Impossible odds

Author

Perspective Media
August 21, 2024

This week, Rowan Pelling ponders maths, risk and the improbable odds involved in the Bayesian yacht tragedy (named for Thomas Bayes’ Theorem of probability), Peter Phelps looks at how the cowardly West is failing to maintain its role as the protector of democracy, plus our Book of the Week.

Impossible odds
BY ROWAN PELLING

Everything is predictable, or is it? Bayesian Theory underpins our understanding of probability, which is why Mike Lynch named his yacht after it. Rowan Pelling wrestles with risk and the unlikeliest of stories

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The story is gripping because Lynch had beaten sky-high odds only to become the victim of a passingly rare disaster

More inspections of sunken yacht carried out as hunt goes on for six feared dead

Business tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah are among those missing.

www.perspectivemedia.com/more-inspections-of-sunken-yacht-carried-out-as-hunt-goes-on-for-six-feared-dead

Luxury yacht disaster: what we know

Six people, including technology billionaire Mike Lynch, are missing after a superyacht sank off the Italian coast.

www.perspectivemedia.com/luxury-yacht-disaster-what-we-know

The West is failing democracy
BY PETER PHELPS

Germany's decision to reduce support for Ukraine is just another sign of the West's failure to protect less powerful nations against global bullies

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America and its closest allies ran roughshod over the very international principles they were so instrumental in establishing

READ THE FULL STORY

Book of the Week
REVIEWED BY BELINDA BAMBER

Why a dog’s life is a philosophical ideal

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