Cordon Blues?
Envy the lucky travelers of London. As you may know, in 2003 the city imposed a congestion toll of £5 (later raised to £8) on all vehicles entering the central district. In 2007, Transport for London, a government agency, did a cost-benefit analysis of the impacts (find the full report here).
It found the following about costs per year to travelers in the central district:
* Individuals and business travelers pay about £236 million in tolls.
* Some trips to the area are canceled, costing would-have-been drivers the equivalent of about £31 million.
* It costs motorists and firms £19 million to comply with the system.
* Total burden on travelers: £286 million. Read More »
Introducing: The Book of Odds
What’s more dangerous: a playground jungle gym or your office chair? As it happens, one in every 3,759 fatal accidental falls starts from a piece of playground equipment. You’re 85 times more likely, meanwhile, to fall to your death from a chair. That’s one of the many odd pairings waiting to be discovered in The Book of Odds, an online statistical encyclopedia launching tomorrow.
Some other probabilistic tidbits I found digging through the site: Read More »
Beyoncé Logic
Implicitly, Alex was arguing, “If you are an independent, then you have a mind of your own.”
From which she concludes, “Conversely, if you are not an independent,” then you do not have a mind of your own.
Alex, I think, is making both a mistake in English usage and a mistake in logic.
Her mistake in usage is that she should have said “inversely” instead of “conversely.” The converse of “If p, then q” is “If q, then p.” But the last frame concerns an inverse: “If not p, then not q.” An interesting empirical study would look to see how often newspapers or academics misuse these adverbs (I’m sure I have). Read More »
SuperFreakonomics Tour Info, Etc.
For a few years now, this blog has included a link whereby readers could sign up for an e-mail newsletter. Many of you did so but for whatever reason we never actually sent out anything. If we had something to say, we’d just say it here on the blog. But now with a new book finally about to be published here and in the U.K. (and other English-speaking nations), we have fired up the e-mail list. The first missive went out last week. If you wanted it and got it, do nothing. If you got it and didn’t want it, you may unsubscribe and our feelings won’t be hurt. If you didn’t get it and want it, sign up here. Read More »
and 
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