Statistics – Page 276 – William M. Briggs

Feigned Surprises of the Week: Journolist and Our New Tax

Said the main-stream journalist on Journolist, "If they of the right wing don't behave and treat our Golden Boy properly, we'll call them racists. It matters not whom we pick…

Fun Statistics

A Bust—I mean must—Read; Or, An Evolution in Bra Sizes

"Excuse me, miss. Would you care to participate in science?" Sometimes being a statistician is enviable. In a flash of scientific brilliance, Australian statisticians have just completed a massive study…

Fun Statistics

M. Night Shyamalan, Mel Gibson, and John Wayne

Part II of the Two-Envelope problem was not too friendly, so here's something that is. Via HotAir, I came across the site Marginal Revolution, in which was featured a graph…

Philosophy Statistics

The Two-Envelope Problem Solution: Part II

Read Part I first. We are in the peek first game here. The distribution of N When X is odd, and all X are discrete, we know we should always…

Philosophy Statistics

The Two-Envelope Problem Solution: Part I

Another probability "paradox", the two-envelope problem1, goes like this: Before you are two envelopes, A and B. One of them contains $X and the other $2X (which is equivalent to…

Statistics

St Petersburg Paradox; Games and Statistical Decisions; RIP David Blackwell

David Blackwell, who died two weeks ago, was one of the first mainstream statisticians to "go Bayesian." And for that and his unique skill in clearly explaining difficult ideas, we…

Statistics

How to Fool Yourself—And Others—With Statistics

See the news box to the left. I wrote this long ago and never used it. I do not love it. But since I am so busy, I haven't the…

Statistics

US Military Fatality Statistics: Have Suicides Increased?

All statistics were gathered from this DOD site. 2010 numbers were current as of 5 June this year; they were not part of the plots below. In 1983, the year…

hudbwu on Reader Opinion Requested: What Science Do You Find Sketchy, Exaggerated Or Wrong?July 14, 2025
Recently, I was interested in religious observance in Europe, both west and east. It's surprisingly difficult to find good numbers…
Dan Kurt on Reader Opinion Requested: What Science Do You Find Sketchy, Exaggerated Or Wrong?July 14, 2025
Astronomy/Astro-Physics: * Red Shift as a distance analogue * Black Holes * Gravity Waves * Gravity controlling the structure of…
Phil R on Reader Opinion Requested: What Science Do You Find Sketchy, Exaggerated Or Wrong?July 14, 2025
I'm neither a mathematician or a statistician, although I have a degree in science (geology) and regularly work with numbers…
The True Nolan on Reader Opinion Requested: What Science Do You Find Sketchy, Exaggerated Or Wrong?July 14, 2025
"Political science" comes to mind as an illustrative fraud. After decades of watching, I think the entire field can be…
Dan D. on Reader Opinion Requested: What Science Do You Find Sketchy, Exaggerated Or Wrong?July 14, 2025
It all started with that sloped forehead, Bill Nye. He diffused science into a maelstrom of wackiness. Now we have…