Chance News 62

Quotations

"It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information."
--Oscar Wilde

Quoted in the Economist article on data cited below.

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"Statisticians are engaged in an exhausting but exhilarating struggle with the biggest challenge that philosophy makes to science: how do we translate information into knowledge? ...

"If you think that statistics has nothing to say about what you do or how you could do it better, then you are either wrong or in need of a more interesting job."

--Stephen Senn, Dicing With Death

Suggested by Paul Alper

Too much data?

All too much: Monstrous amounts of data
The Economist, 25 February 2010

A special report on managing data. To be continued...

Media highlights

The College Mathematics Journal has a column called Media Highlights. Norton Starr is one of the editors and his contributions are usually of interest to Chance News readers. In the March issue Noton has two such items.

For Decades, Puzzling People With Mathematics
The New York Times Stevin D Levitt
March 11, 2010

Norton writes.

This article gives an inspiring portrait of Martin Gardner, the

premier exponent of recreational mathematics for over 50 years.
It invites readers to see mathematics vastly richer and more interesting
than they may recall from their classrooms exercise. Norton says more

about Martin and ends with a quote from Rohnald Graham:

Martin has turned thousands of children into mathematicians,

and thousand of mathematicians into children.<\blockquote>

Do We Need a 37-Cent Coin?
The New York Times John Tierney
October 19,2009

to be continued

Submitted by Laurie Snell