Statistics – Page 189 – William M. Briggs

Grandmaster: Men Better At Chess. Or, Data And The Underdetermination Of Theory

Update Note the New & Improved title! Chess Grandmaster Nigel Short caused a stink, reaching oooo-weee! but not quite burn-him! levels, when he said that men and women are different…

Statistics

The Logic Puzzle That Is “Stumping The Internet.” Update: Now With Solution

The Washington Post thinks the puzzle above is hideously difficult and says that it has become an "obsession". The writer there certainly finds it sweat-inducing: "As the problem spread far…

Philosophy Statistics

Space’s 10 Mistakes People Make When Arguing Science

Reader Ken pointed us to Space.com's click-me-click-me! article "The 10 Mistakes People Make When Arguing Science". Since everybody loves numbered lists, I'll duplicate their efforts here, using their mistakes. Isn't…

Fun Statistics

Masters Statistics & (Some) Predictions

Here's a view of the winning scores from par since the inception of the tournament. The early years saw little variability, but since the 60s there were a lot more…

Statistics

P-Value Hacking Is Finally Being Noticed

Since I'm on the road, all typos today are free of charge. Some reasonably good news to report. A peer-reviewed paper: "The fickle P value generates irreproducible results" by Lewis…

Statistics

What Evidence Would Persuade You That Man-Made Climate Change Is Real?

Somebody named Ronald Bailey (he isn't anybody I know) at the inaptly named Reason asked the good question which heads this post. Second thought: the question is awful. No scientist…

Culture Statistics

Global Warming Hypocrisy: Or, Science Is Politics

Lefties take money, too In an interview with far-left New York Times, activist and part-time scientist Michael Oppenheimer says "nothing follows" from his taking moola from the EDF (Environmental Defense…

Statistics

Bill Nye The Science Guy Confuses Scientific Uncertainty Versus Doubt

On the road, so something quick. Reader Paul Mullen writes: Briggs, A fellow at the salt mine was thoughtful enough to leave a copy in the break room of April's…

Johnno on Math Is Epistemic Violence, Says Lady AcademicJune 21, 2026
That's a lot of words just to say Math is intrinsically patriarchal because statistics show boys are better than girls…
Johnno on Climate Change Increases Risk of Even Slower World Cup Games!June 21, 2026
They could host the matches in indoor arenas... but that would mean turning on the air conditioning, which means electricity,…
hudbwu on Math Is Epistemic Violence, Says Lady AcademicJune 20, 2026
We they're certainly re-inventing. Promises kept, I guess. Also, I can't escape thinking this is what the mice and rats…
hudbwu on The Ultimate IQ Test: Guessing the Author’s Mind and Escaping the Infinity of AnswersJune 20, 2026
ObvIOusLy, the correct formula for the triangles at the start is (upper_left + upper_right) * upper_left , which gives us…
Andras Kuthi on Truly Random Numbers Found?June 19, 2026
Contemplate that Epstein won the New Mexico lottery...so much for randomly generated numbers.