William M. Briggs

Democracy And The Inevitable Erosion Of Standards: Racist Tests Edition

Democracies are born from elite (hierarchical) societies and for a time can and do retain much of their elitism, but since democracy is premised on egalitarianism ("We hold these truths..."),…

Statistics

George Gilder’s Information Theory Of Money

This is the second part of a review of George Gilder's monograph The 21st Century Case for Gold: A New Information Theory of Money. The first part, about the return…

Culture Statistics

How Many Lousy Predictions Until Error Is Admitted?

https://twitter.com/EcoSenseNow/status/605381412158500864 Update Breitbart kindly asked to reprint this, and just did. How long does it take for an expert who has, year upon year after year, made predictions of unrealized…

Fun Statistics

Heartland Conference, Statistics Classes, Statistics Books, & Statistical Cups

Heartland Conference I'll be there, speaking Friday on "The Need To Believe In 'The Solution' To Global Warming". This is a paper which I'll try to find a home for…

Culture Statistics

Why Global Warming Models Are Hot And Bothered

https://twitter.com/EcoSenseNow/status/605381412158500864 Everybody remembers what happened when Lord Christopher Monckton, Willie Soon, David Legates and I published our (what is physics is called) toy model of the climate. Global warming increased!…

Culture

Bill Nye Says, “Let’s Talk” About Global Warming. Okay, Let’s.

This article was co-authored by Willie Soon. If anybody has a way to contact Bill Nye, make sure he sees this. Bill "The Science Guy" Nye went on CNN recently…

Fun

Help This Reader Out: Best Science Material For Kids?

A reader writes (I've stripped out personal details): Dr. Briggs, I recently came across your work on The Stream. I was hoping you could point me to a resource or…

Philosophy

The I-Must-Be-Right-Because-I-Can’t-Think-Of-Another-Reason Fallacy

The I-Must-Be-Right-Because-I-Can't-Think-Of-Another-Reason---or IMBRBICTOAR, pronounced, in Latin, im-bri-bictor---has always been with us, but its use has latterly accelerated because of our culture's fascination with self-esteem. Schools and universities in the West…

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)?