Statistics – Page 179 – William M. Briggs

Infinite Surprise And Impossible Events

It's a lazy Saturday, so some musings today on entropy and information and probability. It's about time we started tying these things together. Things like the following are heard: "Given…

Statistics

Uncertainty Is An Impossible Sell

I've never seen the show, but I've heard that the protagonist on the X Files used to have a desk sign which read, "I want to believe." That sentiment characterizes…

Book review Statistics

The Moral Case For Fossil Fuels Reviewed

People first Just in time for the Federally-Recognized-Holiday-Of-25-December-That-Shall-Go-Unnamed we have a suitable gift for science deniers everywhere. Alex Epstein's The Moral Case For Fossil Fuels Science deniers? Yes, sir. Those…

Statistics

Can We Predict The Unpredictable?

The most intriguing thing about the new peer-reviewed paper of the same name as today's post in Nature: Scientific Reports by Abbas Golestani and Robin Gras is that it is…

Statistics

Climate Change Causing Short Peruvians!

Who remembers those crank scientists who wanted to genetically engineer human beings so that they would be sprier and narrower and thus have smaller "carbon footprints"? We don't need 'em!…

Philosophy Statistics

Don’t Use Statistics Unless You Have To

We're finally getting it, as evinced by the responses to the article "Netherlands Temperature Controversy: Or, Yet Again, How Not To Do Time Series." Let's return to the Screaming Willies.…

Statistics

On That New “Gay Gene” Study

First and most important point: there is no way we're going to cover in 750 words the whole of this field. Much will be left out. This small article is…

Statistics

Predicting Doom—Guest Post by Thomas Galli

I am not a statistics wizard; an engineer, I value the predictive power of statistics. Indeed, if one can precisely control variables in the design of an experiment, statistics-based prediction…

Zundfolge on The Charlie Kirk Killing Theories: The (Non)-Mathematics Of Conspiracy Theories 2September 23, 2025
I propose a Unified Field Theory of Conspiracy Theories. Most of them are false, and the false ones used to…
Cary Cotterman on The Charlie Kirk Killing Theories: The (Non)-Mathematics Of Conspiracy Theories 2September 23, 2025
Ever since L. H. Oswald, every assassination has had endless alternate theories, always involving another shooter, coverups, the CIA or…
Rudolph Harrier on In Which I Shockingly Agree With Sabine That Most Science Is Of Little Or No ValueSeptember 23, 2025
I was always suspicious of quantum factorization, due to how the results were always special cases. It was always claimed…
Uncle Mike on The Charlie Kirk Killing Theories: The (Non)-Mathematics Of Conspiracy Theories 2September 23, 2025
The world is awash in conspiracy theories. And in dire reports. It's interesting that the Hitler Youth guy is also…
Zundfolge on The Charlie Kirk Killing Theories: The (Non)-Mathematics Of Conspiracy Theories 2September 23, 2025
This constant need to turn every murder of a prominent person into a JFK level conspiracy is tiresome. Bullets do…