Posted inFun Statistics
How’d We Do On Our 2015 Predictions?
The answer to the post title's question is: I'm not so sure. Because why? Because the predictions everybody registered were lost when I was hacked last January. Why was I…
Posted inStatistics
Here’s Why That Study Claiming Religious Kids Are Less Altruistic Stinks. Updates
Update 13 August 2019 The paper has been retracted! Welcome Guardian readers. You should understand this poor study is one of thousands, all of which make similar mistakes. See the…
Posted inStatistics
Hubris & Models: Global Warming Economic Production Edition
COP21 in Paris is fast approaching and the #BigPush is on. That means we're forced to talk about global warming more than I'd like (which is not at all). But…
Posted inStatistics
Tide Gauge Locations And Sea Level Rise, Some Statistical Concerns
Marcel Crok asked me to comment on the peer-reviewed paper "Tide gauge location and the measurement of global sea level rise" Beenstock (yes) and others in the journal Environmental and…
Posted inStatistics
Enjoy Coffee? You Could Be A Psychopath. Or, Time For A Two-Year Moratorium Of Questionnaire Science
The headline blared "Enjoy coffee or a gin and tonic? You could be a psychopath: People with dark personalities prefer bitter foods and drinks". And then the bullet points: *…
Posted inStatistics
How Many Deaths Does Reading @Voxdotcom Cause?
Bernd Felsche ?sends the breaking Vox news story "How many deaths did Volkswagen's pollution scandal cause? A back-of-the-envelope estimate." This article may represent the triumph of "explanatory" journalism. Volkswagen was…
Posted inCulture Philosophy Statistics
Scientists Pretend They Can Answer Why Some Are More Religious
One thing that nearly always accompanies scientism is historical cluelessness. When somebody adopts the Way Of Science, they fall spell to the idea that only that which is most recent…
Posted inStatistics
Trenberth Is Wrong About Global Warming: The PDO Is An Effect, Not A Cause
Kevin "Travesty" Trenberth had a peer-reviewed article in Science entitled, "Has there been a hiatus? Internal climate variability masks climate-warming trends." First, the word "hiatus" is wrong. Using it assumes…