Posted inStatistics
How To Present Anything As Significant. Update: Nature Weighs In
Update The paper on which this post was based has hit the presses which was used as an occasion for Nature to opine that, just maybe, that some of the…
Posted inStatistics
Study Finds 9-Month-Old Babies Are Racist
MSNBC reports this: University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers placed sensors on the heads of 9-month-old babies...and measured brain activity when infants were shown pictures of white and black faces expressing…
Posted inStatistics
Statistics Proves Same Drug Both Causes And Does Not Cause Same Cancer
No, the title of today's post is not a joke, even though it has often been used that way in the past. The title was inspired by yesterday's Wall Street…
Posted inStatistics
Weapons Make the Man Larger: New Scientific Growth Formula
"Put 'em up, pal!" No, that's not right. Let me try again. "It ain't the size of the man, but the size of the tool he carries." Better, but still…
Posted inStatistics
Brain Atrophy Responsible For Religious Belief?
Readers can help me choose the best metaphor. (1) A snowball which starts the size of a pea but gains in strength and speed as it rolls downhill, mindlessly consuming…
Posted inStatistics
Don’t Drive On Tax Day! You Might Die
This is it. The day to traipse to the post office and mail in your income tax papers. In farm lingo, this is the time swill the pigs. To feed…
Posted inCulture Statistics
Do Conservatives Distrust Science More Than Liberals?
Science versus Scientism That, anyway, is the latest question making the rounds in the science wars. The simplistic answer, the one de rigueur on campuses and newsrooms, is "Yes." Why,…
Posted inStatistics
A Pill To Eliminate Racism? What’ll Science Think Of Next!
Publishable p-values If it weren't for the miracle of statistics, specifically the p-value, a device which can be used to "prove" anything, scientists would have a lot more time on…