Statistics – Page 256 – William M. Briggs

Drug Companies Tweaking Results To Produce Publishable P-values?

A person who Nature is calling a "whistle blower" has written a brief confessional in the British Medical Journal admitting to what might be termed statistical fiddling at a "major"…

Philosophy Statistics

2012 UEFA European Football Championship And What Probability Is

A pair of statisticians have calculated that, as of 10 June, the probability that Germany takes the 2012 Euro Cup is 26.8%. Russia, they say, comes in with the next…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

We Are All Eugenicists Now: New Test Identifies 3,500 Genetic “Faults” In Fetuses — Update

See the crucial update below. I was assured, several times, that my second son was to be my first daughter. The doctors who told me this had performed certain tests,…

Fun Statistics

Worst Invention Of All Time?

Your help is urgently needed to decide what is the worst invention of all time. Any man-made item, and only man-made items, are eligible. Rocks, for instance, no matter to…

Statistics

How Paranormal Research Differs From Normal Research

Cornell's Daryl Bem case is instructive. He's an academic who has published several notable peer-reviewed articles which claim that (several different versions of) ESP is real. Trouble is, despite the…

Statistics

The Science In The Mercury Report By Florida’s DEP — Guest Post By Willie Soon

Our friend Willie Soon wrote this editorial in response to this letter from the Florida DEP. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is here. As a scientist who has spent…

Statistics

The Difference Between Technical And Plain English Correlation

Since the subject has come up so often, today a note on the words correlated and correlation. They have technical definitions and plain English meanings. The two definitions overlap but…

Fun Philosophy Statistics

Gloom, Despair, Email Spoofing, And Kahan’s Science Literacy Paper

Somebody spoofed my Yahoo email address which I use for ordering, registrations and the like. Sent hundreds of emails to my contact list yesterday. Now I ordinarily run Linux, which…

JohnK on Is Moral Certainty Possible?August 19, 2026
For me, 'moral certainty' is a category error. Such talk has to be refused, not engaged. One example. The New…
Alistair on We Passed Peak “Climate Change” (um) ResearchAugust 19, 2026
Google Scholar's result counts are extremely broad estimates and highly opaque. It's not a reliable or reproducible method assessing topical…
A 7 Eleven Customer Got the Perfect Receipt and Saved It Forever He Spent $7.11 at 7-Eleven at Exactly 7:11 PM on 7/11. What He Did With the Receipt Makes It Even Better on $7.11 at 7:11 PM on 7/11 at 7/11: What Are The Chances?August 19, 2026
[…] that annotates viral images posted the story on July 23, 2026. It described the customer paying $7.11 at 7-Eleven…
McChuck on We Passed Peak “Climate Change” (um) ResearchAugust 18, 2026
The number of new climate change papers is proportional to USAID funding and inversely proportional to the number of new…
Cary Cotterman on We Passed Peak “Climate Change” (um) ResearchAugust 17, 2026
I'm not worried about "climate change" or "covid". I'm worried about what BS the money-hungry and power-hungry, and the useful…