Statistics – Page 302 – William M. Briggs

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…

Fun Statistics

World Cup Predictions Verified

All that was missing was the water for the players to plunge into. Still, referee Howard Webb must be a fan of the aquatic and artistic sport of diving, and…

Fun Statistics

The Predictive Skills of Octopii: Paul’s World Cup Prognostications

In Detroit, for that glorious game of soccer-on-ice-with-sticks, we---I still say "we"; you can never separate yourself from your birthplace---know what to do with octopuses, octopii as were: We toss…

Carlos Julio Casanova Guerra on Lewontin’s Other Fallacy: Race & IntelligenceSeptember 1, 2026
I was hoping you wrote about race, because I wanted to hand you a quote, since long ago, but I…
McChuck on Lewontin’s Other Fallacy: Race & IntelligenceSeptember 1, 2026
DIE, put this way, sounds an awful lot like Lysenkoism.
John Pate on Lewontin’s Other Fallacy: Race & IntelligenceSeptember 1, 2026
As I'm fond of pointing out, a 100% of the reason you're a man and not a monkey is genetics.…
John Pate on A New Kind Of University: Your Comments WantedAugust 30, 2026
Not convinced you're encroaching on the functions of the universities with this initiative. Seems to me the primary functions of…
APC Carrier on Fertility Fears Overblown: Tiny Shift in Childless Rate Saves The SpeciesAugust 29, 2026
Mankind will never go extinct. We know that indirectly from Scripture. Jesus said "when the Son of Man comes back,…