Statistics – Page 253 – William M. Briggs

End Of The World Approaches—This Time Via A “State Shift”

"Humans," the species nobody asked for, "now dominate Earth," the brutes, "changing it in ways that threaten its ability to sustain us and other species," for it is our duty…

Statistics

Statistics Of Drinking, Emailing, Pupil Size

Today, three studies from loyal readers. Drinking Creatively First up, the New York Post's Kyle Smith with an anecdote: Father O'Brien was driving home after lunch when a policeman pulled…

Culture Statistics

Bias Against Conservatives In Academia: Shocking New Study

Gander at this picture: This shows self-reported political affiliation of a group of academic social and personality psychologists (this included some graduate students and post docs). The graph is difficult…

Statistics

A Peculiar Prevalence Of P Values Just Below .05

Today's title is lifted directly from the paper of E. J. Masicampo & Daniel R. Lalande, published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. The paper is here, and is…

Statistics

Stressed Men Prefer Chubby Chicks

Here's a title for you, "BMI Not WHR Modulates BOLD fMRI Responses in a Sub-Cortical Reward Network When Participants Judge the Attractiveness of Human Female Bodies." How about that? I…

Culture Statistics

USA Homicide Rates: 1950-2010; By Race And Sex

How has the homicide rate changed through time? The Bureau of Justice Statistics of our great government compiles statistics on just this kind of thing. This data arises from the…

Statistics

Question About Non-Normal Distributions

Thanks to everybody who sent in links, story tips, and suggestions. Because of my recent travel and pressures of work, I'm (again) way behind in answering these. I do appreciate…

Culture Statistics

More Proof Music Is Growing Worse

New proof (which wasn't really need) that popular music is, as has long been claimed, been growing worse has arrived thanks to the diligent work of Joan Serrà and his…

John Pate on Irrational Rationalists: Effective Altruists & The Planet of the AntsSeptember 28, 2026
We should all re-read our Ted Kaczynski materials. A man ahead of his time.
Brian (bulaoren) on Irrational Rationalists: Effective Altruists & The Planet of the AntsSeptember 28, 2026
While in university, I took a class called "Symbolic Logic". Logic was then taught through the Philosophy department, which was…
Cary Cotterman on Irrational Rationalists: Effective Altruists & The Planet of the AntsSeptember 28, 2026
Any giant ant who will eat Joan Collins is worth at least his weight in humans.
McChuck on Irrational Rationalists: Effective Altruists & The Planet of the AntsSeptember 28, 2026
Those who lack faith (belief) in God will believe in anything. Atheism is, itself, a religion, and as such under…
NLR on Irrational Rationalists: Effective Altruists & The Planet of the AntsSeptember 28, 2026
If the problem was simply that they were logical but not reasonable, that would not be great. But the real…