Word: randomization
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...pollsters switched to the more accurate "random sample," which relies on the theory of probability and owes its development to Galileo, Pascal, some expert gamblers and the U.S. Census Bureau. Probability theory says that if a jar contains 1,000,000 beans-half black and half white-and somebody scoops up 100 of them, he will almost always draw half black and half white, within a 3% margin of error. Gallup views the nation as a big bowl of beans. On a strictly random basis, he picks 300 sections of the U.S. and selects five voters in each section. Then...
...thing, any poll sponsored by a candidate is quite possibly slanted. Polls conducted by newspapers may also be unreliable because they do not test a true random sample but measure a floating population on street corners and in bars, tending to overlook housewives, elderly people and stay-at-homes. The best polls are those conducted by established, well-known polling organizations that regularly publish results. Even these may be suspect if the sample was less than 1,000, the question is unstated, and the poll was taken more than two weeks before publication...
...respect. The result is a fragmented, elusive kind of brilliance which is in great part due to the unusual richness of Cunningham's choreographic vocabulary. So, in his solo, "Collage III," Cunningham lightly explodes from one motion to the next. There are no echoes in the dance. He sculpts random and beautiful moods in the air. For some the experience is wonderful...
...perhaps social-science fiction. Literature today is overshadowed by audio-visual art forms that threaten to turn into total pinball-machine environments. But Barthelme, 37, continues to demonstrate that language can be a mixed-media production all by itself. He translates the chipped teacups, navel lint, prattle and random static of life into even rows of words that twitter, bong, flash and glow signals of exquisite distress...
IBERIA by James A. Michener. 818 pages. Random House...