Statistics – Page 245 – William M. Briggs

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,…

Statistics

Global Warming Increases Disastrous Music: A Scientific Paper

A scientific paper in a grand tradition (notice the scientific formatting and use of p-values): the custom is to read only the Abstract; only the brave and bored should venture…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

Are Humans As Violent As In The Good Old Days?

If we had records of massacres as we have meteorological records, don't you think we might discover their internal laws, after several centuries of observation? --- Joseph de Maistre. There…

Statistics

New Paper Shows Statistical Errors At 50% to 100% In Peer-Reviewed Neuroscience Journals

The error is often reported like this: "The percentage of neurons showing cue-related activity increased with training in mutant mice (P < 0.05), but not in control mice (P >…

Briggs on Class 49: Relevance & Importance Of Evidence In ModelsMay 9, 2025
JH, My IQ is simplicity itself to estimate. I have no IQ. Pick up any stats books and look under…
JH on Class 49: Relevance & Importance Of Evidence In ModelsMay 9, 2025
Is there evidence that people believe probabilities, parameters, or mathematical objects exist physically in nature? The fact that mathematicians use…
JH on Class 49: Relevance & Importance Of Evidence In ModelsMay 9, 2025
Relevance is made more difficult when Y is allowed to vary, but the underlying idea is the same. Probability offers…
Tim on Class 49: Relevance & Importance Of Evidence In ModelsMay 8, 2025
What are you playing at, Briggs? Some high-falutin' model equation junk that'll get twisted by politicians in the end anyway?…
Milton Hathaway on AI Cannot Hallucinate Nor LieMay 8, 2025
I have been making heavy use of the more well-known LLMs lately. I use them almost exclusively as "regurgitation engines",…