William M. Briggs

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.…

Incidentally, the header image is genuine and not AI. I still wonder why the right did not embrace the left's call to defund police. Think about no police. Think long…

This classic column originally ran on 1 July 2008 under a different title. The original typos, placed by relentless enemies, have been removed. I have also added a serious-minded video…

This classic column originally ran 31 July 2008. I edited it to provide a working link to the paper and to add the author's Fig. 1. I have no idea,…