Posted inStatistics
The Unexpected Hanging Paradox
From reader Neil Taylor comes the request we examine the unexpected hanging paradox. I'm stealing from Wikipedia, which stole a version from Wolfram. A judge tells a condemned prisoner that…
Posted inStatistics
The Alternative To Null Hypothesis Significance Testing
This article jumps right in with continuous-valued probability models, which are explained in Uncertainty, as is the subject of this article in great detail. This article is only a rough…
Posted inStatistics
Stream: No, a Study Did Not Show That Same-Sex “Marriage” Laws Reduce Teen Suicide Rates
Folks, a ripe entry for the Fourth Annual WMBriggs.com Bad Science Award (and what about the Third Annual? It's coming, it's coming...). No, a Study Did Not Show That Same-Sex…
Posted inStatistics
Pope Francis Induces Warm Thoughts Of Global Warming
It's official. Science has donned the leather jacket, slipped on a pair of becoming Bermuda shorts, strapped on a pair of water skies, and soared into the air over the…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Randomness & God
Reader Omer Abid points us to Serkan Zorba's article "God is Random: A New Perspective on Evolution and Creationism", which has concepts of interest to all of us (Abid asked…
Posted inStatistics
Headline: We Used Terrible Science to Justify Smoking Bans. Amen: We Did
When they used to tell me I would shorten my life ten years by smoking, they little knew the devotee they were wasting their puerile word upon---they little knew how…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Induction & Essence
Suppose we observe a raven. It's black. We see a second, also black. And so on for a few dozen more. We reason, or rather we argue with ourselves, "Since…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
The Big Bang, Eternal Inflation & Many Worlds
We're back to our Edge series of ideas scientists wish more people knew about. Today is John C. Mather and the Big Bang. Mather isn't pleased with popular conceptions. What…