Category: 3-DailySometimeCommentary

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - Measuring famine

How do you measure a famine? Following the UN?s recent announcement that famine conditions have ended in Somalia, More or Less explores what the definition of a famine is ? and how definite a definition it is. Tim Harford hears from Grainne Moloney, head of the UN?s Food Security and Nutrition Analysis Unit and Professor Stephen Devereux from the Institute of Development Studies. Also in the programme: Muhammed Ali?s boxing trainer, Angelo Dundee, was arguably one of sport?s greatest behind-the-scenes figures. But did he really deliberately tear Ali?s boxing glove to win the star crucial recovery time in his 1963 fight against Sir Henry Cooper? Tim Harford gets out his stopwatch for a simple exercise in counting. This programme was originally broadcast on the BBC World Service.

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More or Less: Behind the Stats - More alive than dead?

Tim Harford investigates one of the most popular questions from More or Less listeners: ?Are there more people alive today than have ever lived?? It is a zombie statistic that every time it is laid to rest it rises again. He also looks at whether science fiction writer Arthur C Clarke was right when he suggested that behind every living person are 30 ghosts. He also investigates the strange story of Michelle Obama?s shopping trip to a lingerie store in New York. Can she really have spent $50,000 on underwear? This programme was originally broadcast on the BBC World Service.