Posted inStatistics
How Republican Is The Country?
This picture tells the story: The percent of seats of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Presidency are plotted, starting in the year of the relevant election. I…
Posted inStatistics
Anti-Tobacco Lobbying Is Bad For You
There is a smoking story making the rounds here in New York. Seems the New York State Legislature has cut funding thirty-percent to its anti-smoking program. These cuts were over…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Are Men Smarter Than Women?
The Question No. That is to say, Yes. But not really. Actually, what we have here is an badly phrased question: just what do we mean when we ask "Are…
Posted inStatistics
Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Guest post by Frank Wallace
Join me with welcoming Frank Wallace, a person with not a little experience in operating under conflicting government regulations. The subject of uranium mining and its various proscriptions and prescriptions…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Confidence Intervals, Logic, Induction
Induction "Because all the many flames observed before have been hot is a good reason to believe this flame will be hot" is an example of an inductive argument, and…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
The Truth of Things: When Probability & Statistics Cannot Be Used
I am always struggling with (my limited ability of) finding ways to describe the philosophy behind logical probability, especially to people who have a difficult time unlearning classical frequentist theory.…
Posted inFun Statistics
Poem Code Challenge Solution
Back in September we surrendered to our geek roots and described poem codes. These are a handy method of enciphering short messages in the absence of electronic equipment. A poem…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Is Experimental Economics Irrational?
Everybody knows there's no such thing as money. So how come everybody acts like it's real? In particular, why do economists and other similar creatures find the lack of "rationality"…