Do you worry more about radiation from nuclear power or from the sun?Are you more afraid of getting cancer than heart disease?Are you safer talking on your cell phone or using a hands-free device when you drive?Do you think global warming is a serious threat to your health?GET THE FACTS...

In today’s world, there are many hot-button topics that generate equal parts debate and confusion. At the top of that list is healthcare. For most Americans, finding out “the truth” about current problems or possible fixes is virtually impossible amidst all the emotionally charged rhetoric. Dr. Tim Johnson has been reporting on health matters for ABC since the mid-seventies, but in recent years he has spent an increasing amount of time studying our system of healthcare—or lack thereof. Man...

Inspired by Hugh Hefner’s The Playboy Philosophy, Znaimer originally set out to write 10 chapters on what he considers to be today’s last taboo – age and aging. Yet no matter how “old” you are, THE ZOOMER PHILOSOPHY reveals the secrets and the science to living better, longer, healthier, happier, richer, and yes, sexier too! As shown in the initial outline below, the series is a never-ending chronicle of mature issues that range from sex and inheritance to health and f...

Many candidates like to use model answers when they are preparing for the IELTS speaking and writing modules. This book provides 101 model answers for Writing Task 2, including essays on many of the most recent questions asked during 2013 and the beginning of 2014.The model answers are intended as a guide. Candidates can use the ideas presented in the essays in their own writing. In addition, candidates may find that the vocabulary and structures used in the answers help them to cr...

In The Progress Paradox, Gregg Easterbrook draws upon three decades of wide-ranging research and thinking to make the persuasive assertion that almost all aspects of Western life have vastly improved in the past century--and yet today, most men and women feel less happy than in previous generations. Why this is so and what we should do about it is the subject of this book.Between contemporary emphasis on grievances and the fears engendered by 9/11, today it is comm...