Statistics – Page 245 – William M. Briggs

Legal Standards Of Proof And Probability

Different courts and legal systems use diverse phrases about evidentiary standards of proof1. Few to none are precise in the sense that they offer a fixed probability number for this…

Statistics

There Is No Such Thing As A Scientific Poll

There is no such thing as an unscientific one, either. A poll is this: a question or questions that are interpreted and answered by a group of individuals at a…

Statistics

Romney and Holdren Sittin’ In A Tree

Update: Somehow---I don't know how---the beginning of this piece has disappeared. I'll try to find it. Yeesh. Mitt Romeny, when Governor: Massachusetts continues to be committed to improving air quality…

Culture Statistics

British Judge Rules Against Bayes’s Theorem

A British judge has thrown a use of Bayes's rule out of his court. Not only that, his honor (Lordship?) ruled "against using similar statistical analysis in the courts in…

Culture Statistics

What Are The Chances Of War With China?

By the year 2012, or 2017, or 2022, what are the chances China's military engages US forces? Difficult question. But one which is better than asking the title question---because nobody…

Book review Culture Philosophy Statistics

Jeffrey Sachs Saves The World

The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity by Jeffrey Sachs Says Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor at Columbia, "Economic theory indeed supports the view that high tax rates…

Philosophy Statistics

Robert Heinlein And Evolving Probabilities

Writer Stephen Dawson, a long-time participant at this blog, wrote and asked the following: In his The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein had his intelligent computer calculate the…

Statistics

The Implications Of Yesterday’s Global Warming Post

There was nothing in the world wrong with my scientific paper "Global Warming Increases Disastrous Music: A Scientific Paper." Nothing, that is, that isn't wrong with any paper which seeks,…

Paul Murphy on The Nuances and Challenges of Federal Funding for Research — Guest Post by An AcademicMay 14, 2025
Wow, what is that the naive outsider's view? In reality: 1 - you don't get tenure unless your name is…
cdquarles on The Nuances and Challenges of Federal Funding for Research — Guest Post by An AcademicMay 14, 2025
It is laughable that the premise that "commercial" funding of research is corrupting, but government funding isn't. What was that…
cdquarles on Eggs and ‘PFAS-Easter’ or Selling Fear on the Day of Resurrection — Guest Post by Jaap HanekampMay 14, 2025
Bingo, SSG Briggs. List for me, in order of mass with the most mass first, all of the chemicals in…
hudbwu on Academics Call Pregnancy A DiseaseMay 13, 2025
A moment of silence for all the pain and suffering Briggs endured to bring us this comedic piece. Trully, greatest…
hudbwu on Eggs and ‘PFAS-Easter’ or Selling Fear on the Day of Resurrection — Guest Post by Jaap HanekampMay 13, 2025
I would have preferred if the dosage for the toxins in rats were expressed in the same units as the…