Statistics – Page 142 – William M. Briggs

What Lousy Philosophy Tells Us About Belief In Global Warming

One reason people doubt global-warming-of-doom is because of lousy philosophers like N. Ángel Pinillos (note the New York Times-sophisticated inclusion of the accent). He wrote a piece entitled (in some…

Statistics

Biostatisticians: They Asked Us To Lie!

The paper is "Researcher Requests for Inappropriate Analysis and Reporting: A U.S. Survey of Consulting Biostatisticians" by Min Qi Wang, Alice F. Yan, and Ralph V. Katz in Annals of…

Class Statistics

How To Do Predictive Statistics: Part X: Survival Analysis

Query: now that I'm a video master, would people like videos of these lessons? I don't see how they'd help much, but who knows. Let me know below or via…

Statistics

Some Curious Results In World Poverty Rates — With Update People Say They Want (But Don’t)

The tweet above is from Human Progress. Thanks to @WrathofGnon for the tip. It shows the number of people by region who live "in poverty". It is a stacked line…

Philosophy Statistics

Next Time Somebody Asks You “What’s the Probability of X” Say This — Crucial Update!

Next time somebody asks you "What's the Probability of X", where X is any proposition, say this: there is no such probability. It doesn't exist. "Briggs, what's the probability of…

Statistics

Making P-values Weer To Achieve Significance Won’t Help

Mini-paper out in JAMA by Matt Vassar and pals: "Evaluation of Lowering the P Value Threshold for Statistical Significance From .05 to .005 in Previously Published Randomized Clinical Trials in…

Class Statistics

The Controversy Over Randomization And Balance In Clinical Trials

There was a paper a short while back, "Why all randomised controlled trials produce biased results", by Alexander Krauss, in the Annals of Medicine. Raised some academic eyebrows. Krauss says,…

Culture Statistics

An Illustration Of Type I Scientism

Regular readers will recall there are two Types of Scientism. Type I is belief that Science is needed to verify commonplace truths. Type II is the belief that only Science…

Brian (bulaoren) on Class 99: Entropy Part IOctober 31, 2026
During the summer of 1977, I was living with a woman who had a 2 year old daughter. My brother,…
Ultrarightist on Book Update: Launch DateOctober 29, 2026
Briggs, Thanks for the reply and the information. That is unfortunate. Hardbacks aren't made like they used to be, and…
McChuck on Class 99: Entropy Part IOctober 29, 2026
Entropy is described as a numerical rating of chaos. This is more confusing than not, and a poor descriptor, even…
Briggs on Book Update: Launch DateOctober 28, 2026
Ultrarightist, Apparently not: They use case laminate (also called adhesive case binding or image-wrap) construction: The page block is glued…
Cary Cotterman on Book Update: Launch DateOctober 28, 2026
Most book stores have a rack where employees put new books they've read, accompanied by short, usually hand-written reviews. It's…