Statistics – Page 204 – 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,…

Brian (bulaoren) on Class 99: Entropy Part IOctober 31, 2026
During the summer of 1977, I was living with a woman who had a 2 year old daughter. My brother,…
Ultrarightist on Book Update: Launch DateOctober 29, 2026
Briggs, Thanks for the reply and the information. That is unfortunate. Hardbacks aren't made like they used to be, and…
McChuck on Class 99: Entropy Part IOctober 29, 2026
Entropy is described as a numerical rating of chaos. This is more confusing than not, and a poor descriptor, even…
Briggs on Book Update: Launch DateOctober 28, 2026
Ultrarightist, Apparently not: They use case laminate (also called adhesive case binding or image-wrap) construction: The page block is glued…
Cary Cotterman on Book Update: Launch DateOctober 28, 2026
Most book stores have a rack where employees put new books they've read, accompanied by short, usually hand-written reviews. It's…