Book : Norm Chronicles - Blastland, Michael

-Titulo Original : Norm Chronicles

-Fabricante :

Basic Books

-Descripcion Original:

Is it safer to fly or take the train? How dangerous is skydiving? And is eating that extra sausage going to kill you? Weve 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. Review “Amidst the numbers and stories on topics as diverse as infant mortality, travel, extreme sports, and crime, the authors examine just how all of this affects non-theoretical humans….The whole is seasoned with a dash of humor to create a work that should satisfy anyone curious about just how and when this mortal coil might be shuffled off.”-Publishers Weekly“Tackling a factor in matters ranging from personal choices to public policy, this books British authors - a journalist and a Cambridge statistician, respectively - make risk easy to understand without omitting its mathematical basis.”-Pittsburgh Tribune-Review“[The Norm Chronicles] is a truly engaging and attention-grabbing narrative that guides the reader through a multitude of helpful and/or curious statistics.”-Metapsychology“General readers will appreciate this engaging exploration of statistics and their relevance to daily life.”-Library Journal“Commendable for its wide compilation of facts and figures-but perhaps even more so for the authors deep sense of uncertainties around data, statistics, and evidence.”-Kirkus Reviews“Blastland & Spiegelhalter achieve the amusing feat of bringing mortality data back from the dead. Reading this book will, in all probability, add years to your life.”-Kaiser Fung, author of Numbers Rule Your World and Number Sense“We have a really tough time understanding absolute, individualized risk-until now. The Norm Chronicles provides a long overdue, systematic, and entertaining dissection of lifes risks.”-Eric Topol, M.D., author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine“In the same manner that the bumblebee disproved the calculations of an earlier times aerodynamics, so Blastland and Spiegelhalter refute a central tenet of todays science of risk communication: that the meaning of numbers defies the narrative currency of everyday reasoning. Engaging, enlightening stories of probability, they demonstrate, are the most reliable means for transmitting empirical knowledge of the dangers we face and how to abate them.”-Dan Kahan, Professor of Law and Psychology, Yale Law School“Blastland and Spiegelhalters The Norm Chronicles is irreverent, poignant, insightful, and just about the best book about risk Ive ever read. Its also a paradox-a book about numbers and probabilities thatll keep you hooked to the last page. That shouldnt be possible. Using master story telling and a large dose of humanity, Blastland and Spiegelhalter transform the statistics of danger and death into a celebration of life. Its a rare feat, but one thats as compelling as it is important. This book is essential reading to anyone who has ever faced the possibility of something going wrong, and thought ‘what the …?! Buy it!”-Andrew Maynard, director, University of Michigan Risk Science Center“Numbers matter, especially in the face of risk. This book is a powerful remedy for a deadly affliction-innumeracy.”-Paul Slovic, president of Decision Research, and author of The Feeling of Risk“This engaging, entertaining book clarifies the complicated subject of risk, even as it manages to revel in the complexity. It clears