Rate this book

The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide To Understanding Numbers In The News, In Politics, And In Life (2008)

by Michael Blastland(Favorite Author)

3.59 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

1592404235 (ISBN13: 9781592404230)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Gotham

review 1: The Numbers Game tells you about statistics in the news and politics and reveals the truth about the numbers that are thrown at you daily: numbers are plain and simple, but life is not. You will see what a jumbled mess it is to turn life into a nice round number that is (obviously) often wrong. You will be given a better understanding of what those numbers mean, and the tools to scrutinize them at your own will to get to the bottom of things! Because things are not often what they seem.Enlightening; I recommend this book for everyone who has ever watched the news or picked up a paper or magazine. Which is pretty much everyone.
review 2: Good book about the kind of numbers and statistics you see in the news, and how to interpret them properly. For example, if yo... moreu hear something like "eating a carrot a day doubles your chance of getting liver cancer" that sounds significant. But it could mean that carrots double your chance of cancer from 1/2% to 1%, and news reports rarely specify. Also, it's important to know the accuracy of any medical tests you take. If you have a positive mammogram you still only have about a 10% chance of having breast cancer, because of a combination of the rarity of cancer and the high occurrence of false positives. Not to mention that when a politician waxes outraged about Congress wasting millions of dollars on something she disapproves of, you should bear in mind that those millions of dollars constitute mere tenths of tenths of a percent of the entire federal budget (virtually all of which goes to defense and entitlements). And so on. I enjoyed it mightily. less

Download links for: The Numbers Game: The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News, in Politics, and in Life

Advertising