Other books that might interest you

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  Standard Deviations - Flawed...

  Gary Smith

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  How statistical data is used, misused, and abused every day to fool us: “A very entertaining book about a very serious problem.” —Robert J. Shiller, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics and author of Irrational Exuberance 
   
  Did you know that baseball players whose names begin with “D” are more likely to die young? That Asian Americans are most susceptible to heart attacks on the fourth day of the month? That drinking a full pot of coffee every morning adds years to your life, but one cup a day increases your pancreatic cancer risk? These “facts” have been argued with a straight face by credentialed researchers and backed up with reams of data and convincing statistics. As Nobel Prize–winning economist Ronald Coase cynically observed, “If you torture data long enough, it will confess.”  
   
  Lying with statistics is a time-honored con. In Standard Deviations, economics professor Gary Smith walks us through the various tricks and traps that people use to back up their own crackpot theories. Sometimes, the unscrupulous deliberately try to mislead us. Other times, the well-intentioned are blissfully unaware of the mischief they are committing. Today, data is so plentiful that researchers spend precious little time distinguishing between good, meaningful indicators and total rubbish. Not only do others use data to fool us, we fool ourselves.  
   
  Drawing on breakthrough research in behavioral economics and using clear examples, Standard Deviations demystifies the science behind statistics and makes it easy to spot the fraud all around us. 
   
  “An entertaining primer . . . packed with figures, tables, graphs and ludicrous examples from people who know better (academics, scientists) and those who don’t (political candidates, advertisers).” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

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  Biology and Destiny

  Kenny Ausubel, Nina Simons

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  Enter the molecular world of biology, where mushrooms have built a communication network that rivals the Internet and "everything is somebody's lunch."  In this dialogue you'll meet two brilliant "bioneers," Kenny Ausubel and his partner, Nina Simons, who are using nature to heal nature in the battle to restore the Earth from "suicide genes" and "terminator technology."

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  The Lowland Clearances -...

  Peter Aitchison, Andrew Cassell

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  The forced removal of family farmers across the Scottish Lowlands in the 18th and 19th centuries is chronicled in this enlightening social history. The Scottish Agricultural Revolution came at great cost to the poor cottars and tenant farmers who were driven from their homes to make way for livestock and crops. The process of forced evictions through the Highlands known as the Highland Clearances is a well-documented episode of Scottish history. But the process actually began in the Scottish Lowlands nearly a century before—in the so-called Age of Improvement. Though largely overlook by historians, the Lowland Clearances undeniably shaped the Scottish landscape as it is today. They swept aside a traditional way of life, causing immense upheaval for rural dwellers, many of whom moved to the new towns and cities or left the country entirely. With pioneering research, historian Peter Aitchison tells the story of the Lowland Clearances, establishing them as a significant aspect of the Clearances that changed the face of Scotland forever.

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  The Great US-China Tech War

  Gordon G. Chang

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  Beijing was not considered a tech contender a decade ago. Now, some call it a leader. America is already behind in critical areas. It is no surprise how Chinese leaders made their regime a tech powerhouse. They first developed and then implemented multiyear plans and projects, adopting a determined, methodical, and disciplined approach. As a result, China’s political leaders and their army of technocrats could soon possess the technologies of tomorrow. America can still catch up. Unfortunately, Americans, focused on other matters, are not meeting the challenges China presents. A whole-of-society mobilization will be necessary for the U.S. to regain what it once had: control of cutting-edge technologies. It is how America got to the moon, and it is the key to winning this century. Americans may not like the fact that they’re once again in a Cold War–type struggle, but they will either adjust to that reality or get left behind.

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  The Accidental Mind - How Brain...

  David J. Linden

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  You've probably seen it before: a human brain dramatically lit from the side, the camera circling it like a helicopter shot of Stonehenge, and a modulated baritone voice exalting the brain's elegant design in reverent tones. 
  To which this audiobook says: Pure nonsense. In a work at once deeply learned and wonderfully accessible, the neuroscientist David Linden counters the widespread assumption that the brain is a paragon of design - and in its place gives us a compelling explanation of how the brain's serendipitous evolution has resulted in nothing short of our humanity. A guide to the strange and often illogical world of neural function, The Accidental Mind shows how the brain is not an optimized, general-purpose problem-solving machine, but rather a weird agglomeration of ad-hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history. Moreover, Linden tells us how the constraints of evolved brain design have ultimately led to almost every transcendent human foible: our long childhoods, our extensive memory capacity, our search for love and long-term relationships, our need to create compelling narrative, and, ultimately, the universal cultural impulse to create both religious and scientific explanations. 
  With forays into evolutionary biology, this analysis of mental function answers some of our most common questions about how we've come to be who we are.

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  101 Amazing Facts about Natural...

  Jack Goldstein, Frankie Taylor

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  What exactly is an avalanche? Why do tropical cyclones spin in different directions? What is the deadliest heat wave ever to have been recorded? And what are the three different types of lightning?
  
  In this fascinating audio-book, narrator Andrew Baldwin answers all these questions and more as he talks us through over 100 amazing facts about the world's deadliest natural disasters. From floods and cyclones to landslides, avalanches, volcanoes and more, we learn about a wide range of subjects, all of which demonstrate the immense power of nature. An interesting addition to any audio-book collection!
  
  ©2017 Jack Goldstein Books (P)2017 Jack Goldstein Books

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