Statistics – Page 179 – William M. Briggs

Infinite Surprise And Impossible Events

It's a lazy Saturday, so some musings today on entropy and information and probability. It's about time we started tying these things together. Things like the following are heard: "Given…

Statistics

Uncertainty Is An Impossible Sell

I've never seen the show, but I've heard that the protagonist on the X Files used to have a desk sign which read, "I want to believe." That sentiment characterizes…

Book review Statistics

The Moral Case For Fossil Fuels Reviewed

People first Just in time for the Federally-Recognized-Holiday-Of-25-December-That-Shall-Go-Unnamed we have a suitable gift for science deniers everywhere. Alex Epstein's The Moral Case For Fossil Fuels Science deniers? Yes, sir. Those…

Statistics

Can We Predict The Unpredictable?

The most intriguing thing about the new peer-reviewed paper of the same name as today's post in Nature: Scientific Reports by Abbas Golestani and Robin Gras is that it is…

Statistics

Climate Change Causing Short Peruvians!

Who remembers those crank scientists who wanted to genetically engineer human beings so that they would be sprier and narrower and thus have smaller "carbon footprints"? We don't need 'em!…

Philosophy 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.…

Statistics

On That New “Gay Gene” Study

First and most important point: there is no way we're going to cover in 750 words the whole of this field. Much will be left out. This small article is…

Statistics

Predicting Doom—Guest Post by Thomas Galli

I am not a statistics wizard; an engineer, I value the predictive power of statistics. Indeed, if one can precisely control variables in the design of an experiment, statistics-based prediction…

Mark on In Which I Shockingly Agree With Sabine That Most Science Is Of Little Or No ValueSeptember 22, 2025
In light of today’s news from the WH, I’m eager to hear what you make of the link between Tylenol…
John Pate on In Which I Shockingly Agree With Sabine That Most Science Is Of Little Or No ValueSeptember 22, 2025
The powers that be have substituted for religion with Bad Science, it's not wasting money because it's furthering the agendas…
Uncle Mike on In Which I Shockingly Agree With Sabine That Most Science Is Of Little Or No ValueSeptember 22, 2025
If Bad Science was merely a waste of money, it wouldn't be so bad. Money is wasted all the time,…
Briggs on Class 65: A Last Plea Never To Use Or Trust Statistical Evidence Like ThisSeptember 20, 2025
Glenn, Clearly my enemies, responsible for all typos, are on the Student's side.
JRob on Class 65: A Last Plea Never To Use Or Trust Statistical Evidence Like ThisSeptember 19, 2025
The spurious correlation example is the best proof that p values can't be used. That's what you have to hammer…