Statistics – Page 292 – William M. Briggs

Kids Who Play Video Games Take Longer To Fall Asleep Than Those Who Sit Quietly

This is a follow-up to the post Shocking Research: Kids Who Play Games, Watch TV, Text Donâ€™t Read And Do Poorly At School. The original New York Times article quoted…

Philosophy Statistics

Tolkien Wants A King, Cheating With Statistics

Cheating With Statistics Reader Matt Lewis points us to Planet Moron, to an article which tears apart a statistical argument used by the Washington Post, an argument which sought to…

Culture Statistics

Peer Review Fails? Sympathetic Priest? What’s Going On Here?

Duke Scores Another Own Goal According to Science, Duke University oncologist Anil Potti quit after being caught cheating: Anil Potti had published papers in prominent journals identifying gene signatures in…

Culture Statistics

The Government Loves You And Wants You To Stop Smoking

As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking…

Culture Statistics

College Students More Loquacious Than Erudite: Vocabulary Test Results

The results of the Great Vocabulary Test of 2010 are in. Two weeks ago, in this thread, after announcing my surprise that no student in any of my classes knew…

Statistics

TSA Cops A Feel: More Bad Statistics

As far as I can discover, Janet "There's Nothing To See Here" Napolitano's newly created policy of feeling up and peeking under the skirts of random airline passengers has not…

Culture Statistics

Texting Leads To Sexting…Leads To Bad Television

Researchers Find What they find is a way to publish yet another study documenting what everybody already knew. According to this article, sent in by reader Jack Mosevich, researchers have…

Statistics

Mandatory National Standards For Salt Content Coming To A Government Near You

What's better: (A) voluntarily reducing your salt intake, or (B) having the government mandate that you do so? Naturally, if you don't opt for A, you get B, which we…

Eric Kay Sci Fi on $7.11 at 7:11 PM on 7/11 at 7/11: What Are The Chances?July 24, 2026
Thanks for the write-up. Thinking about things in the way of a probability distribution has always helped me, but also…
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.…