Statistics – Page 243 – William M. Briggs

Were Medications Responsible For The Connecticut Lanza Murders?

Some are speculating that the evil, and thank God dead, Adam Lanza was on SSRIs, which are medications designed to mess with your mind (in the pleasantest of ways), and…

Statistics

Politico’s Biased Reporting Of Its Own Poll

Today's post is over at Legal Insurrection. The headline, helpfully supplied by William Jacobson, is "Politico poll showing 'plurality support' for gay marriage also shows majority opposition." Headline writing is…

Culture Statistics

What Can We Learn From A Crude Model Of Sexually Transmitted Diseases?

It's Statistical Modeling Day, so let's look at one dealing with sexually transmitted diseases. Why this subject? Well, according to New York's CBS 2, "Study Shows Soaring STD Rates In…

Philosophy Statistics

What Does The Regression Equation Mean? Causality? Something Else?

Saw this tweet this fine morning: https://twitter.com/MarkThoma/status/276542962622668800 and downloaded the paper at the landing site, co-authored by Judea Pearl, he of Causality fame (a recommended book). Pearl and a co-author…

Culture Statistics

We Will Soon All Be Mentally Ill: DSM V & Testing All Children For Mental Disease

"The history of psychiatry is littered with fad diagnoses that in retrospect did far more harm than good," says doctor Allen Frances, the chairman of the DSM-IV Task Force and…

Statistics

Machine Learning, Big Data, Deep Learning, Data Mining, Statistics, Decision & Risk Analysis, Probability, Fuzzy Logic FAQ

Last Updated 3 December 2012, 7:24 AM EST. What's the difference between machine learning, deep learning, big data, statistics, decision & risk analysis, probability, fuzzy logic, and all the rest?…

Statistics

Legal Insurrection: Wishcasting the 2012 Presidential Election

Today's post is over at Legal Insurrection, a classy site run by Cornell Law guy Bill Jacobson. I have a preliminary analysis of wishcasting the election. Once it's finished, I'll…

Statistics

Spanking Kids Causes Cancer. Also, Asthma and Cardiac Disease.

Yes, and cardiac disease and asthma, too. Or so say Michael Hyland, Ahmed Alkhalaf, and Ben Whalley in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine. The press is already hot on this…

Chad Jessup on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 5, 2026
I am very happy for any information you post, so whatever suits your time and interests is fine with me.…
Steve on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 5, 2026
The bikini rule -- less is more, but it has to cover all the important stuff. As with human bodies,…
Heresolong on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 5, 2026
Yes.
Jose Miro Julia on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 5, 2026
I'd prefer 3-4 short ones a week.
Ivdas Machabevs on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 4, 2026
Longer, deeper, rarer.