by Robert A. Hitlin ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A
A mathematically supported, engaging read on how probabilities are frequently used, misunderstood and creatively applied to...
Hitlin, who earned a doctorate degree in political science from Vanderbilt University, explores the application of probability theory to everyday scenarios including finance, gaming and law.
Hitlin isn’t coy about his target audience for this work. This isn’t “a rigorous logical proof of probability theory nor is it a guide to calculating complicated probability problems,” he writes. “It is designed for people who are open to learning about ways to make more successful decisions in their everyday lives from a book written in non-mathematical language.” Hitlin maintains this clear, direct style and unpretentious graphical display throughout the text, interspersing quotes from notable figures such as Albert Einstein and Nils Bohr. The book is quite text-heavy, but charts and mathematical tables are sometimes balanced with friendly stock photos of dice and roulette tables. What distinguishes the work is how precisely it links seemingly dry mathematical formulas to real-life examples. In particular, the “Faulty Legal Reasoning” chapter lays out examples of court cases; in one, a defendant was convicted of murder and sentenced to jail based on the likelihood of a rare malady, sudden infant death syndrome, naturally occurring and killing two children in a given span of time. Hitlin manages to insert enough drama into the text to make it an intriguing read while simultaneously carefully laying out the mathematical evidence. For instance, the likelihood of a baby contracting SIDS was one in 8,500; in “reasoning used by the pediatrician, and accepted by the judge, the lawyers, and the jury,” the chances of two SIDS death in the same family was therefore one in 8,500 times one in 8,500. In this case, however, “subsequent statistical analysis demonstrated that after a SIDS death has occurred in a family, the chance of another SIDS death in the same family increases ten-fold,” Hitlin writes. Likewise, his studies of how colleges create formulas that allow them to admit more applicants than they actually intend to enroll is a fascinating read for anyone who has ever wondered how to strike the right balance in circumstances that are inherently unknowable. Each scenario, particularly the detailed examples, will help readers understand the scope and complexity of the world in which we live.
A mathematically supported, engaging read on how probabilities are frequently used, misunderstood and creatively applied to shape our daily lives.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: B00R1D2ENA
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dog Ear Publisher
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
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by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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