Statistics – Page 255 – William M. Briggs

The Lady Tasting Tea: Bayes Versus Frequentism; Part III (update)

Read Part I, Part II. The text has again been expanded and corrected. We have our model in hand. "Has the ability", our model, says (see Part II) that the…

Philosophy Statistics

The Lady Tasting Tea: Bayes Versus Frequentism; Part II (update)

Read Part I: Again, the text (up to this part) has been corrected and expanded. Recall our overarching---our only---goal. We want to know whether the sweet old lady "has the…

Philosophy Statistics

The Lady Tasting Tea: Bayes Versus Frequentism; Part I (updated)

Since the subject arose yesterday, and for other reasons which I'll explain later, I thought we should revisit this series, which ran a year ago. I have edited and expanded…

Statistics

Dawkins On The Double-Blind Experiment

The Edge every year asks top science celebrities a penetrating, yet fun, always fun, question. Last year's was "What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit?" One of the correspondent…

Philosophy Statistics

Statement Of Teaching Philosophy

Regular readers will know that I have been searching for (continuous) employment as a teacher. Most colleges and universities ask applicants to supply "a statement of teaching philosophy", while a…

Philosophy Statistics

The Jeffreys-Lindley Paradox Isn’t

Background A paradox is a mistake in thinking; an artificial, human creation which usually arises because a conclusion which follows from a set of beloved premises is itself unloved. Twitter…

Culture Fun Statistics

Oscar Predictions: Money, Men, & Maturity Make The Difference

Last year, my number two son1 and I created a model to predict the Oscar winning movie (the original post, and the follow up). We found the following characteristics most…

Fun Statistics

Scratch-off Lottery Tickets: Expected Payouts, A Hidden Benefit?

Update See the comments, but thanks to readers' arguments I believe I was wrong in an essential calculation. I've reworked the text to correct my error, which was small in…

Rudolph Harrier on Class 83: Why Were Paul Ehrlich’s Predictions So Good (and so Bad)?March 19, 2026
It's always "I'm right, because all the experts say I'm right. You wouldn't want to disagree with the experts, would…
John M on The Great Effeminization of the AcademyMarch 18, 2026
Genesis 3:13 And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman…
Cary D Cotterman on The Great Effeminization of the AcademyMarch 18, 2026
I can't read the titles or the excerpts without laughing out loud. They are comedy gold.
Michael 2 on On Not ReadingMarch 18, 2026
"I do watch electronic repair videos and old movies on YouTube (and not on a phone). " Same here. Big…
Tars Tarkas on The Great Effeminization of the AcademyMarch 18, 2026
I miss Z-man's Xirl Science segments in the Z-Man power hour. He would highlight articles like the ones highlighted here.…