Monthly Archives: October 2013

In Why Falsifiability, Though Flawed, Is Alluring: Part I , William M. Briggs argues that “most theories scientists hold are not falsifiable” because “if the predictions derived from a theory are probabilistic then the theory can never be falsified. This is so … Continue reading →

There has been a lot of heated reaction recently to a couple of incidents in which people have apparently denied the sincerity of others’ statements of belief. Oprah Winfrey responded to atheist swimmer Diana Nyad’s expression of wonder and awe … Continue reading →

What Is Bjørn Lomborg Trying to Achieve? – asks Keith Kloor in his blog at DiscoverMagazine.com, and with reference to his recent profile in Cosmos. Kloor says “it’s worth asking at this stage in his career if  Lomborg is a … Continue reading →

via Decisions, decisions | Annoying Precision. Newcomb’s paradoxis the name usually given to the following problem. You are playing a game against another player, often called Omega, who claims to be omniscient; in particular, Omega claims to be able to predict … Continue reading →

To follow up on my previous post:  since the occurrence of an event having low probability according to some model is not always reason to doubt the model, it becomes natural to ask what would be reason to doubt the model. And … Continue reading →

One of my favourite betes noires claims to have put everything wrong with P-Values under one roof. My response started with  “There’s nothing wrong with p-values any more than with Popeye. They is what they is and that’s that. To blame … Continue reading →

one of the most pressing issues facing America is the media’s over-reliance on widely-debunked, non-credible sources, which poisons the atmosphere for a genuine discussion of our biggest problems and their best solutions via Clean Slate? Asking Bjorn Lomborg To Help … Continue reading →

In Whos Afraid of Peer Review? ‘Science’ magazine publishes a purported bit of “research” into the failings of open access journals which starts by selecting those of less repute and fails to do any comparable study of the population (of traditional subscription-based … Continue reading →