Statistics – Page 206 – William M. Briggs

Researchers: Calling Girls Fat Makes Them Fat

Whatever you do, don't call somebody a "researcher". It could condemn them to a nasty, brutish, and short-tempered life. The kind where most of their time is spent scrambling for…

Statistics

Time Series And Causality: Global Warming Example

Temperature causes Here is an atmospheric monthly average temperature series: T = (61, 69, 69, 70, 72, 65, 63) (all F). What caused the temperature to take the value T1…

Statistics

Time Series Aren’t Easy: Tornado Deaths Example

Time series are the most abused statistics in the physical sciences. (It's an endless, raucous, peer-reviewed contest for the worst in the "soft sciences.") The Mann problem (is that a…

Philosophy Statistics

Physical Probability Doesn’t Exist

There have been many attempts to tie probability to physical chance. Here, briefly and for discussion, is why I think all of them fail. Ontology does not recapitulate epistemology Let…

Culture Statistics

A New Possible Solution Of Fermi’s Paradox

What is the probability the following proposition is true? ``There are rational beings other than humans in the universe." Well, given the evidence of angels, who are rational non-human beings,…

Philosophy Statistics

Correlation Implies Causation

A version of this post originally appeared on 20 October 2012. But after a Twitter conversation with our friend @Neuro_Skeptic, it's time for an addition. Comes a Salon article entitled…

Culture Statistics

Sexual Immorality, Low Birth Rates, And Religion

Pew Research released a survey on the Global Views on Morality, asking adults in each of several countries whether the following activities were morally unacceptable: Extramarital Affairs, Homosexuality, Abortion, Premarital…

Philosophy Statistics

Preface: The Philosophy of Probability and Statistics, An Introduction

%This is the Preface of The Philosophy of Probability and Statistics, An Introduction coming before Preface and before the chapters on Truth and Logic. Note the New & Improved title!…

spaceranger on Why There Are (Probably) No UFOs: “Climate Change”May 22, 2026
Two things I can never figure out are UFO pictures and police body cam videos.
Dave Narby on Why There Are (Probably) No UFOs: “Climate Change”May 22, 2026
There's been some pretty clear ones lately, at least to the resolution of the camera used, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcEEXLOORLI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zkZ3x1T0QU This…
James on Why There Are (Probably) No UFOs: “Climate Change”May 22, 2026
The same logic applies to the phenomenon of "ball lightning". It sounds credible, but there are no photos of it…
Uncle Mike on Blessed Memorial Day; No Class; See You WednesdayMay 21, 2026
Please enjoy your well-earned respite. Warmth is indeed a boon and blessing -- it's in the eighties here today and…
Cary D Cotterman on Why There Are (Probably) No UFOs: “Climate Change”May 20, 2026
There are clear photographs of just about any phenomenon imaginable, regardless of how fast, distant, small, or ephemeral it may…