Posted inCulture Philosophy
A Christmas Play In One Act
This post originally ran two years ago. Then current events inspired the post; events haven't changed much since then. Scene: Night Court, Manhattan; a date in the near future. Players:…
Posted inStatistics
Shocking New Study: Males Play More Sports Than Non-Males
The peer-reviewed paper "A Sex Difference in the Predisposition for Physical Competition: Males Play Sports Much More than Females Even in the Contemporary U.S" by Robert O. Deaner and a…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
In Defense Of Peter Kreeft: A Response To Brafford
Peter Kreeft, a philosopher whose surname does not sound like it is spelled, placed in Touchstone the article "Clashing Symbols: The Loss of Aristotelian Logic & the Social, Moral, &…
Posted inStatistics
Do Heat Waves Cause Birth Defects?
What would you name a paper which purports to discover that heat waves stress pregnant women and thus cause birth defects but which never once measures the actual exposure of…
Posted inCulture Statistics
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…
Posted inFun
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…
Posted inPhilosophy 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…
Posted inFun
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.