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...flying cannonball, it is impossible to determine how far apart two leaves will be after they go through a waterfall or exactly what the weather will be a month from now. Reason: in systems governed by the mathematics of chaos, small events have big consequences. For instance, even the random firing of just a few neurons, say chaos theorists, can throw a normally beating heart into wildly irregular fibrillation. The best that scientists can do is recognize that the world's chaos follows certain patterns...
...event, now in its second year, used to be called "Casino Night," but the name was changed in response to demands by Cambridge city authorities. The city Licensing Commission forced the name change and said the event could award only random door prizes, not rewards based on chance, since gambling is not allowed in the city...
KEVIN PHILLIPS HAS BUILT A REPUTAtion as the dependable fortune-teller of American politics. BOILING POINT: REPUBLICANS, DEMOCRATS, AND THE DECLINE OF MIDDLE-CLASS PROSPERITY (Random House; $23) is not as boldly predictive as his earlier books: he compares this nation's fate to that of 17th century Holland and late 19th century England -- two economic powerhouses that declined under the weight of indebtedness at home and overexpansion abroad -- only to suggest later that the parallels may not hold up. But Phillips' statistics and his pictures of suburbia provide a rich backdrop to last November's election -- an instant context...
...Winthrop House Master James A. Davis said differences in gender ratios are often the result of random chance...
...GENTEEL OLD LADY EXPLAINS IT ALL in the early pages of FRAUD, Anita Brookner's new novel (Random House; $21). "She loves me, but I've taken away her life," she says of her daughter. "She will want to put me behind her, as I should have let her do years ago." Years ago and books ago. Brookner has built a reputation as Britain's foremost novelist of sensibility. Her books are true to their subjects and scrupulously written. But there comes a time when rebellion flares in the reader, who knows by now that it will take the daughter...