Screw the Republicans. Literally.

"The Commonsense Guide to Understanding Numbers in the News, in Politics, and in Life" is a new book with a longwinded title that attempts to do exactly what it says.  The authors (Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot) take all those numbers we see on the news -- those misused statistics that are so attractive -- and debunk them.

For instance, consider a news story that says there is a correlation between big hands and better reading comprehension.  This is a classic case of two factors being correlated, but not causally related.  It may be that these two things go together, but having big hands does not cause better reading.  And so they found.  Bigger people have bigger hands.  Adults are bigger people.  Adults are better readers than children, who have small hands.

Or the study that showed Republicans enjoy sex more than Democrats.  Good dating tip, I guess.  But more men vote Republican than Democrat.  And men claim to enjoy sex more than women. 

I haven't read the book yet.  These examples are from reviews I've seen.  The book sounds like the flip side of Steven Levitt's "Freakonomics," which I read a couple of years ago.  In Freakonomics, Leavitt explains things like why legalization of abortion has reduced the crime rate.

So in Freakonomics, sometimes things that don't seem to be related, actually are.  In the Commonsense Guide, things that seem related, actually are not.

Beowulf

Once the new Beowulf movie hits theaters, how many high school students are going to read the epic poem? One might argue that the explosions, violence and sexy Angelina Jolie might prompt an interest in reading the actual poem. That won't happen. The poem isn't delivered in splashy fashion. I suspect it will be hard for kids to see the parallels between the movie and poem. I also think it is unlikely that this generation of kids picks up a book after seeing a good movie about it. I cannot begrudge them for that. Whichever you see/read second, is the medium that is usually less satisfying. I have one exception: Gone With The Wind. I saw the movie first and read the book second, and the book was still infinitely better. Actually, Roots falls into that category as well. The real reason the Beowulf movie won't generate student interest in the poem? The poem isn't very interesting. It has historical significance, but it isn't a good read.