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Tails You Win: The Science of Chance (2012)

Posted By: ParRus

Date: 2 Oct 2014 20:55:26

Tails You Win: The Science of Chance

DVDRip | Language: English | Subtitles: Dutch | MKV | 720 x 576 | AVC ~4281 Kbps | 25 fps
AAC | 160 kbps | 48.0 KHz | 2 channels | 00:59:03 | 1.77 GB

Genre: Documentary

Smart and witty, jam-packed with augmented-reality graphics and fascinating history, this film, presented by Professor David Spiegelhalter, tries to pin down what chance is and how it works in the real world. For once this really is 'risky' television. The film follows in the footsteps of The Joy of Stats, which won the prestigious Grierson Award for Best Science/Natural History programme of 2011. Now the same blend of wit and wisdom, animation, graphics and gleeful nerdery is applied to the joys of chance and the mysteries of probability, the vital branch of mathematics that gives us a handle on what might happen in the future. Professor Spiegelhalter is ideally suited to that task, being Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk at Cambridge University, as well as being a recent Winter Wipeout contestant on BBC TV.

How can you maximise your chances of living till you're 100? Why do many of us experience so many spooky coincidences? Should I take an umbrella? These are just some of the everyday questions the film tackles as it moves between Cambridge, Las Vegas, San Francisco and… Reading.

Yet the film isn't shy of some rather loftier questions. After all, our lives are pulled about and pushed around by the mysterious workings of chance, fate, luck, call it what you will. But what actually is chance? Is it something fundamental to the fabric of the universe? Or rather, as the French 18th century scientist Pierre Laplace put it, 'merely a measure of our ignorance'.

Along the way Spiegelhalter is thrilled to discover One Million Random Digits, probably the most boring book in the world, but one full of hidden patterns and shapes. He introduces us to the cheery little unit called the micromort (a one-in-a-million chance of dying), taking the rational decision to go sky-diving because doing so only increases his risk of dying this year from 7000 to 7007 micromorts. And in one sequence he uses the latest infographics to demonstrate how life expectancy has increased in his lifetime and how it is affected by our lifestyle choices - drinking, obesity, smoking and exercise.

Did you know that by running regularly for half an hour a day you can expect to extend your life by half an hour a day? So all very well… if you like running.

Ultimately, Tails You Win: The Science of Chance tells the story of how we discovered how chance works, and even to work out the odds for the future; how we tried - but so often failed - to conquer it; and how we may finally be learning to love it, increasingly setting uncertainty itself to work to help crack some of science's more intractable problems.

Other contributors include former England cricketer Ed Smith, whose career was cut down in its prime through a freak, unlucky accident; Las Vegas gambling legend Mike Shackleford, the self-styled 'Wizard of Odds'; and chief economist of the Bank of England, Spencer Dale.

(!) also on this subject: The Joy of Stats with Hans Rosling (2010)

MediaInfo

Complete name : Tails_You_Win-The_Science_of_Chance_2012.mkv
Format : Matroska
File size : 1.77 GiB
Duration : 59mn 3s
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 4 281 Kbps
Writing application : Nero MKV Muxer
Writing library : Nero MKV Muxer

Video
ID : 1
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Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : Main@L3.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 2 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 59mn 3s
Bit rate mode : Variable
Maximum bit rate : 10 000 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
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Frame rate : 25.000 fps
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Language : English
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Channel positions : Front: L R
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Compression mode : Lossy
Language : English
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Text
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Codec ID/Info : The same subtitle format used on DVDs
Language : Dutch
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