Briggs

Epidemiology, Causality, And P-Values: Part II

Be sure to read yesterday's post first. One of the screwy consequences of classical statistics is that my odd sample (mixing babies and the patients from the brain cancer ward)…

Statistics

Epidemiology, Causality, And P-Values: Part I

A standard epidemiological study goes like this: people who have been "exposed" to some thing, say, cell phone radiation, are examined to discover whether or not they have some malady.…

Culture

What The Sale of Barnes and Nobel Means To Reading

Not too long ago, on the outdoor-shopping-mall-like 86th street in New York City---chain stores everywhere---Barnes and Noble opened a new store. Enormous, wide aisled (a rarity for stores in the…

Culture

California Judge Reverses Prop 8: A Right To Marriage?

A judge in California has, as we have all heard, struck down the publicly created law which bans two-person, same-sex marriage. This was no surprise, as most expected that this…

Philosophy

Shermer Tries, And Fails, To Take Down Chopra

Aurora last night masked by clouds. Saw plenty of bats. Here is a review of another article you might like to read. Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, tried to…

Statistics

Manzi: What Social Science Does—and Doesn’t—Know

This article is nothing but an extended link to a must-read piece in City Journal. Internet still once daily. Thanks to reader I. for suggesting this topic. If you haven't…

Culture Statistics

Everybody Has A Mental Disease: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5

I am so far Up North that I heard a radio interview with Uncle Ted Nugnet on the best kinds of arrowheads to bring down feral pigs. Internet still only…

Philosophy Statistics

Correlation and Causality: Have A Drink, Get Rich

I am down to one brief internet connection daily, found, intermittently, at a coffee shop in town. I apologize for lack of or slowness in answering questions. According to the…

Cary D Cotterman on The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising AnswerApril 29, 2026
If the colors of the buttons reflect the same ideological sides they do in current discourse, then disappearing the blue…
Brian (bulaoren) on The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising AnswerApril 29, 2026
As you suggested, I have, so far, read nothing beyond the question. What is not clear to me is...Do the…
Zundfolge on The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising AnswerApril 29, 2026
I have to wonder if the colors were reversed if that would influence people's choice. Because the way the blue…
NLR on The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising AnswerApril 29, 2026
Not sure why the dollar signs did not work and made everything italicized, but the sentence should say: If the…
McChuck on The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising AnswerApril 29, 2026
“Blue pushers are useless cattle. I’d feel no dread knowing they would all die.” Yes. The colors of the buttons…