Posted inFun
A day in the life of a statistician
24 March 2009 3:01 am. Up. Not that I want to be, but I am. I have to give a lecture at 6:30 am to a bunch of surgical residents.…
Posted inCulture
Can You Read My Mind?
Ghosts, ESP, telekinesis, astrology, and other assorted oddities are back in view. One of the "SyFy" channel's most popular series is a show about hunting apparitions. The movie Men Who…
Posted inPhilosophy
The strange insignificance of statistical significance
Who is more likely to support the death penalty: college undergraduates from a "nationally-ranked Midwestern university with an enrollment of slightly more than 20,000" majoring in social work, or those…
Posted inStatistics
Manzi: What Social Science Does—and Doesn’t—Know
This article is nothing but an extended link to a must-read piece in City Journal. Internet still once daily. Thanks to reader I. for suggesting this topic. If you haven't…
Posted inStatistics
Epidemiology, Causality, And P-Values: Part I
A standard epidemiological study goes like this: people who have been "exposed" to some thing, say, cell phone radiation, are examined to discover whether or not they have some malady.…
Posted inStatistics
Epidemiology, Causality, And P-Values: Part II
Be sure to read yesterday's post first. One of the screwy consequences of classical statistics is that my odd sample (mixing babies and the patients from the brain cancer ward)…
Posted inStatistics
Newcomb’s Paradox And Probability
This article was suggested by reader JH who saw it discussed at Massimo Pigliucci's site. When he was at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, William Newcomb devised the following puzzle, which…
Posted inStatistics
Certain Oral Activities Linked To Intercourse Onset, New Research Suggests
I am thinking of changing the name of this blog to "New Research Suggests", for these three words begin most press releases announcing dubious "scientific" results. Whoever first thought of…
