Posted inCulture Statistics
The Coming Cancer Panic
Maybe it won't be cancer. Maybe it will be irumodic syndrome or Clarke's disease. Or maybe it will be something else. But probably it will be cancer. If I had…
Posted inCulture Statistics
Casual Sex Is Good for You, Says New Biased Study
In a ridiculously biased "study", a researcher has shown that some college students who self-select to participate in a study of "causal" sex and who say they like having "casual"…
Posted inStatistics
Nonpolitical Images Evoke Neural Predictors Of Political Ideology?
The study Another day, another dreary study purporting to show that the brains of "conservatives" are different than those of "liberals." This one hooked up to an electrical phrenology device…
Posted inPhilosophy Statistics
What That Spurious Correlation Website Tells Us About Statistics
Many (thanks!) readers sent links to Tyler Vigen's Spurious Correlations, whose motto is "Discover a new correlation - an interesting spurious correlation each day!" My favorite is tying the yearly…
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
Judgments About Fact And Fiction By Confused Researchers
Good news first. The peer-reviewed "Judgments About Fact and Fiction by Children From Religious and Nonreligious Backgrounds" by Kathleen Corriveau, Eva Chen, and Paul Harris in Cognitive Science is so…
Posted inStatistics
William M. Briggs Sez: Keep That Impressive Middle Initial
You can take it from William M. Briggs, and also from the Today show: sporting a middle initial is a mark of sophistication, intelligence, and rugged manliness---or womanliness, as the…
Posted inStatistics
Can A Disgusting Smell Turn You Conservative And Against Gay “Marriage”?
Can sniffing a sticky stained organic tote bag that has seen one too many trips to Whole Foods turn you into the kind of activist that haunts street corners and…
