http://wmbriggs.com/blog "All manner of statistical analyses cheerfully undertaken." Fri, 04 Jul 2008 11:12:22 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Here's the problem. You are a scientist, working on measuring the levels of aragonite in ocean water. It's not very sexy and nobody beyond a small cadre seems to care. But it's grant time and you and your team are "figuring out how to make the issue ... http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/04/at-least-theyre-admitting-it/ Nature magazine reports this headline: Condemned to single-sex life by climate change. They are talking about a species of lizards called tuatara that live "on about 30 small islands in New Zealand’s north." The disgusting, scaly creatures are in exile on those islands because they have everywhere else been ... http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/02/lizards-all-male-climate-change-club/ Another piece of data is in that shows money does not correlate with intelligence. "Artist" Martin Creed (pictured above) created a "work" called 850, which he will exhibit at the well-known Tate Britain art gallery starting today. The "work" consists of having joggers, once every thirty seconds, trot through the museum. Yes, you ... http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/01/i-wish-i-was-making-this-up/ Chris Anderson, over at Wired magazine, has written an article called The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete. Anderson, whose thesis is that we no longer need to think because computers filled with petabytes of data will do that for us, doesn't appear to be arguing ... http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/07/01/wireds-theory-the-end-of-theory/ The Institute of Mathematical Statistics (I am a member) has issued a report on the wide-spread misuse of Citation Statistics. The full report may be found here. The non-surprising main findings are: Statistics are not more accurate when they are improperly used; statistics can mislead when they are misused or misunderstood. The objectivity of ... http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/06/30/ims-citation-indexes-stink/ We, dear readers, have earlier dealt with the nonsensical argument, of which an Enlightened few are excessively fond, "There is no truth." This is an argument often employed by those who embrace the idea that "all cultures are of equal value." It is also commonly found, if sometimes ... http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/06/24/variant-on-a-theme/ The Ithaca Hours, mentioned in the previous post, quantify a barter system, trading "hours worked" at one task for equivalent "hours worked" at another. For example, you might trade one "hour" of "Cranio-sacral therapy, energy healing" for 10 hours of "Speaking & consulting on non-violent symbolic action." Most ... http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/06/23/ithaca-update-hours-and-dogs-as-presidential-candidates/ I am in Ithaca, New York, teaching a short course at Cornell University. Have you ever visited Ithaca? It was once voted the "most enlightened city in America" by the far-left magazine Utne Reader. Plenty of Volvos with "Impeach Bush" bumper stickers on them, a score ... http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/06/21/but-you-must-hate-us/ You will have by now heard that some are advocating the use of "instant replay" in baseball. The, for lack of a better word, entities pushing for this realize its nefarious implications, and so suggest the video tape be referenced only for disputed home run calls. Please, God, do ... http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/06/17/please-dont-let-them-do-it/ Nothing is true unless it has been demonstrated and published in a peer-reviewed journal. For example, until last week, many people suspected that when men look at nearly or completely naked women, they tend to be distracted. Anybody who believed that was foolish to do so because ... http://wmbriggs.com/blog/2008/06/12/peer-reviewed-research-men-find-looking-at-nearly-naked-women-distracting/