William M. Briggs

My heart soared like a hawk by the hundreds of supportive comments I got on Twitter from last week's story about two academics who want government to genetically modify ticks…

The title today is identical to the peer-reviewed paper of the same name in Theory and Society by BVE Hyde. Hyde begins: "This study begins by outlining the transparency paradox:…

A guy correctly "sees" 4 cards out of 52. A wee P hypothesis test says he has psychic powers. Does he? We only begin this difficult question today. Video https://youtu.be/_mgOCfEkIWQ…

What do you make of this headline? "Female pilots perform better under pressure, study finds". Story opens thusly: Female pilots may outperform their male counterparts in high-pressure flight situations, according…

A stupid man will make stupid mistakes. He will show up on TV being escorted into the back of a police cruiser. An intelligent man will make intelligent mistakes. He…

"Death is not simply a biological fact," tweeted Sandeep Jauhar, "but it's also a social choice." Death has become a social choice? He continues: "To increase the number of donor…

A lady says she has the ability to identify whether tea or milk is poured in a cup first. What does "have the ability mean?" and why is it so…

The If I Were God Fallacy runs like this: If I were God, here is how the world would work;The world does not work like that;Therefore, God does not exist.…