Can't count, won't count

The Economist this week reviews a new book called "The Tiger That Isn't" about getting to grips with numbers:

"NUMBERS get a bad press. Almost alone of the academic disciplines, mathematics is one where expressions of ignorance are more of a boast than a shameful admission (imagine admitting at a dinner party that you can't read).

Yet numbers are more important than ever. They are the language of most of science and much of government, two forces that do much to shape people's lives. They are the nervous system of any modern country, marshalled in support of arguments over everything from defence to which diseases should be treated.

Happily for the number-shy, help is at hand. A book about numbers and how to interpret them doesn't sound like interesting bedtime reading. Yet in the hands of Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot, respectively producer and presenter of “More or Less”, a BBC radio programme on the subject, that is what it becomes."

Did these numerophobics not watch Johnny Ball? Is everyone afraid of maths?