Posted inStatistics
On The Kaya Identity
A reader asked about my take on the Kaya wars that are flaming at Anthony Watts's place. Here is the form of the Kaya Identity, which is to say, the…
Posted inStatistics
The Letter The Lancet Wouldn’t Publish
Here's the title of a big new peer-reviewed paper in The Lancet: Effects of long-term exposure to air pollution on natural-cause mortality: an analysis of 22 European cohorts within the…
Posted inStatistics
Class Report: How Not To Teach Statistics
It's over. Two solid weeks of 9 to 5 to 9 and beyond statistics. Plus a few cocktails and cookouts and camaraderie. I'm exhausted. The students are mostly later early…
Posted inStatistics
The Cult Of The Parameter!
Carla Antonaccio has written, "The term cult identifies a pattern of ritual behavior in connection with specific objects, within a framework of spatial and temporal coordinates. Rituals would include (but…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
The Deadly Sin Of Reification! Day Three
Zeno Phobia Counting day. How many ways can you skin a cat if the number of sharp versus dull knives is this and such. Simple stuff, easy to get the…
Posted inCulture
On What’s Behind The Notes In Music
As (then) Monsignor Fulton J. Sheen said1: [I]t is impossible to have any kind of evolution [change] without something that evolves or a change without permanence...It is no escape from…
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
Foreclosures Causing Suicides?
Remember our discussion of the Spurious Correlations website, nicely paired with the Regression Isn't What You Think post? The two keys points of both are the (a) "statistically significant" correlations,…