麻豆约拍

Sexual or Statistical Abuse?
Between 5 and 10% of girls suffer the most serious forms of sexual abuse, according to reports based on a paper published this week in The Lancet. These are shocking figures, but are they true? We investigate whether the statistics really support the claims of a hidden epidemic.

Maths and the Credit Crunch
Banks and hedge funds rely on highly paid mathematicians and economists known as "quants" to evaluate risk. Why didn't they see the credit crunch coming?

Paul Wilmott is a lecturer in financial mathematics and runs the profession's most popular website. He is a fan of quantitative finance - but he thinks that its misuse has played a part in creating the current banking crisis. It is all to do with a tendency for some mathematicians to get fixated on the numbers, whilst failing to think about the big picture.

VAT Cut
Many people have dismissed the recent reduction in the VAT rate from 17.5% to 15% as derisory. "A difference of 拢2.50 in a 拢100 is hardly light at the end of the tunnel," was the typical complaint. We explain why the news is worse than that.

Britain's Most Admired Companies
This week Management Today magazine announced that the drinks manufacturer Diageo is Britain's Most Admired Company.

The organisers claim the awards "offer a unique insight into the components of corporate reputation, by recognising key factors critical to business success."

All round brilliance or the halo effect? But is the survey based on flawed data?

Phil Rosenzweig, a professor at leading business school IMD in Geneva, claims the academics who spend months each year compiling the 'Most Admired' league tables are failing to take into account "the halo effect".

This is our tendency to perceive that a company which is doing wellfinancially is performing well in pretty much every field - from product quality and innovation through to the ability to attract and retain top talent.

According to Prof Rosenzweig, it is a phenomenon that is rife in the world of popular management science and in many of the leading business success books.

Is Fishing More Dangerous Than Boxing?
Boxers often defend their sport against those who would like to ban it by stating that it is less dangerous than fishing. Listener Su Heggerty asked us to investigate whether the boxers' claim is really true.

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