February 2014 – Page 2 – William M. Briggs

Surprise! A Professional Organization Comes Out Against Euthanasia

https://twitter.com/mattstat/status/436146531503058946 In James Bradley's Flyboys he relates how the Japanese in Manchuria would line up Chinese citizens for the benefit of Japanese army recruits to bayonette. Most were squeamish at…

Statistics

Researchers Claim Gays Who Face Prejudice Live Shorter Lives

The Daily Mail reported it like this: "Gay people who face regular homophobic abuse have a shorter life expectancy than those who live in more tolerant communities." Homophobic abuse, they…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

Scientists: Moral Traits Considered Most Essential Part Of Identity

Answer me this. You're on the job and the fancy iH20 cooler (with remote iPhone app) blows and shoots a bolt through your skull. The doctors say removing the bolt…

Philosophy Statistics

What Statistics Really Is: Part Last

Read Part I, Part Paradox, Part II Recapitulation: we have Pr(p|qm) where p is a proposition of interest, q the evidence we have compiled in the form of observations and…

Philosophy Statistics

Probability Is Logic: Philosophy of Probability & Statistics Video Series

I'm starting---and even continuing, if there is interest---a new video series on the philosophy of probability and statistics. Look at those retro production values! I boast of them following Julia…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

On Intelligence & Religiosity

Take a pencil and paper---do this---and write down the most intelligent people who have ever lived. Most brilliant in any field of endeavor, now. Who were the best of us?…

Culture Statistics

Researchers Invent Exciting New Disease: Poverty Blindness

There must soon come a day at The Onion, the satirical newspaper, when the editors will gather in bewilderment and say to each other, "Fellas, there's no use. The real…

Statistics

Scientists Discover Men Enjoy Looking At Women’s Breasts.

Regular readers will recall there are two main kinds of bad statistics. First is when the technique has been done wrong or is misapplied. Errors of this kind comprise only…

gareth on Class 61: Does This Guy Have ESP? IIAugust 16, 2025
Errr... Calculating the probability of what we did see should be = 100% So why calculate it? (Enquiring minds, etc.)
Johnno on Funding Increases To Foster Even More Cheating In ScienceAugust 14, 2025
Briggs you fool... what you so outdatingly call cheating, I prefer to see as a more progressive healthy open relationship…
hudbwu on Lying Increases Trust In Science, Says AcademicAugust 14, 2025
To be fair, the center of this article (that I looked at from the link provided) is a reduction-to-absurd argument…
hudbwu on Funding Increases To Foster Even More Cheating In ScienceAugust 14, 2025
I love how the scale in the last graph is *LoGaRithMic_!
hudbwu on Compulsory Moral Bioenhancement Should Be Covert Says Academic Who Says Ticks Should Be Genetically Modified To Stop You Eating MeatAugust 14, 2025
Do you remember the time when craving loonies posted these things not in peer-reviewed journals, but on Internet fora? Man,…