Snakes and ladders
Making sense of the statistics that riddle our days
The Norm Chronicles: Stories and Numbers About Danger. By Michael Blastland and David Spiegelhalter. Profile; 328 pages; £12.99. Buy from Amazon.co.uk
RISK is everywhere. From tabloid headlines insisting that coffee causes cancer (yesterday, of course, it cured it) to stern government warnings about alcohol and driving, the world is teeming with goblins. For each one there is a frighteningly precise measurement of just how likely it is to jump from the shadows and get you. “The Norm Chronicles”, a new book from Michael Blastland, a journalist in love with statistics, and David Spiegelhalter, a statistician, aims to help data-phobes find their way through this blizzard of risks.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Snakes and ladders”
From the June 22nd 2013 edition
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