Posted inStatistics
Coin, queries, and screening
Work has caught up with me yet again, so here are three interesting stories to wile the time away. The probability of a coin flip Reader Ari Schwartz sent in…
Posted inBook review
An internet success story: Shakedown by Ezra Levant
Shakedown: How Our Government is Undermining Democracy in the Name of Human Rights by Ezra Levant M&S Recommendation: Buy if you want to slip Levant a Loonie, or go to…
Taking stock in the track: horse races and brokerages
This column was inspired by an interview I did with sports reporter Mark McGuire at the Albany Times Union. His story, in anticipation of the Saratoga races, can be found…
Posted inCulture
The sad decline of music: Billy Strayhorn vs. Drake
Inarguably, hip hop (rap) is one of the leading pop music genres; at least, it is one of the loudest. I did not know which hip hop singer to choose…
Posted inCulture
Gizmos in the classroom
I wanted to kiss Dean Jose Bowen (of the Meadows School of the Arts at SMU) when he warned his professors against the evil of PowerPoint (from A&LD). When he…
Posted inBook review
Closing Time, by Joe Queenan
Closing Time: A memoir by Joe Queenan Viking Recommendation: Borrow from a library if you're going fishing and think you won't be catching much. Joe Queenan's dad was a self-defeating…
Posted inStatistics
Leszek Kolakowski is dead
From Roger Kimball we learn that the fascinating Polish philosopher has died. Kolakowski was probably best know for his magisterial three-volume Main Currents of Marxism , published in the late…
Posted inCulture
Amazon remotely deletes legitimately purchased books from Kindles
Ari Schwartz sends along this link, from Gizmodo. Amazon [was] bending to the wishes of a publisher and deleting every single legitimately-purchased copy of 1984 and Animal Farm from all…