Statistics – Page 176 – William M. Briggs

Nothing Is Distributed: So-Called Random Variables Do Not Follow Distributions

People say "random" variables "behave" in a certain way as if they have a life of their own. To behave is to act, to be caused, to react. This is…

Philosophy Statistics

BBC: Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing? BBC: Because Something

Opens the BBC's campaign: Some physicists think they can explain why the universe first formed. If they are right, our entire cosmos may have sprung out of nothing at all.…

Book review Philosophy Statistics

An Introduction To Uncertainty: Probability, Statistics, and Modeling of All Kinds

This is a teaser, the first part of a 3,200-word narrative outline for the book that I've started to shop around. The current title is in the headline. Regular readers…

Statistics

Sex With 21 (Not 20) Women Lowers Risk Of Prostate Cancer. It’s Science!

Today's headline was modified from the Telegraph, one of the least lurid and sensationalistic of those generated by the peer-reviewed paper "Sexual partners, sexually transmitted infections, and prostate cancer risk"…

Philosophy Statistics

On Nate Silver’s Predictions: Which Side Of The Probability Equation Are We On?

When I checked FiveThirtyEight.com's Senate prediction, it said "Republicans have a 72.3% chance of winning a majority." There were also words that the "probability that each party will win control…

Culture Statistics

Update On Gun Crime: Downward Bound. Vote Accordingly

Elections are nearing and some of our friends are worried about guns. Measures are on ballots, votes are urged; that sort of thing. Nerves are raw, tempers are flared. Now…

Statistics

Doc Asks Fellows To Keep Statistics Simple

Our friend Christos Argyropoulos (â€@ChristosArgyrop) to a popular medical site in which Stephen Reznick asks "Keep statistics simple for primary care doctors." He can't read the journals, because why? Because…

Philosophy Statistics

The Mysticism Of Simulations: Markov Chain Monte Carlo, Sampling, And Their Alternatives

Introit Ever heard of somebody "simulating" normal "random" or "stochastic" variables, or perhaps "drawing" from a normal or some other distribution? Such things form the backbone of many statistical methods,…

SATVRDAY EARLY-AFTERNOON EDITION - BIG PULPIT on Peer-Reviewed Research: Men Find Looking At Nearly Naked Women DistractingJuly 26, 2025
[…] Reception Of The Eucharist Replace Confession? – Jenna M. Cooper at Our Sunday VisitorPeer-Reviewed Research: Men Find Looking At…
spaceranger on Peer-Reviewed Research: Men Find Looking At Nearly Naked Women DistractingJuly 25, 2025
I thought this was one of the strategies the casinos use to give the house an edge.
Rudolph Harrier on Only Credentialed Artists Can Appreciate ThisJuly 25, 2025
Frank Frazetta and Larry Elmore did more for art than 95% of modern "artists."
FRIDAY EARLY-MORNING EDITION - BIG PULPIT on Does Watching TV Cause Autism?July 25, 2025
[…] After 50 Years of Failed “Ministry” – Jn. Horvat at Tradition, Family, & PropertyDoes Watching TV Cause Autism? – William…
BDavi52 on Peer-Reviewed Research: Men Find Looking At Nearly Naked Women DistractingJuly 24, 2025
I'm afraid this study -- from the Bad Old Days of 2008 -- very probably suffers from the now, sadly,…