William M. Briggs

Are We Special? New Thoughts about the Anthropic Principle — Guest Post by Bob Kurland

Editor's note This post first appeared at Kurland's home site. My criticisms follow. "Scientists are slowly waking up to an inconvenient truth - the universe looks suspiciously like a fix.…

Fun

Teaching: No Post, No Podcast, But One Book

Tried to do it, but ran out of time. Not only is there the teaching, and the radio shows, and the eating, and the talking too much, but there is…

Philosophy Statistics

The I-Have-Big-Muscles Fallacy

Harvard graduate walks down the street where a 50-lb sack of cement blocks his way. He reaches down to shift it but discovers that despite all his might the bulk…

Culture

Orlando Shooting — Open Thread

Today is the first day of class; I originally had another post scheduled, but since I thought readers would like to discuss recent events, and I haven't had time to…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: Chance Is Not A Cause

See the first post in this series for an explanation and guide of our tour of Summa Contra Gentiles. All posts are under the category SAMT. Previous post. Be careful!…

Culture

Melody May Be A Learned Response?

Received this email from reader Don Siegel: Greetings. Vis a vis how music is getting worse---I'm a prof at Syr. Univ (Earth Sciences) but also lately, a solo jazz guitarist…

Fun

Consider The Hand — Guest Post by the Blonde Blombshell

Editor's note As I prepare for class this weekend, I have some guest posts and reader's questions prepared for us. The poor hands of the modern person are becoming nothing…

Statistics

Fermi’s Paradox & Gaian Bottlenecks

Democracy (the system) is enough to account for the seeming alien life-form which is Hillary and for whatever that thing is on Trump's head. But as queer as Democracy is…

hudbwu on Science Claims 7% Of Adults Saw A Mass ShootingJune 9, 2025
> And is not explained by “racism”, but by the violent nature of blacks themselves. Recently, I compared the incarceration…
hudbwu on Even The Woke Say Science Is Petering OutJune 9, 2025
> We’ll talk another day about “low-hanging fruit” being plucked and that like. Yes pls. I have a lot of…
Al on What Are The Chances Thomas Jefferson & John Adams Died On The Fourth of July, 1826?June 9, 2025
“…a mistake in something I have wrote…” Genius.
John Pate on IQ Is Not IntelligenceJune 7, 2025
Just accept the London School Briggs: IQ and the Big Five explain it all. Be a man and nail your…
JH on Class 53: Laplace Was Right!June 6, 2025
Since you used (8.7) at the beginning of the video, let me try again. A calculus fact: If f(N) approaches…

William M. Briggs

What Are The Chances Thomas Jefferson & John Adams Died On The Fourth of July, 1826?

Class 53: Laplace Was Right!

Even The Woke Say Science Is Petering Out

Expert Nathan Confas: Experts Know Best

Science Claims 7% Of Adults Saw A Mass Shooting

Class 52: The Origin Of Parameters

IQ Is Not Intelligence

What Are The Chances…George Wendt Dies On Same Day Cheers Ended 32 Years Before?

Class 51: Bayes Is Only A Formula

Blacks Have Black Fatigue: Who Is At Fault?

A Reason The Birthrate Is So Low: Food

What Are The Chances…A Women Survives Cancer 4 Times To Be Killed By “Random” Bullet?

Class 50: Independence Versus Irrelevance

The Nuances and Challenges of Federal Funding for Research — Guest Post by An Academic

Eggs and ‘PFAS-Easter’ or Selling Fear on the Day of Resurrection — Guest Post by Jaap Hanekamp

Academics Call Pregnancy A Disease

Class 49: Relevance & Importance Of Evidence In Models

Miracle Or Coincidence? What Are The Chances?

Reproducibility Crises Will Be Forever With Us Until We Abandon Classical Statistics

AI Cannot Hallucinate Nor Lie

Class 48: What Is A Model?