So many Bell Curves, so little Time

Bart Kosko from USC has a dangerous idea - that we're all over-simplifying by using the classical central limit theorem.

"Rare events are not so rare if the bell curve has thicker tails than the normal bell curve has. Telephone interrupts are more frequent. Lightning flashes are more frequent and more energetic. Stock market fluctuations or crashes are more frequent. How much more frequent they are depends on how thick the tail is — and that is always an empirical question of fact."