CHANCE Highlights
New Year Brings New Editor, Changes
Mike Larsen, Editor, Iowa State University
V
olume 21, Number 1, of CHANCE 9. In case you did not know, a winner is
(www.amstat.org/publications/ selected from among those who correctly
chance) should already have gone to solve the puzzle. The prize is a year sub-
the printer by the time this issue of Amstat scription to CHANCE.
News arrives in your mail box. The issue It is with great pleasure that I take
includes the diversity of topics that makes over as the executive editor of CHANCE.
probability and statistics such an interest- I began reading the magazine in gradu-
ing field of study. ate school and have enjoyed it ever since.
Two articles concern sports. Erik It has accessible articles about interest-
Heiny conducts an in-depth analysis of ing and important topics that highlight
the leaders of the PGA Tour, America’s top the contributing role of probability and
professional golf association tournaments. statistics. Topics and the background
Jarad Niemi, Brad Carlin, and Jonathan of authors are diverse. I look forward to
Alexander compare strategies for play- working with contributors, columnists,
ing sports betting pools. Their specific and editors to produce a quality magazine
example is the annual NCAA Division I each and every issue.
men’s basketball championship tourna- I would like to thank Michael Lavine
ment. The tournament, dubbed “March for his great service as executive editor and
Madness” by the media and basketball for his tremendous assistance to me in the
fans, will begin soon. transition. Most of the articles in this issue
In the area of politics, David Peterson were first submitted to CHANCE during
CHANCE Volume 20, Number 1
describes algorithms for drawing electoral his term as editor, and he and his editors
boundaries to reduce the politicization of deserve credit for their efforts. Lavine
the process. Methods are illustrated for dis- advised me on handling submissions and
tricts in North Carolina. Two articles are answered many questions without com-
teaching material—including handouts and
related to probability. M. Leigh Lunsford, plaint. ASA Communications Manager
study questions. The 20th anniversary issue
Ginger Holmes Rowell, and Tracy Megan Murphy also deserves thanks for
included many suggestions for teaching
Goodson-Espy discuss an assessment of her guidance, help to me, and work on
about statistics using articles in CHANCE.
student understanding of the central limit this issue.
The ASA has already begun working on
theorem. Jay Kadane relates the Cauchy- There are a few changes in CHANCE I
the web site. Have you noticed changes? In
Schwartz inequality to crowding on air- would like to see occur during my time as
my opinion, having CHANCE online and
planes. I always suspected the airlines had editor. First, I would like to see CHANCE
augmented with interesting supplemental
goals other than my comfort! go online. This will increase the access,
material will increase its already substantial
Two articles concern gender differences. impact, and attractiveness to people who
value. Besides these two goals, I primarily
Kris Moore, Dawn Carlson, Dwayne might consider submitting articles. It will
want to maintain the high level of quality,
Whitten, and Aimee Clement report on make using CHANCE articles in a course
relevance, and entertainment past editors
a survey of female and male executives. on statistics much easier. Several emails
have achieved.
Chris Sink and three high-school stu- have come to me asking how to access
As always, you are encouraged to
dents—Matthew Sink, Jonathan Stob, articles from the past. Wouldn’t it be neat
submit articles and ideas for articles to
and Kevin Taniguchi—present a well- to have all the articles from CHANCE’s 20-
CHANCE (chance@iastate.edu). If you
planned study of computer literacy. year history immediately available on your
have an interesting story to tell to a gen-
Completing the issue are the Visual desktop? I have begun discussions with the
eral audience in which probability and
Revelations and Puzzle Corner columns. ASA and Springer about options.
statistics play an important role, I’d love
Sam Savage and Howard Wainer demon- Second, the posting of online supple-
to hear from you. Instructions for authors
strate a visualization tool for probabilities mental material for CHANCE can be
can be found on the web site. Some arti-
of false positive determinations in the war greatly increased. Supplemental material
cles are available online through the link
on terror (and many other applications). may include supporting documents, survey
to previous issues. n
Thomas Jabine gives us Spiral Puzzle No. questionnaires, videos, color graphics, and
MARCH 2008 AMSTAT NEWS 25
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