Today’s show covers speed cameras, counting birds to track avian epidemics, quants and the credit crunch, and a way to halve measured hospital waiting times with a spot of clever counting. Radio 4, 4.30pm today - or podcast from the website.

Update: No quants or credit crunch today; middle-class drinking instead. Credit crunch next week; sorry.

As I enter the porter’s lodge at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, I fleetingly reflect that I may be about to receive an intimidating tutorial from the college principal, Andrew Dilnot. It is not that the economist has a stern reputation, but today’s circumstances are unusual. He recently stepped down from presenting More or Less, a BBC Radio 4 series about numbers in the news. I have been recruited as the new presenter, and am ready to be patronised – or worse.

I needn’t have worried: as he strides into the lodge in a pale brown linen suit and blue tie, Dilnot’s smile is genuine enough, and as we walk together through north Oxford’s leafy residential streets, he is more eager to identify shared acquaintances in the world of economics than to lecture me on the art of radio presenting…

Read the whole piece here or in the FT on Saturday. My previous lunches have been with Gary Becker, Steven Levitt and Thomas Schelling.

Is a debate on measuring happiness pitching Lord Layard against Paul Ormerod. They disagreed strongly and constructively. Also, I ask whether Christians really are happier than athiests, or whether that is an artefact of the surveys.
Tyler Cowen, Will Wilkinson, Jeff Sachs and Betsey Stevenson recently participated in a debate on happiness in New York. I missed it but will point you to any write-ups I see.

Update: Tyler’s unhappy evil twin explains why America is failing at the pursuit of happiness.

In today’s programme (4.30pm GMT on BBC Radio 4, and podcast thereafter) we’ll be looking at silly "scientific" results commissioned by public relations companies, at the row over immigration statistics, and an international dispute over how heavy a kilogram should be. Check it out.

John Kay is on good form this morning on the subject of the psuedo-survey, concocted for PR purposes:

Universal Widgets is not a very interesting company, widgets are not a very interesting product, and Nigel Snooks, the chief executive, is not a very interesting man. But a survey that shows that two-thirds of men have contemplated hitting their wives with a widget will produce many media slots in which Mr Snooks of Universal Widgets can recount the findings.

Here’s Ben Goldacre on a similar subject:

These “cash for bad science” stories add nothing to our understanding of the world, and they do nothing to promote science. They sell products, pay money, misrepresent the very notion of doing research, and sell the idea that scientists are irrelevant boffins engaged in pointless head scratching.

We might try to look into this for More or Less.

The first episde of the new series  of More or Less starts tomorrow, Monday, at 4.30pm UK time. It should be possible to listen on line. Here’s the trail:

At "More or Less", we seize the numbers so casually brandished around by politicians and journalists, and put them in your hands. We’ll ask if middle class areas really do have the worst drinking problem in the country. And what does drinking 21 units of alcohol a week actually imply for your health? We’ll also be meeting the numbers wizards making millions in the City, and making radio history with a totally new kind of weather report.

Why am I telling you this? Because I’m presenting the series.