| Description |
xi, 212 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm |
| Contents |
Lani "Quota Queen" Guinier: Voting, Power, and Mathematics -- Bosnia: Is It Vietnam or World War II?: Psychological Availability and Anchoring Effects -- Recession Forecast If Steps Not Taken: Unpredictability, Chaos, and Pooh-Poohing the Pooh-Bahs -- Afta Nafta, Lafta; Free Traders Exult: Headlines and the Inverted Pyramid -- Pakistan's Bhutto Gambles in Trade Negotiations: On Dice and Bluffing -- Clinton, Dole in Sparring Roles: Who's News and Grammar Checkers -- Iraqi Death Toll Unknown: Benchmark Figures in War, Crisis, and the Economy -- D'Amato Agrees Hillary Most Honest Person Clinton Knows: Ambiguity and Nonstandard Models -- Fraud Alleged in Pennsylvania Senate Race: Political and Mathematical Regression -- Cult Members Accuse Government of Plot: Newspapers, Coincidences, and Conspiracy Theories -- Company Charged with Ethnic Bias in Hiring: Test Disparities Need Not Imply Racism -- SAT Top Quartile Score Declines: Correlation, Prediction, and Improvement -- Guns Will Soon Kill More Than Cars: Comparability and Intensity -- Abortion Activists Bomb Clinic: Prohibitions and Arithmetical Arguments -- DNA Fingers Murderer: Life, Death, and Conditional Probability -- Darts Trounce the Pros: Luck and the Market -- Cellular Phones Tied to Brain Cancer: Multiplication, Health, and Business -- GM Trucks Explode on Side Collision: From Pity to Policy -- The $32 Billion Pepsi Challenge: Advertising and Numerical Craftiness -- Brief Fads Dominate Toy Industry: S-Curves and Novelty -- Area Residents Respond to Story: Repetition, Repetition, Repetition -- Researchers Look to Local News for Trends: The Present, the Future, and Ponzi Schemes -- A Cyberpunk Woody Allen: How to Write a Profile of the Fledgling Celebrity -- Tsongkerclintkinbro Wins: Everybody's Got an Angle -- Florida Dentist Accused of Intentionally Spreading AIDS: Rumors, Self-Fulfilling Prophecies, and National Obsessions -- Interlude: Selves, Heroes, and Dissociation -- Candidates Contradict Each Other's Denials: Self-Reference, Intentions, and the News -- Special Investigator Says Full Story Not Told: Compressibility and the Complexity Horizon -- Newspaper Circulation Down: Factoids on Tabloids -- Computers, Faxes, Copiers Still Rare in Russia: Information and the Commissars -- Ranking Health Risks: Experts and Laymen Differ: The Dyscalculia Syndrome -- Asbestos Removal Closes NYC Schools: Contaminated Mountains Out of Mole Spills -- Super Collider a Waste of Money: Science Journalism and Advocacy -- Harvard Psychiatrist Believes Patients Abducted by Aliens: Mathematically Creating One's Own Pseudoscience -- FDA Caught Between Opposing Protesters: Statistical Tests and Confidence Intervals -- Senators Eye Hawaii Health Care Plan: Scaling Up Is So Very Hard to Do -- Breakthrough Forecast by End of Decade: You Can't Know More Than You Know -- Rodent Population Patterns Difficult to Fathom: Ecology, Chaos, and the News -- More Dismal Math Scores for U.S. Students: X, Y, and U -- 761 Calories, 428 Mgs. Sodium, 22.6 Grams of Fat per Serving: Meaningless Precision -- Top Designs for the Busy Working Woman: Fashion, Unpredictability, and Toast -- Agassi Wins Again: Scoring and Amplifying Differences -- New Survey Reveals Changing Attitudes: Societal Gas Laws -- Near-Perfect Game for Roger Clemens: How Many Runs in the Long Run -- Bucks County and Environs: A Note on Maps and Graphic Games -- Ask About Your Mother-in-Law's Lladro: Explanation, Advice, and Physics -- Garden Club Gala: Incidence Matrices on the Society Pages -- Ten Reasons We Hate Our Bosses: Lists and Linearity -- Stallone on Worst-Dressed List: Traits and Rates -- New Biography Fills Much-Needed Gap: Books and News -- Which Way Mecca?: Religion in the Paper -- R. L. Vickler, 85, Aide to Truman: The Length of Obituaries |
| Summary |
Employing the same fun-filled, user-friendly, and quirkily insightful approach that put Innumeracy on best-seller lists, Paulos now leads us through the pages of the daily newspaper, revealing the hidden mathematical angles of countless articles. From the Senate, the SATs, and sex to crime, celebrities, and cults, Paulos takes stories that may not seem to involve mathematics at all and demonstrates how mathematical naivete can put readers at a distinct disadvantage. Whether he's using chaos theory to puncture economic and environmental predictions, applying logic and self-reference to clarify the hazards of spin doctoring and news compression, or employing arithmetic and common sense to give us a novel perspective on greed and relationships, Paulos never fails to entertain and enlighten |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [205]-206)) and index |
| Subject |
Journalism.
|
|
Mathematics -- Popular works.
|
|
Newspaper reading.
|
| LC no. |
94048206 |
| ISBN |
0465043623 |
|
