Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
What Is Cause Like?
Time for the two-week teaching sojourn. In order to grasp cause, we need a brief, a very brief, introduction to the Aristotelian metaphysics of change. These are ancient views, largely…
Posted inCulture
When Should The Church Meddle In Science? Guest Post by Bob Kurland
A longer version of this essay can be found at Kurland's site. Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each…
Posted inStatistics
Response To Trenberth Over “Why Models Run Hot”
Update Be sure to come back on Sunday and see my wrap-up column. A reporter from Nature who could not be brought to understand science was more important than fallacy…
Posted inPhilosophy
The Gaia Hypothesis Is Either Trivial And Useless Or False And Ridiculous
Hans Schellnhuber is an adviser to the Vatican's Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In the peer-reviewed Nature paper "Climbing the co-evolution ladder" (431, 913 (21 October 2004)) he and two co-authors…
Posted inStatistics
Paper Claims Surprisingly Strong Link Between Climate Change And Violence. Nonsense.
When does more crime happen, in winter or summer? Why? Too easy. How about this one: according to the FBI, what was the violent crime rate over time? No need…
Posted inStatistics
Don’t Say “Hiatus.”
Don't say "pause", either. Update: Nor (see this post) "natural variability". What a mistake it is to use these words! There is no possible meaning of them which is sensible…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Don’t Use Statistics Unless You Have To
We're finally getting it, as evinced by the responses to the article "Netherlands Temperature Controversy: Or, Yet Again, How Not To Do Time Series." Let's return to the Screaming Willies.…
Posted inStatistics
On The Attribution Of A Single Event To Climate Change
Rained yesterday here in the city of cities. Must be because of climate change, right? Hey. The climate did change and it did rain. What more evidence do you want?…
