Eurovision and fact-checking Naomi Wolf
The stats behind making a successful song, plus misunderstanding Victorian court records.
The formula for a successful Eurovision song
Last weekend the UK entry to Eurovision came last. Pop writer Chris Lochery has been looking at the statistics to see what characteristics winning songs have. The data show him, he claims, exactly what the UK is doing wrong.
Criminalising Victorian gay men – a case of misinterpretation?
Radio 3’s Free Thinking ran an interview this week with academic Dr Naomi Wolf about her new book on 19th century attitudes to homosexuality. The presenter Dr Matthew Sweet challenged her on her statistics about prosecutions especially the idea that there had been dozens of executions in the mid-19th Century. He found that the figures she had cited were not quite what they seemed.
What’s the point of statins?
A loyal listener asks what difference taking statins makes in reducing his chances of suffering from a stroke or heart attack in the next 10 years. We ask GP and broadcaster Dr Margaret McCartney to explain.
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- Fri 24 May 2019 16:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
- Sun 26 May 2019 20:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
Just how reliable is our intuition? Find out with The Open University
OU Connect: Put your brain to the test with our new mind-bending probability problems!
When can you trust statistics?
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Ideas discovers three easy ways to help make sense of statistics.
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