How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Say you have a new disease, called SuperAIDS. Only one in a million people gets SuperAIDS. You develop a test for SuperAIDS that's 99 percent accurate. I mean, 99 percent of the time, it gives the correct result true if the subject is infected, and false if the subject is healthy. You give the test to a million people.
[…] If you test a million random people, you'll probably only find one case of real SuperAIDS. But your test won't identify one person as having SuperAIDS. It will identify 10,000 people as having it.
Your 99 percent accurate test will perform with 99.99 percent inaccuracy.
That's the paradox of the false positive. (8.58, 62-64)
Marcus not only understands statistics, he uses them to wreak havoc. Maybe we all need to get better at stats. Stat.
Quote #8
We had spies in our midst. (9.119)
Marcus has figured this out all from reading an online quiz people are sharing on their blogs. Does this mean that our favorite internet quizzes are actually all from spies? How else will we figure out what kind of superheroes and/or Disney characters we are?
Quote #9
[Ange:] "Oh, just Google it. I'm sure someone's written an article on holding a successful [press conference]. I mean, if the President can manage it, I'm sure you can. He looks like he can barely tie his shoes without help."
We ordered more coffee.
"You are a very smart woman," I said. (14.121-123)
George W. Bush was president of the United States when this book was published. He said things like "I think we agree, the past is over" and "I know that the human being and the fish can coexist" — statements like these launched thousands of internet memes, websites, and Facebook status updates.