Briggs

No Religion Is Third-Largest World Group: Or, How Inaccurate Are Surveys On Religious Belief?

The actual headline at Reuters was "No religion" is the third-largest world group after Christians, Muslim, but my expurgated version is close enough. It's also similar to many of the…

Fun

The Hobbit Reviewed—Guest Post by John Henry Briggs

The Hobbit was quite good, but disappointing. One of the biggest flaws in Lord of the Rings was the endless video game-like orc slaughter that was gratuitous at best and…

Philosophy Statistics

The Data Is The Data, Not The Model: With Climatology Time Series Example

How not to plot The following plot was sent to me yesterday for comment. I cannot disclose the sender, nor the nature of the data, but neither of these are…

Fun

Fats Waller—Your Feet’s Too Big

I was reminded of Fats because an album of his was one of the best Christmas presents I ever received. And 'tis the season.

Statistics

On-Line Statistics Course: Ideas And Your Opinions

We talked about this a couple of months ago, but now the time is nigh to build and create an on-line statistics course, or courses. There are several problems: content,…

Culture Statistics

Were Medications Responsible For The Connecticut Lanza Murders?

Some are speculating that the evil, and thank God dead, Adam Lanza was on SSRIs, which are medications designed to mess with your mind (in the pleasantest of ways), and…

Statistics

Politico’s Biased Reporting Of Its Own Poll

Today's post is over at Legal Insurrection. The headline, helpfully supplied by William Jacobson, is "Politico poll showing 'plurality support' for gay marriage also shows majority opposition." Headline writing is…

Fun

Reader Poll: Mayan Apocalypse, For or Against?

In just over a week, on 21 December, it will be the glorious End of Times or it will be just over a week from today. Which is to be…

Milton Hathaway on Even The Woke Say Science Is Petering OutJune 4, 2025
I seem to be missing something here. The "Average CD" chart shows a marked decline, while the "Total Papers" chart…
Uncle Mike on Even The Woke Say Science Is Petering OutJune 4, 2025
The problem, in a nutshell, is the trending longitudinal bibliometrics of stochastic heuristics. Vouchsafe the imperative and quotidian drivel perpetuates.
Milton Hathaway on Expert Nathan Confas: Experts Know BestJune 4, 2025
There is a well-known phenomenon in my occupation (engineering), and, I assume, in many other occupations. By nature, engineers love…
brad.tittle on Even The Woke Say Science Is Petering OutJune 4, 2025
I take umbrage with that attack on being nice... Then I look in the mirror and realize that I haven't…
Leonard on Even The Woke Say Science Is Petering OutJune 4, 2025
I wonder what percentage of “papers” are AI-generated in the last 5 years. For that matter, I wonder how many…