Posted inStatistics
Bad Astronomer Does Bad Statistics: That Wall Street Journal Editorial
Remember when I said how you shouldn't draw straight lines in time series and then speak of the line as if the line was the data itself? About how the…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
All Of Statistics: Part III
(B) New data It might surprise you, but in classical (both frequentist and Bayesian) practice, if we expect to see new X, the procedure is almost always no different than…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
All Of Statistics: Part II
(A) No new data (cont.) If we want to know how that data arose, and we are not satisfied by X itself, we need to propose a model---a fully causal…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
All Of Statistics: Part I
Statistics is the collection and modeling of data. By "modeling" I mean using probability to describe our uncertainty in values that data may take. Statistics, then, is applied probability. Probability…
Posted inCulture Statistics
Low IQ & Liberal Beliefs Linked To Poor Research?
Watch out Sam Harris, Gordon Hodson and Michael A. Busseri of Brock University are giving you competition for the worst use of statistics in an original paper. Their "Bright Minds…
Posted inStatistics
How To Cheat, Or Fool Yourself, With Time Series: Climate Example
Update This post of such importance, that it remains on top today. See below for more comments. Presented for your satisfaction, a way to cheat either yourself or others using…
Posted inStatistics
Statistics Of Loeb’s “Observed Changes In Top-Of-The-Atmosphere Radiation And Upper-Ocean Heating Consistent Within Uncertainty”
The paper is "Observed changes in top-of-the-atmosphere radiation and upper-ocean heating consistent within uncertainty" by Norman Loeb and others in the journal Nature Geoscience. I'm pressed for time, so for…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Sloppy Language About What’s True: Part III
Today, a technical interregnum, a necessary pause for proof of that claim that each of us must come equipped with knowledge that cannot be learned. Stuff that is only known…