Statistics – Page 194 – William M. Briggs

I Also Declare The Bayesian vs. Frequentist Debate Over For Data Scientists

I stole the title, adding the word "also", from an article by Rafael Irizarry at Simply Stats (tweeted by Diego Kuonen). First, brush clearing. Data scientists. Sounds like galloping bureaucratic…

Culture Philosophy Podcast Statistics

Podcast: Peer Review, Bob & Ray Do Statistics, Academic Calls For Killing Of (Post-Birth) Babies

[podcast]https://www.wmbriggs.com/audio/wmbriggs_com_12dec2014_0006.mp3[/podcast] Show Notes Wired's PubPeer article. PubPeer.com itself. PubPeer's discussion of "Macroscopic Observability of Spinorial Sign Changes under 2π Rotations". Bob and Ray can be found at, inter alia, the…

Statistics

On The Attribution Of A Single Event To Climate Change

Rained yesterday here in the city of cities. Must be because of climate change, right? Hey. The climate did change and it did rain. What more evidence do you want?…

Statistics

The Philosophy Of Rock Paper Scissors

Way my dad and I used to play is that when somebody won they got to grab the hand of the loser and then, with the fore- and middle-fingers only,…

Philosophy Statistics

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…

Cary D Cotterman on Creating Microbial Monsters To Terrorize OurselvesMay 18, 2026
I just read an article based on "studies" that attempted to panic me about the potential deadliness of down-filled pillows…
Brian (bulaoren) on Creating Microbial Monsters To Terrorize OurselvesMay 18, 2026
Threat avoidance seems pretty instinctual. Threat awareness, on the other hand, depends upon the scope of information before us. Sadly,…
Tars Tarkas on Creating Microbial Monsters To Terrorize OurselvesMay 18, 2026
"What are these airy indefinite words? Propaganda, that’s what." Propaganda is the default setting for the English language press. Most…
Tony Cooke on Creating Microbial Monsters To Terrorize OurselvesMay 18, 2026
The description of the possible transfer of the Hanta virus reminded me of the woman who sang "I danced with…
The Errors of Mr. Coffin on the PP signature and Apostolic Blessings – Roma Locuta Est on Munus, Ministerium & Pope Emeritus Benedict — Guest Post by Fr John RickertMay 16, 2026
[…] However, for the record I will note that myself and others (e.g., Ryan Grant, and Fr. John Rickert, HERE…