Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Never Say “Caused By Chance”
One of the services of this blog is grammatical guidance. In that spirit, here are phrases which should be forbidden, and will be once I am in charge (all highlights…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Bayes Always Works: An Answer To Senn; Part V
Read Part IV. We're almost done. Only one more after this. There are examples without number of the proper use of Bayes's Theorem: the probability you have cancer given a…
Posted inFun Philosophy Statistics
Best Statistics Question Ever
Several readers have sent this one in1. One Raymond Johnson (or was it Ryan Grover?) said he found the following picture on this blackboard (I pulled my copy from Flowing…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Subjective Versus Objective Bayes (Versus Frequentism): Part III
Following Part II, here are some examples to show the differences between objectivist, subjectivist, and frequentist probabilities derived from fixed premises and set conclusions. Example 1 Not all probability is…
Posted inCulture Philosophy Statistics
Eliminating Randomness Reduces Need For God And Increases Belief In Evolution
Caution! The experiment I'm about to explain might increase your belief in God. It should only be attempted by academics who are immune to such deleterious effects. Got a pair…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
How Presidential Polls Work: D+7 or R-3 And All That
Unleash the polls! No, I don't mean the men who bravely served under Grand Duke of Lithuania Władysław II Jagiełło (free bad joke of the day!), but those election omens…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Lesson Two Redux: More Mysticism
Is it written into sport announcers' contract that they shall speak in nothing but cliché? Since there is always great confusion about why premises about "fairness" or "randomness" are not…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Statistics as Beauty; Global Warming Miscellany; SATs Biased?; More
Statistics is Beautiful? From reader Yeah, Yeah comes a link to a Wired article which assures us we should "Learn the Language of Data." It's not a pretty language, but…
