天时地利人和LIFE: THE ODDS
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作者： Gregory Baer 著
出 版 社：
出版时间： 2003-12-1字数：版次： 1页数： 252印刷时间： 2003/10/01开本：印次：纸张： 胶版纸I S B N ： 9781592400331包装： 精装内容简介
This is an entertaining book that succeeds despite its author's missteps as a humorist. In presenting the odds of all manner of events both possible ("Dating a Supermodel") and improbable ("Becoming a Professional Athlete"), Baer (The Great Mutual Fund Trap) is clearly emulating the Worst-Case Scenario books, which have turned studying extreme real-life events into a cottage industry. Baer knows and expertly uses statistics and probabilities: it is fascinating to learn, for example, that the chances of dying by being hit by an asteroid are three times greater than dying in a train crash or an earthquake and are 250 times greater than dying from a shark attack. He also provides some revealing sidebars on certain topics, such as his look at how the odds of celebrity divorce are even worse than the already horrible odds of divorce for newly married couples ("about even money, 1 to 1"). Baer sometimes interrupts his statistical analyses with attempts at Dave Barry-style one-liners, but they fall flat, such as when he insults the livability of Cleveland or comments on the looks of Prince Charles's paramour Camilla Parker Bowles. Because of its range of topics, this book should gain some word-of-mouth praise, however, and will likely improve water-cooler conversations.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
作者简介
GREGORY BAER is the coauthor of The Great Mutual Fund Trap. He has served as
Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions and was formerly managing senior counsel at the Federal Reserve Board. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Harvard Law School, he is now a partner in a Washington, D.C., law firm.
目录
Introduction
A Brief Note on Terminology
Part 1:LOVE AND MARRIAGE
Dating a Supermodel
Being Poorly Endowed (or Romantically Linked to Someone Poorly Endowed)
Marrying Royalty
Marrying a Millionaire
D-I-V-O-R-C-E
Part 2: CLIMBING THE LADDER OF SUCCESS
Achieving Sainthood
Secular Sainthood: Being Awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor
Getting into an Ivy League College
Winning a Rhodes Scholarship
Writing a Best-selling Book
Going into Space
Winning an Academy Award
Growing Up to Be President
Part 3: REALLY BAD STUFF
Dying by Accident
Being Struck by Lightning
Being Possessed by Satan
Destruction of the Earth
Destruction of the Universe
Part 4: THE SPORTING LIFE
Catching a Ball at a Major League Game
Reaching the Summit of Mount Everest
Hitting a Hole in One
Bowling a Perfect Game
Becoming a Professional Athlete
Part 5: MEDICAL MATTERS
Getting Hemorrhoids
Being Killed by Your Doctor
Dying of the Plague
Beating Cancer
Part 6: THE HUMAN CONDITION
Being Six Degrees of Separation from Kevin Bacon (or Anyone Else)
Sharing a Birthday
Being Overweight--and Losing Those Unwanted Pounds (For Good)!
Being Alone in the Universe
Giving Birth to a Girl
Part 7: VOLENCE AND TRICKERY
Part 8: THE COLOR OF MONEY
Part 9: PANDOM GOOD FORTUNE
Endnotes
Acknowledgments
