Briggs

Cornell Teaching Sojourn: Probability, Stats, & R

Time for the annual migration to Ithaca via a well accoutered golden coach (complete with undergraduates feeding professors grapes grown at Cornell's orchards). There I will linger for two weeks,…

Philosophy Statistics

Tobacco Ads Could Lead To Cancer Cure

Today's headline is true. True means that which is certain, without the possibility of error; that which is not false; that which accords with reality. It means that which is…

Statistics

Unsignificant Statistics: Or Die P-Value, Die Die Die

Must...resist...quoting... from Stephen Ziliak's gorgeous invective "Unsignificant Statistics" (where I stole today's title) in the Financial Post. Well, just a little (all emphasis mine and joyfully placed): Statistical significance is…

Philosophy Statistics

Scientists Discover Way To Increase Publication Count

Anybody who has spent any time in a university library amidst the papers of his specialty knows that the absolute last thing which is needed is more of them. Journals…

Statistics

Krauthammer’s Wrong: NSA Spying Not Equivalent To Policing

Charles Krauthammer ought to be taken seriously. He said yesterday from his daily perch that he wasn't concerned about NSA spying on Americans because there hasn't been any or many…

Culture Statistics

You Do Too Have Something To Hide

"Let them look at my phone records. I have nothing to hide. They can read all my emails. There's nothing there worth reading." We hear this primarily from the young,…

Culture

Smartness Is False And Oppresive: Zeus–Update

Aristophanes was right. He said, "Open your mouth and shut your eyes and see what Zeus will send you." In other words, no need to be smart and think when…

Statistics

Data Mining, PRISM, NSA & False Positives: Update

Remember how---this is a really brief history lesson--remember how the NSA, CIA, FBI, and many other of those lettered agencies with their ever-increasing budgets, super-sophisticated computers, genius brain mathematicians, statisticians,…

robber run game on Bayesian Theorists Were Little Better Than CranksSeptember 12, 2026
This feels like a rant but I'm actually pretty convinced that most "Bayesian" stuff is just a convoluted way to…
VVEDNESDAY EDITION – BIG PVLPIT on Lindsay Clancy Strangled Her Kids Because Of “Climate Change”September 12, 2026
[…] Can We Discuss the ‘Nod of Peace’? – Zelda Caldwell at National Catholic Register10. Lindsay Clancy Strangled Her Kids…
THVRSDAY EDITION – BIG PVLPIT on Lindsay Clancy Strangled Her Kids Because Of “Climate Change”September 12, 2026
[…] Evil of Anger: Gloria Steinem’s Abortion – Robert B. Greving, J.D., at Crisis Magazine10. Lindsay Clancy Strangled Her Kids Because Of…
BDavi52 on Lindsay Clancy Strangled Her Kids Because Of “Climate Change”September 11, 2026
No, no, no.... you're missing the point. Actually, you're missing the singular postulate which underlies every Woke piece of idiocy…
Robin on Class 93: P-values Challenge! List The “Good Uses” of P-valueSeptember 11, 2026
In my career I've rarely, if ever, used p-value analysis. Going through my university statistics textbook of some years ago,…