Briggs

The Lady Tasting Tea: Bayes Versus Frequentism; Part III (update)

Read Part I, Part II. The text has again been expanded and corrected. We have our model in hand. "Has the ability", our model, says (see Part II) that the…

Philosophy Statistics

The Lady Tasting Tea: Bayes Versus Frequentism; Part II (update)

Read Part I: Again, the text (up to this part) has been corrected and expanded. Recall our overarching---our only---goal. We want to know whether the sweet old lady "has the…

Philosophy Statistics

The Lady Tasting Tea: Bayes Versus Frequentism; Part I (updated)

Since the subject arose yesterday, and for other reasons which I'll explain later, I thought we should revisit this series, which ran a year ago. I have edited and expanded…

Statistics

Dawkins On The Double-Blind Experiment

The Edge every year asks top science celebrities a penetrating, yet fun, always fun, question. Last year's was "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?" One of the correspondent…

Philosophy Statistics

Statement Of Teaching Philosophy

Regular readers will know that I have been searching for (continuous) employment as a teacher. Most colleges and universities ask applicants to supply "a statement of teaching philosophy", while a…

Philosophy Statistics

The Jeffreys-Lindley Paradox Isn’t

Background A paradox is a mistake in thinking; an artificial, human creation which usually arises because a conclusion which follows from a set of beloved premises is itself unloved. Twitter…

Culture Fun Statistics

Oscar Predictions: Money, Men, & Maturity Make The Difference

Last year, my number two son1 and I created a model to predict the Oscar winning movie (the original post, and the follow up). We found the following characteristics most…

Fun Statistics

Scratch-off Lottery Tickets: Expected Payouts, A Hidden Benefit?

Update See the comments, but thanks to readers' arguments I believe I was wrong in an essential calculation. I've reworked the text to correct my error, which was small in…

JerryM on Register Your Predictions For 2026!January 6, 2026
1. Trump's health take turn for worse and he must resign and JD takes over. 2. Ukraine SMO finally ends…
Keith on Register Your Predictions For 2026!January 6, 2026
1. Trump does not finish the year as president, likely through resignation but possibly because of health reasons. 2. Kansas…
C-Marie on On Laws Banning Hacking Women’s Genitals & Imposing BeliefsJanuary 6, 2026
Thank you, Uncle Mike! Does H.R. 3492, protect the children still in the womb, and those just born, from being…
Cary D Cotterman on Register Your Predictions For 2026!January 6, 2026
The Year of Tough Talk but Little or No Action will end, and 2026 will see the prosecution and imprisonment…
Uncle Mike on On Laws Banning Hacking Women’s Genitals & Imposing BeliefsJanuary 6, 2026
FYI FWIW, on Jan 28 Pres Trump signed EO 14187 titled "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation". The order…