Posted inPhilosophy
Homogenization of temperature series: Part II
Be sure to see: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V Aside: counterfactuals A counterfactual is statement saying what would be the case if its conditional were…
Posted inPhilosophy
Climategate Peer Review: Science red in tooth and claw
See also see this story on proxies I am a scientist and I have lived around fellow scientists for many years and I know their feeding habits well. I therefore…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Models, theories, consistency, and truth
Ready? Put on your best straight face, recall that global temperatures have not increased for a decade, and that it's actually been getting cooler, then repeat with Brenda Ekwurzel, of…
Posted inPhilosophy
The strange insignificance of statistical significance
Who is more likely to support the death penalty: college undergraduates from a "nationally-ranked Midwestern university with an enrollment of slightly more than 20,000" majoring in social work, or those…
Posted inPhilosophy
Randomness isn’t in charge of anything: the “hot hand” in basketball
The Wall Street Journal is helping Leonard Mlodinow tout his book The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives. Among other things, Mlodinow, like academics Tversky, Kahneman, and Gilovich before…
Posted inFun Philosophy
Shocking Shockley
This week's Science (29 May edition) has an unintentionally hilarious short piece. Seems Auburn, California wanted to name a park after local-boy-done-good William Shockley, the guy who invented the transistor.…
Posted inCulture Philosophy
Thou shalt not be more able
The funniest thing I have read in a long time comes from Robert Shibley, a member of "FIRE", the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (more details). The Virginia Tech…
Posted inCulture Philosophy
Gay marriage and tradition: a continuation
In Big Jake , John Wayne and Bruce Cabot ready themselves for the final battle against the bad guys. Wayne: Well, Sam, they say the elk in Montana are as…