Posted inStatistics
Do Heat Waves Cause Birth Defects?
What would you name a paper which purports to discover that heat waves stress pregnant women and thus cause birth defects but which never once measures the actual exposure of…
Posted inCulture Statistics
No Religion Is Third-Largest World Group: Or, How Inaccurate Are Surveys On Religious Belief?
The actual headline at Reuters was "No religion" is the third-largest world group after Christians, Muslim, but my expurgated version is close enough. It's also similar to many of the…
Posted inFun
The Hobbit Reviewed—Guest Post by John Henry Briggs
The Hobbit was quite good, but disappointing. One of the biggest flaws in Lord of the Rings was the endless video game-like orc slaughter that was gratuitous at best and…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
The Data Is The Data, Not The Model: With Climatology Time Series Example
How not to plot The following plot was sent to me yesterday for comment. I cannot disclose the sender, nor the nature of the data, but neither of these are…
Posted inFun
Fats Waller—Your Feet’s Too Big
I was reminded of Fats because an album of his was one of the best Christmas presents I ever received. And 'tis the season.
Posted inStatistics
On-Line Statistics Course: Ideas And Your Opinions
We talked about this a couple of months ago, but now the time is nigh to build and create an on-line statistics course, or courses. There are several problems: content,…
Posted inCulture Statistics
Were Medications Responsible For The Connecticut Lanza Murders?
Some are speculating that the evil, and thank God dead, Adam Lanza was on SSRIs, which are medications designed to mess with your mind (in the pleasantest of ways), and…
Posted inStatistics
Politico’s Biased Reporting Of Its Own Poll
Today's post is over at Legal Insurrection. The headline, helpfully supplied by William Jacobson, is "Politico poll showing 'plurality support' for gay marriage also shows majority opposition." Headline writing is…