Posted inCulture
Secret Science Reform Act of 2014
Honesty & Science Your government wouldn't lie to you, would it? Well, maybe not lie, as in tell outright blatant whoppers. No government agent would do that. But your beneficent…
Posted inStatistics
Time Series Aren’t Easy: Tornado Deaths Example
Time series are the most abused statistics in the physical sciences. (It's an endless, raucous, peer-reviewed contest for the worst in the "soft sciences.") The Mann problem (is that a…
Posted inStatistics
Female-Named Hurricanes Deadlier Than Males. Implicit Sexism Kills!
"Say, Elbert. What's the name of that there hurricane that's fixin' to pounce upon us?" "Lolita, I think." "What? Lolita!? I ain't evacuatin' nowheres! Not for no fee-male 'cane. Gimme…
Posted inStatistics
On UFOs, Salt Intake, And Heart Disease
Michael "State of Fear" Crichton once proposed that UFOs were responsible for global warming. Why not? After all, something caused that record amount of snow in Detroit yesterday. Don't get…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
Correlation Implies Causation
A version of this post originally appeared on 20 October 2012. But after a Twitter conversation with our friend @Neuro_Skeptic, it's time for an addition. Comes a Salon article entitled…
Posted inStatistics
The Protocols Of The Elders Of Big Oil
Before you're used to it, it can be both fascinating and amusing to listen to the ravings of a lunatic. The way they can weave tales of persecution and nefarious…
Posted inStatistics
Scientists Discover Men Enjoy Looking At Women’s Breasts.
Regular readers will recall there are two main kinds of bad statistics. First is when the technique has been done wrong or is misapplied. Errors of this kind comprise only…
Posted inCulture Statistics
Researchers Invent Exciting New Disease: Poverty Blindness
There must soon come a day at The Onion, the satirical newspaper, when the editors will gather in bewilderment and say to each other, "Fellas, there's no use. The real…
