Statistics – Page 276 – William M. Briggs

Legal Standards Of Proof And Probability

Different courts and legal systems use diverse phrases about evidentiary standards of proof1. Few to none are precise in the sense that they offer a fixed probability number for this…

Statistics

There Is No Such Thing As A Scientific Poll

There is no such thing as an unscientific one, either. A poll is this: a question or questions that are interpreted and answered by a group of individuals at a…

Statistics

Romney and Holdren Sittin’ In A Tree

Update: Somehow---I don't know how---the beginning of this piece has disappeared. I'll try to find it. Yeesh. Mitt Romeny, when Governor: Massachusetts continues to be committed to improving air quality…

Culture Statistics

British Judge Rules Against Bayes’s Theorem

A British judge has thrown a use of Bayes's rule out of his court. Not only that, his honor (Lordship?) ruled "against using similar statistical analysis in the courts in…

Culture Statistics

What Are The Chances Of War With China?

By the year 2012, or 2017, or 2022, what are the chances China's military engages US forces? Difficult question. But one which is better than asking the title question---because nobody…

Book review Culture Philosophy Statistics

Jeffrey Sachs Saves The World

The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity by Jeffrey Sachs Says Jeffrey Sachs, economics professor at Columbia, "Economic theory indeed supports the view that high tax rates…

Philosophy Statistics

Robert Heinlein And Evolving Probabilities

Writer Stephen Dawson, a long-time participant at this blog, wrote and asked the following: In his The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein had his intelligent computer calculate the…

Statistics

The Implications Of Yesterday’s Global Warming Post

There was nothing in the world wrong with my scientific paper "Global Warming Increases Disastrous Music: A Scientific Paper." Nothing, that is, that isn't wrong with any paper which seeks,…

Cary Cotterman on Lady Academics Tire Of Being Judged By Peer ReviewSeptember 21, 2026
Every time I think I've read about an academic paper at the very bottom of the abyss of idiocy, another…
Tars Tarkas on Lady Academics Tire Of Being Judged By Peer ReviewSeptember 21, 2026
"articulating that the checkboxes presume a reviewer who is an objective, disembodied expert untouched by power. " They aren't wrong…
Tars Tarkas on Lady Academics Tire Of Being Judged By Peer ReviewSeptember 21, 2026
Among the many flaws of peer review is the weaponization of peer-review for political purposes. Some academic offends the ladies,…
Neil Jordan on Class 94: Quantifying The UnquantifiableSeptember 17, 2026
At last, an opportunity to join you in the "Quagmire of Marginal Statistics." This and later quote are from memory…
McChuck on The MRS Degree — Guest Post by Johnathan EdwardsSeptember 17, 2026
"South Korea and Japan will no longer exist, perhaps in our lifetime, if they don’t start reproducing or bringing more…