The United States Navy is going to steam into the Yellow Sea and blow up some Korean warships. But friendly, like, and for fun. Points will be scored, and trophies (of a […]

Many—as in lots and lots—of folks wrote in and asked me to review the McShane and Wyner paper. Thanks! Gordie Howe—Mr Hockey to you—didn’t need his stick, his hockey stick, to plaster […]

This article was suggested by reader JH who saw it discussed at Massimo Pigliucci’s site. When he was at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, William Newcomb devised the following puzzle, which some say […]

Everybody says the “gold standard” of experimentation, and especially clinical trials, is the randomized controlled trial. A typical view is that “A Randomized Controlled Trial is an experiment or study conducted in […]

Be sure to read yesterday’s post first. One of the screwy consequences of classical statistics is that my odd sample (mixing babies and the patients from the brain cancer ward) is perfectly […]

A standard epidemiological study goes like this: people who have been “exposed” to some thing, say, cell phone radiation, are examined to discover whether or not they have some malady. Some will, […]

This article is nothing but an extended link to a must-read piece in City Journal. Internet still once daily. Thanks to reader I. for suggesting this topic. If you haven’t already, you […]