Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Correlation And Coincidence
A hastily written entry today, folks. Busy day. Typos at no extra charge. Reader Al Perrella invites us to Jerry Pournelle's Chaos Manner, where a note from our friend Mike…
Posted inStatistics
Science Can Tell If You’re A Racist Just By Looking At You
George Carlin used to advise those who wanted to avoid jury duty to tell the judge, "Don't worry about me, your honor. I can tell guilty people---<snap!>---just like that!" We…
Posted inStatistics
Lightning May Cause Headaches, Moon May Cause Domestic Intranquility
I have discovered a statistically significant correlation between phases of the moon and domestic harmony. Every day for several months I filled out the Domestic Harmony Inventory (DHI), a scientifically…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Statistics Is Not Math: Update To Allow New Comments
Update Hello newcomers. Posts usually close for comments after two weeks. But since this one is getting so many views, I moved it up to re-open comments. "Here is a…
Posted inStatistics
Privatization Kills?: Or, Doctors Under Government Control Save More Lives?
Quick, answer this without thinking: which is better for your health, living under a communist regime or a capitalist system? If you said "communist", may I wager you're an academic?…
Posted inFun Philosophy
Is There Free Will? A Conversation With Dr. Sam Hurtus
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1MbL6wbg1Y&w=560&h=315] I got the idea for this from regular reader Jim Fedako, who points us to a cute video showing the screwiness of p-values. Turns out the video was…
Posted inStatistics
Anthropogenic Forcing Signals Not Significant? New Polynomial Cointegration Test Paper
I have been asked by a number of people to comment on a new paper that purportedly shows that "statistical tests for global warming fails to find statistically significantly anthropogenic…
Posted inStatistics
Shocking New Study: Males Play More Sports Than Non-Males
The peer-reviewed paper "A Sex Difference in the Predisposition for Physical Competition: Males Play Sports Much More than Females Even in the Contemporary U.S" by Robert O. Deaner and a…