Just as in the past 6 years since I’ve been blogging, I revisit that spot in the road at 11p.m., just outside the Elbar Room, look to get into a strange-looking taxi, to head to “Midnight With Birnbaum”. (The pic on the left is the only blurry image I have of the club I’m taken to.) I wondered if the car would come for me this year, as I waited out in the cold, given that my Birnbaum article has been out since 2014. The (Strong) Likelihood Principle–whether or not it is named–remains at the heart of many of the criticisms of Neyman-Pearson (N-P) statistics (and cognate methods). 2018 will be the 60th birthday of Cox’s “weighing machine” example, which was the start of Birnbaum’s attempted proof. Yet as Birnbaum insisted, the “confidence concept” is the “one rock in a shifting scene” of statistical foundations, insofar as there’s interest in controlling the frequency of erroneous interpretations of data. (See my rejoinder.) Birnbaum bemoaned the lack of an explicit evidential interpretation of N-P methods. Maybe in 2018? Anyway, the cab is finally here…the rest is live. Happy New Year! Continue reading
All She Wrote (so far): Error Statistics Philosophy: 6 years on
Error Statistics Philosophy: Blog Contents (6 years) [i]
By: D. G. Mayo
Dear Reader: It’s hard to believe I’ve been blogging for six years (since Sept. 3, 2011)! A big celebration is taking place at the Elbar Room this evening. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by for some Elba Grease.
Amazingly, this old typewriter not only still works; one of the whiz kids on Elba managed to bluetooth it to go directly from my typewriter onto the blog (I never got used to computer keyboards.) I still must travel to London to get replacement ribbons for this klunker.
Please peruse the offerings below, and take advantage of some of the super contributions and discussions by guest posters and readers! I don’t know how much longer I’ll continue blogging–I’ve had to cut back this past year (sorry)–but at least until the publication of my book “Statistical Inference as Severe Testing: How to Get Beyond the Statistics Wars” (CUP, 2018). After that I plan to run conferences, workshops, and ashrams on PhilStat and PhilSci, and I will invite readers to take part! Keep reading and commenting. Sincerely, D. Mayo
September 2011
- (9/3) Frequentists in Exile: The Purpose of this Blog
- (9/3) Overheard at the comedy hour at the Bayesian retreat
- (9/4) Drilling Rule #1
- (9/9) Kuru
- (9/13) In Exile, Clinging to Old Ideas?
- (9/15) SF conferences & E. Lehmann
- (9/16) Getting It Right But for the Wrong Reason
- (9/20) A Highly Anomalous Event
- (9/23) LUCKY 13 (Critcisms)
- (9/26) Whipping Boys and Witch Hunters
- (9/29) Part 1: Imaginary scientist at an imaginary company, Prionvac, and an imaginary reformer
October 2011 Continue reading

























