RSSeNEWS to be determined...

The September issue of Significance is a first: it goes to RSS members, but to members of the American Statistical Association (ASA) as well.

If you found yourself stranded, in America or anywhere else, by that Icelandic volcano, the issue tells why the disruption to flights was greater than it need have been. It uncovers a statistical lie that helped Saddam Hussein and Tony Blair (but that embarrassed a US Secretary of State). It looks at the real false inferences in the American health care debate – and, in the light of the just-announced referendum on proportional representation, examines which systems of voting world-wide are the fairest. And it has George Box, Grand Old Man of Anglo-American statistics, telling how he became a statistician.

It has also a rather sweet orangutan on the cover. Bayesian methods are pointing to ways of discovering more about these shy and threatened creatures and can contribute directly to efforts to saving them.

It has genome science in it, Nobel prize winners, ways to organise a random trial and ways to borrow money that do not involve the banks. We hope that the new joint issue, fruit of collaboration between the two societies, is unchanged in style and in tone, and that RSS members will find it just as enjoyable, and as relevant, as before. Read it, and let us know.