Statistics – Page 158 – William M. Briggs

Mathematical Association of America Reviews Uncertainty: The Soul of Modeling, Probability & Statistics

William J. Satzer at the Mathematical Association of America reviewed Uncertainty: The Soul of Modeling, Probability & Statistics. Here it is (ellipsis below original). This is a book about probability…

Statistics

Stream: Who’s Better At Playing Doctor, Boys Or Girls?

Stream: Who's Better At Playing Doctor, Boys Or Girls? The NBC News story "Female Doctors Outperform Male Doctors, According to Study" makes these bold claims. Patients treated by women are…

Statistics

Pascal’s Mugging Is Silly: Events Don’t “Have” Probabilities

Before we begin, see this similar article about a different mugging scenario, which demonstrated that all probability is conditional and that decision isn't probability. Here's the serious version of Pascal's…

Fun Statistics

Statistician to the Stars For Hire!

Herein our semi-annual reminder that the purpose of this blog is mercenary. Filthy lucre is both impetus and goal of its daily readings. Moola, the spondulicks, the government's glory, the…

Statistics

Muggings, Nuclear Devices, Probability & Decision

Somehow I ended up on the curious site LessWrong.com, directed by somebody with the nickname Yud (from Eliezer Yudkowsky). Odd isn't in it. Investigating it led me to Reddit and…

Statistics

Don’t Use Statistical Models (When You Don’t Have To. Which Is Nearly Always)

Today, a convincing argument proving the current practice of probability and statistics is mostly wrong, or wrong-headed. The picture above does---and does not---show herbicide use in several countries by year…

Culture Statistics

Science Asks: Why Are Angry Atheists Annoying?

What's more annoying than an atheist who harangues passersby about "rationality"? Easy answer: a scientist who announces a discovery about human behavior that was known by everybody since Adam. Our…

Statistics

Scientific People Understand Reality Less, New Research Didn’t Study

Headline: Religious people understand the world less, study suggests, which derives from the peer-reviewed paper "Does Poor Understanding of Physical World Predict Religious and Paranormal Beliefs?" in Applied Cognitive Psychology…

Cary D Cotterman on Justice Ketanji RoarsApril 7, 2026
How Democrats can support this woman without embarrassment just proves that they're, well, Democrats.
Uncle Mike on Justice Ketanji RoarsApril 7, 2026
KBJ is a flaming "liberal" Marxist typical of her identity group. She and they endorse sodomy and grooming of children…
Heresolong on Justice Ketanji RoarsApril 7, 2026
"the community has determined that efforts to change a patient’s sexual orientation or gender identity will necessarily be ineffective." And…
gareth on Iran Has Caught Covid: A Reason For The WarApril 7, 2026
Well written Briggs. When people, informed by BBC or Sky, used to say "that Idiot Trump" or whatever, I used…
Uncle Mike on Iran Has Caught Covid: A Reason For The WarApril 6, 2026
On Easter Sunday no less. I recall when Joe Dementia declared Easter to be National Tranny Day. I thought he…