What is the probability the Detroit Lions lose every game (again!)
I am from Detroit and I am a Lions fan; erstwhile, anyway. The Lions stink, stank, and have stunk since before I was born. They are lousy, appalling, and nausea-inducing.…
Posted inBook review
Real Education by Charles Murray
Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America's Schools Back to Reality by Charles Murray Recommendation: read (buy here). The word median is statistical: it is the point at which…
Posted inCulture
Can You Read My Mind?
Ghosts, ESP, telekinesis, astrology, and other assorted oddities are back in view. One of the "SyFy" channel's most popular series is a show about hunting apparitions. The movie Men Who…
Posted inStatistics
Poem Code Challenge Hint
In the last post, reader George suggested a challenge to see whether or not short poem codes would be easy to "break"; that is, decrypt without access to the original…
Posted inFun
Vegetarian Swallow Balls
I went shopping in Chinatown and found these delicacies, which match well with the vegetarian intestines I found last year. Enjoy these---hand slaughtered!---treats on one of the last weekends of…
Posted inStatistics
You were right, Ted Kennedy
One day in 1973, in his squeaky, pickled-vocal-chords baritone Ted Kennedy filled the Senate chamber with these words: "Do we operate under a system of equal justice under law? Or…
Posted inBook review Culture
10 Books To Read Before You Die
G.K. Chesterton was asked what book would he most like to have with him on a desert island. Slick as ever, he said, Thomas's Guide to Practical Shipbuilding. And then…
Posted inBook review Culture
Fads and Fallacies in the Social Sciences by Steven Goldberg: Part IV
This article summarizes the main statistical arguments and the one logical argument used for and against Goldberg's ideas. To be clear: I am convinced by his arguments in the main…