Posted inStatistics
Can Telomeres Predict How Long You Will Live?
No, they can't. Not exactly, and perhaps not with sufficient precision to be useful to you. But there is a new company called Life Length who will sell you, for…
Posted inPhilosophy
Stephen Hawking Says Heaven Fairy Story
"There is no heaven; it's a fairy story," said Stephen Hawking to The Guardian. And since the wheelchair-bound physicist is famous, and known to be clever (despite bedevilment by disease),…
Posted inStatistics
Randomness And Mysticism. Ithaca Teaching Journal, Day 2
Last night was spent at the storied Chapter House, for our annual first-night ceremony of Deliberate Numbness Induction, much needed after eight straight hours of unmitigated statistical theory. The only…
Posted inStatistics
Statistical Significance Does Not Mean What You Think. Climate Temperature Trends. Ithaca Teaching Journal, Day 7
There are a subset of professional statisticians---defined as folks who have had formal training in the field given to them by other professionals---who feel that the field of statistics is…
Posted inStatistics
Regression Examples. Normal Distributions Often Stink. Ithaca Teaching Journal, Day 10
Today, just one example, and the simplest kind, to show you that using regular regression, with its assumptions of "normality", can quickly lead to absurdities---absurdities which will pass unnoticed using…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
A New (Old) View Of Statistics. Ithaca Teaching Journal, Day 11
It is often difficult to keep in mind all the links in a chain of argument when that chain is long.1 This is especially so when one expects that chain…
Posted inCulture Statistics
Title IX And Campus Equality
Under Title IX, a woman is entitled to equal access to everything on a college campus. That includes being safe. The most devastating thing is a young girl who reports…
Posted inCulture Statistics
The Horrible Dangers Of Third-Hand Smoke
All countries have been known to periodically lose their minds. France in 1789 banned religion by the point of a blade, Russia in 1917 banned freedom by the barrel of…
