Statistics – Page 227 – William M. Briggs

Should Scientists Be Held Legally Responsible for Their Results?

That title is lifted from Popular Science's brief article. The idea is that scientists---as philosopher Christopher Essex reminded me, just like doctors and accountants and businessmen and engineers and everybody…

Statistics

On Global Warming Apoplexy: Temperature Trends

It is a sure sign that Sanity has packed her bags and headed for the door when otherwise sober scientists begin slinging around terms like "denier" and "denialist." Language like…

Fun Statistics

How To Maximize The Chance Of Winning The Office Super Bowl Pool

Forget climatology. It's time for something really controversial. How to fill in those grid squares on the Super Bowl office pool. An example of one is shown below. The full…

Statistics

Bad Astronomer Does Bad Statistics: That Wall Street Journal Editorial

Remember when I said how you shouldn't draw straight lines in time series and then speak of the line as if the line was the data itself? About how the…

Philosophy Statistics

All Of Statistics: Part III

(B) New data It might surprise you, but in classical (both frequentist and Bayesian) practice, if we expect to see new X, the procedure is almost always no different than…

Philosophy Statistics

All Of Statistics: Part II

(A) No new data (cont.) If we want to know how that data arose, and we are not satisfied by X itself, we need to propose a model---a fully causal…

Philosophy Statistics

All Of Statistics: Part I

Statistics is the collection and modeling of data. By "modeling" I mean using probability to describe our uncertainty in values that data may take. Statistics, then, is applied probability. Probability…

Culture Statistics

Low IQ & Liberal Beliefs Linked To Poor Research?

Watch out Sam Harris, Gordon Hodson and Michael A. Busseri of Brock University are giving you competition for the worst use of statistics in an original paper. Their "Bright Minds…

Nate on Merry Christmas!December 28, 2024
Merry Christmas Matt!
SHAWN E MARSHALL on The Lesson Scientists Never LearnDecember 28, 2024
That is a great post - thanks. I have struggled through Hayek's "Road to Serfdom" and I think he says…
Johnno on The Lesson Scientists Never LearnDecember 28, 2024
"The No. 1 mystical belief of the age of science was that the methods of the natural sciences can and…
Johnno on Merry Christmas!December 28, 2024
Merry Christmas!
Bernard Carlisle on Merry Christmas!December 26, 2024
Great parting shot on the “Santa Math” episode: “Come back if you want to hear about the Easter Bunny”. Always…