William M. Briggs

Publishing & Equality Are Killing Science

Equality kills everything it touches, eventually. So much is well known. It is also realized by regular readers that requiring academics to publish or perish causes them to perish intellectually.…

Culture

Stream: University Of Cincinnati To Require Diversity Oath

Today's post is at the Stream: University of Cincinnati Will Require Diversity Oath of Professors, Staff: I once applied to a protesting Christian university for a position in its math…

Book review Statistics

Uncertainty: Foreword by Steven Goldberg

Steve Goldberg was president of the sociology department at City College of New York (CCNY) from 1988 until his retirement (back when they knew how to do sociology). He is…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: Angels—or Aliens—Did Not Make The World

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. Angels, aliens,…

Statistics

Stream: Government Lab Has Been Faking Data for Years

Today's post (more a news report) is at The Stream: Government Lab Has Been Faking Data for Years. A person or persons at the same US Geological Survey Lab in…

Statistics

Shocking New Research: Hunger Motivates Eating

Ladies and gentlemen, the opening line of the peer-reviewed paper "Hunger promotes acquisition of nonfood objects" appearing in the (once) venerable organ Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, by…

Book review Philosophy Statistics

The Great Day Is Here! Uncertainty Meets The World

The Great Day---the Day yearned for by all humanity, or at least weakly anticipated by you, Dear Reader---has arrived! Let the trumpet sound and celebration begin! The release of Uncertainty:…

Culture Philosophy

The Imposing-Their-Beliefs Fallacy

I'm on the road for the next several days and won't always have access to the Internet. So I'm reposting a series of classic fallacies. Regular service to resume early…

tfc on Class 88: The Most Neglected Concept: SkillMay 1, 2026
Wow. Americans say the Soviet Union was a huge success.
John Pate on The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising AnswerApril 30, 2026
I would press the red button because it's the red button. The bigger the red button the harder you hit…
Polybius II on The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising AnswerApril 29, 2026
"their Other Lives’ Value premise is something vague about man, but not men" I am reminded of a british comedian…
Johnno on The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising AnswerApril 29, 2026
But do we get time to explain to everyone and have them all sit down and have a discussion before…
gareth on Class 87: Calibration & Conformal Prediction: ExamplesApril 29, 2026
Timestamp 21:35: A "correction" from 0.8 to 1.0 is a "correction factor" of 1.25, not 0.2 (akshully wot you mean…

William M. Briggs

Class 88: The Most Neglected Concept: Skill

The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising Answer

UFO Reports About To Blast Off!

Class 87: Calibration & Conformal Prediction: Examples

Noticing Differences Between Races Does Not Pay

What Are The Chances Of All These Scientists Dying, Killed, Or Going Missing?

Class 86: Calibration & Conformal Prediction: Theory

How A Miracle Turns Mundane

Contest Winner Announced!

Trump’s Last Stand: Mea Culpa, Redux — Guest Post by Ianto Watt

Class 85: Proper Scores of Model Goodness

Proof!

Justice Ketanji Roars

Iran Has Caught Covid: A Reason For The War

Class 84: Most Important Measure of Model Goodness

There Is No Solution To Crashing Fertility: Good Times Made Soft Men

Did The Pope Really Say Health Is A “Right”?

All Models Only Say What They Are Told To Say, And AI Is A Model

It’s The End Of The World Again

Belgian Judge Wants To Arrest Little Nate Cofnast Because Cofnast Says Smart People Are Smarter Than Dumb People

Class 83: Why Were Paul Ehrlich’s Predictions So Good (and so Bad)?