Statistics – Page 271 – William M. Briggs

Contingency, Causality, Determinism, And Free Will

In thinking about what probability means, it's important to sort out what is contingent and what relationship contingent events have to causality. Contingency simply means that what is could have…

Philosophy Statistics

Bad News For Conservatives? Or Bad News For Rational Thought?

Let's examine Marcus Arvan's peer-reviewed paper, "Bad News for Conservatives? Moral Judgments and the Dark Triad Personality Traits: A Correlational Study", published in the 25 July 2011 issue of Neuroethics.…

Statistics

Global Warming, Asinine Science Roundup

Still in Taipei and a bit swamped. Here are some links that will be of interest; mostly provided by Willie Soon, Marc Morano, and readers just like you! Trenberth's Null…

Statistics

Two New Papers vs. BEST: Guest Post by Lüdecke, Link, and Ewert

Horst Lüdecke is a Professor of Physiker in EIKE, European Institute for Climate and Energy, Heidelberg; Dr. Link is a physicist with EIKE; Prof. Dr. Friedrich-Karl Ewert is a geologist…

Statistics

BEST And The Wall Street Journal’s Numbers Guy

Carl Bialik, the Wall Street Journal's Numbers Guy, has two columns about BEST's temperature reconstruction model: "Global Temperatures: All Over the Map" and "A New Trove of Global Temperature Numbers").…

Statistics

The Twinkie Defense Defended: Soda Pop And Violence In Teens

In 1979, Dan White1 was tried for the assassinations of San Francisco city district Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. His lawyers argued that he had diminished capacity and…

Fun Statistics

Counterfactuals And Woodchuck Probability Distributions

I have, with mechanical aid, again winged my way across the globe in search of treasure. I landed disoriented and would not trust myself to calculate even the integral of…

Fun Philosophy Statistics

Best Statistics Question Ever

Several readers have sent this one in1. One Raymond Johnson (or was it Ryan Grover?) said he found the following picture on this blackboard (I pulled my copy from Flowing…

Philip Rogan on $7.11 at 7:11 PM on 7/11 at 7/11: What Are The Chances?July 24, 2026
Brian, good comment. A coincidence is only a coincidence to the person to which the coincidence occurred.
John Pate on $7.11 at 7:11 PM on 7/11 at 7/11: What Are The Chances?July 23, 2026
Now do Synchronicity.
Brian (bulaoren) on $7.11 at 7:11 PM on 7/11 at 7/11: What Are The Chances?July 23, 2026
If a 7/11 sale occurrs in a forest, and nobody is around to document it, does it make a sound?…
Willis Eschenbach on Caution Against The Precautionary Principle: Interview with Jaap HanekampJuly 23, 2026
Thanks as always, Matt. I'd be interested in your (or anyone's) comments on my post below about the Precautionary Principle.…
Steve on $7.11 at 7:11 PM on 7/11 at 7/11: What Are The Chances?July 23, 2026
Add a few more priors and the odds skyrocket. 7/11 knew about the July 11 thing -- it says right…