Posted inStatistics
Climate Skeptic Conspiracy Strikes!
I have never been part of a conspiracy before---there was never the opportunity---so you can imagine how excited I am about finally joining one. It's true that, in 1978, I,…
Posted inStatistics
R Lecture 6: Reading External Data Part I
10 minutes is a shockingly short period of time! Go to https://www.wmbriggs.com/book/ and save the advertising.csv file into your myR folder. Make SURE it is saved as a CSV file…
Posted inStatistics
Quirk’s: Telling the future from the past: predictive versus classical statistics
Today's post is at Quirk's, the well known trade journal and marketing research review. If you want to read the article on-line at Quirk's, registration is required, but free. You…
Posted inCulture Statistics
Malthus Was Wrong, But Not Why You Think
It's hard to think of a historical writer more misunderstood than Thomas Malthus. A week doesn't go by without somebody dropping his name, but only to show how wrong he…
Posted inStatistics
R Lecture 5: Reading Built-in Data
This is the fifth in a series of lectures on R. 10 minutes is a shockingly short period of time! Today, we read in some datasets that come with R.…
Posted inStatistics
2011 Per Capita Budget Highest Ever
President Obama submitted the 2011 fiscal year budget. If Congress passes it---and history shows that the approximate amount requested is usually granted---then this will be the highest the USA has…
Posted inStatistics
Why Global Warming Won’t Go Away: Inertia
Rajendra Pachauri---chairman of the IPCC, railway engineer, and the man who penned these words, "Sanjay saw a shapely dark-skinned girl lying on Vinay's bed. He was overcome by a lust…
Posted inCulture Philosophy
Tim Tebow’s Super Bowl Ad and the Washington Post Editorial
Very delicate ground, here. I want to be as precise as I know how in discussing the language used in today's Washington Post editorial about the upcoming Tim Tebow ad,…