Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Why Memes Are Stupid: The Short Version
In 1976, in his The Selfish Gene, a book which revealed that most of us are slaves to our genes, biologist Richard Dawkins "discovered" the meme which, in one definition,…
Posted inStatistics
Two Open Letters To Congress On Climate Change, And A New Third
There are two open letters shot off to Congress these last days, one from "alarmist" scientists and the other from "denialist" scientists1. Those pejoratives were not picked by me, but…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Ivy League Climate Skeptics
I received this email from Rob Fishman at the Huffington Post. My answer follows. I'm the social media editor here at HuffPost (and a Cornell alum). I came across your…
Posted inPhilosophy
High Priests Of (Climate) Science
"And thy response shall be: 'Nothing hear our prayer'," said the high priest of the Church of Science. "Nothing hear our prayer," intoned the congregation. "For we shall be a…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
I’m Happy To Help, Judith Curry: Overconfidence In IPCC’s Detection And Attribution
Thanks to reader Roger Cohen for brining this to my attention. Atmospheric scientist Judith Curry recently ran a series of blog posts entitled, "Overconfidence in IPCC’s detection and attribution." In…
Posted inStatistics
AMO+PDO = Temperature Variation: One Graph Does Not Says It All
Introduction Anthony Watts over at Watts Up With That?---incidentally, a blog title infinitely superior to "William M. Briggs, Statistician"---asked me to comment on Joe D'Aleo and Don Easterbrook's new paper,…
Posted inFun
Global Warming Political Enemies List
I wrote what follows for an editor who, lucky fellow that he is, has moved on to better things. So, in order not to waste these precious pearls (and to…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Postmodernism and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
Since I am, by nature, a compassionate individual, I had been thinking of how we might Sokal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). It is for their…