Statistics – Page 267 – William M. Briggs

Sloppy Language About What’s True: Part I

"All cats are creatures understanding French," said Alice's father. "And some chickens are cats." "Wait, I know!" said Alice, chirruping. "That means that some chickens are creatures understanding French."1 "What…

Statistics

EPA Can Fine You As Long As It Wants—With No Review

EPA Agent Stephen Segal protects the wetlands The EPA came to Idaho and said in a booming voice Stop! to Mike and Chantell Sackett, who were building a home on…

Philosophy Statistics

On Probability Leakage

Submitted for your approval, yet another paper. On Probability Leakage, posted at Arxiv. Once you, my beloved readers, have had a go with it, I'll incorporate your comments in an…

Statistics

Differences In Brains Between Believers And Atheists?

The following question was posed at the (inaptly named) magazine Scientific American, "Is there a difference between the brain of an atheist and the brain of a religious person?" It…

Philosophy Statistics

Curtis’s The Science Of Subjectivity

An unfocused post today; just some notes on a paper. Busy day for me. Andrew Curtis wrote, "The science of subjectivity" in the January 2012 issue of the journal Geology…

Philosophy Statistics

What’s The Difference Between A Confidence Interval And A Credible Interval? Update

Twitter @ceptional reminded me of this post, which I had forgotten. Since it is highly relevant to The Great Bayesian Switch, I decided to repost. Some minor errors in grammar…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

The Great Bayesian Switch

Update: See this post on the definition of confidence and credible intervals. Submitted for your approval, a new paper. A polemic describing in nascent terms the paradise that awaits us…

Statistics

What A Prediction Is And What It Is Not: Part IV

There is a technical distinction between a scenario and a prediction, though the line is fine and often disputable. Many scenarios are merely intolerably loose, and therefore useless, predictions. The…

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…