October 2009 – Page 2 – William M. Briggs

Not Evil, Just Wrong reviewed: Guest Post by Bernie

Today's guest post is by our very own Bernie, longtime reader and contributer. Too confused and too nuanced to be effective Phelim McAleer's and Ann McElhinney's Not Evil, Just Wrong…

Statistics

Full Disclosure, Anita Dunn, and Fox News: A Fairness Proposal for Journalists

In the United States, we have several major news outlets. On television: ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox. There are also several national-ish newspapers (and a diminishing number…

Statistics

Podcast Lecture #2: Understanding Statistics and Probability

[podcast]https://www.wmbriggs.com/audio/wmbriggs_com_lecture_0002.mp3[/podcast] On today's lecture: Quick review All knowledge is conditional on evidence, which eventually leads back to our intuitions. The steps in an argument that make it valid are also…

Podcast Statistics

Podcast Radio Show â€“ Episode #4: Belief in Climate Models

[podcast]https://www.wmbriggs.com/audio/wmbriggs_com_14oct2009_0004.mp3[/podcast] On today's episode: Science and skeptical bloggers A small article in last week's Science magazine frets that skeptical bloggers are teasing climate scientists over their failed predictions. Bloggers are…

Culture Fun

F train Blues, Michael Palin is proud, and some misuses of statistics

Just back from my trip. I'll go through the comments from last week's posts later today and catch up. Meanwhile, here are a few interesting stories. That F'ing train! You've…

Statistics

Podcast Lecture #1: Understanding Statistics and Probability

[podcast]https://www.wmbriggs.com/audio/wmbriggs_com_lecture_0001.mp3[/podcast] First lecture: I'm away to a conference this week, and so thought it would be fun to start a lecture series Understanding Statistics and Probability (this is posting automatically---I'll…

Culture Podcast

Podcast Radio Show – Episode #3: Call the Health Police!

[podcast]https://www.wmbriggs.com/audio/wmbriggs_com_07oct2009_0003.mp3[/podcast] On today's episode: What is health? Herr Mencken, the Sage of Baltimore: "a degree of adaptation to the organism's environment so nearly complete that there is no irritation." Health…

Culture

The Case of the Rape-rape Patrol: a 17th precinct mini-mystery

We last met Officer Hannigan and Sergeant Fitzgerald in The Case of the Missing Global Warming and The Age of Stupid "Sarge, we got a call." Officer Hannigan motioned to…

Another “Curate’s Egg?” Comments on Magnifica Humanitas – The American Catholic on Laudato Si: “The Curate’s Egg.” The Not So Excellent Parts. Guest Post by Bob KurlandJune 15, 2026
[…] If ever one wanted an analogy to show that a flawed work had good parts, it would be the…
Truly Random Numbers Found? – William M. Briggs on Quantum Potency & ProbabilityJune 15, 2026
[…] Which leaves open the possibility we might gain at least some knowledge of non-local causes. This article gives one…
Brian (bulaoren) on Truly Random Numbers Found?June 15, 2026
Wait...Does this mean that all those non-winning lottery tickets, I've bought over the years, were drawn from non-randomly-generated numbers? I…
McChuck on Truly Random Numbers Found?June 15, 2026
What QM leaves out of their "randomness is fundamental" picture is the state of the entire rest of the universe.…
John M on Climate Change Increases Risk of Even Slower World Cup Games!June 15, 2026
LarryG, I appreciate that sport and game participants can enjoy their favorite activity but that doesn't make the activity entertaining.