I would be the first to admit that statistics is an immensely difficult discipline, involving many things that are not entirely intuitive, but if this were standard statistical practice I would begin to be very skeptical of statistics. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to be anything remotely near standard. The best discussion of the article that I have seen is at Magic Statistics, the weblog of Scott Gilbreath. He gives his reasons for doubting the statistical value of the article. Alas, the atheistic part of the blogosphere has been spreading the study. Even if the conclusion of the paper is right, it doesn't seem to provide any clear statistical evidence for it; and if we're stuck with regarding it as a philosophical argument based on scattered evidences, it's not a very good one of those, either (and even if it were a well-formulated philosophical argument it wouldn't be contributing anything new, anyway).
* The next poetry carnival is going to be at Talking to Myself. Entries need to be in by the end of October 14. The host is asking for a theme:
NEW THIS MONTH: I would like to ask for a theme for all entries and this month's theme is short poetry -- limericks, haiku, tanka, renku, cinquains, you name it -- anything is welcome as long as it is 6 lines or less.
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