William M. Briggs

Columbia Law School Kiddies ‘Traumatized’, Exams Postponed: Update Harvard Joins

There's a story in John Toland's magisterial The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire (volume two) which depicts a Japanese ship transporting Western prisoners in conditions…

Statistics

The Philosophy Of Rock Paper Scissors

Way my dad and I used to play is that when somebody won they got to grab the hand of the loser and then, with the fore- and middle-fingers only,…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: Terms Which Can Be Predicated Of God

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. Today some…

Philosophy Statistics

Infinite Surprise And Impossible Events

It's a lazy Saturday, so some musings today on entropy and information and probability. It's about time we started tying these things together. Things like the following are heard: "Given…

Statistics

Uncertainty Is An Impossible Sell

I've never seen the show, but I've heard that the protagonist on the X Files used to have a desk sign which read, "I want to believe." That sentiment characterizes…

Philosophy

Pascal’s Pensées, A Tour: II

Since our walk through Summa Contra Gentiles is going so well, why not let's do the same with Pascal's sketchbook on what we can now call Thinking Thursdays. We'll use…

Book review Statistics

The Moral Case For Fossil Fuels Reviewed

People first Just in time for the Federally-Recognized-Holiday-Of-25-December-That-Shall-Go-Unnamed we have a suitable gift for science deniers everywhere. Alex Epstein's The Moral Case For Fossil Fuels Science deniers? Yes, sir. Those…

Statistics

Can We Predict The Unpredictable?

The most intriguing thing about the new peer-reviewed paper of the same name as today's post in Nature: Scientific Reports by Abbas Golestani and Robin Gras is that it is…

John Pate on Fertility Fears Overblown: Tiny Shift in Childless Rate Saves The SpeciesAugust 28, 2026
Another thing to model: the age at which the mother gives birth to the children. Mothers who give birth in…
Dennis Larkin on Fertility Fears Overblown: Tiny Shift in Childless Rate Saves The SpeciesAugust 27, 2026
Medieval Cathars avoided sexual carnality. They fought militarily against the kings for a time, going down to defeat, while their…
JRob on Fertility Fears Overblown: Tiny Shift in Childless Rate Saves The SpeciesAugust 27, 2026
re: Shawn Marshall Just yesterday my email folder contained a conservative political call to oppose the upcoming abortion amendment to…
C-Marie on Fertility Fears Overblown: Tiny Shift in Childless Rate Saves The SpeciesAugust 27, 2026
Have they rallied around the mother who killed her three children because she killed her three children, , or have…
Brian (bulaoren) on Fertility Fears Overblown: Tiny Shift in Childless Rate Saves The SpeciesAugust 27, 2026
As we read today's post on..."motherhood", a Massachusetts jury is determining the fate of a mother who killed her 3…

William M. Briggs

Fertility Fears Overblown: Tiny Shift in Childless Rate Saves The Species

A New Kind Of University: Your Comments Wanted

Bad Black Health Blamed On Slavery

Is Moral Certainty Possible?

We Passed Peak “Climate Change” (um) Research

Sweet Wee Ps Say Sugar Makes You Lose Your Mind

AI Is Neither Artificial Nor Intelligent

You Can’t Con An Honest Man & The Case of Jason Arday

Academics: Achieve Sustainability by Easing Population to 4 Billion by 2200

The Impossibility of Proposition Nations

Ugly Women Rulers Condemn Lookism

The Wee P Boogie: The Song That’s Sweeping the Nation!

Wolfgang Smith For Everyone

Death By Organ Donation

$7.11 at 7:11 PM on 7/11 at 7/11: What Are The Chances?

Caution Against The Precautionary Principle: Interview with Jaap Hanekamp

Believing In God Makes You Crave Potato Chips, Say Academics

Hume’s Guillotine, Euclid’s Catapult: Induction, Axioms, and Objective Ethics

University of California Prof Tries To Save System From DIEing

The Equality Paradox

My Horrible Interaction With AI

Fertility Fears Overblown: Tiny Shift in Childless Rate Saves The Species

A New Kind Of University: Your Comments Wanted

Columbia Law School Kiddies ‘Traumatized’, Exams Postponed: Update Harvard Joins

The Philosophy Of Rock Paper Scissors

Summary Against Modern Thought: Terms Which Can Be Predicated Of God

Infinite Surprise And Impossible Events

Uncertainty Is An Impossible Sell

Pascal’s Pensées, A Tour: II

The Moral Case For Fossil Fuels Reviewed

Can We Predict The Unpredictable?

There Is No Culture Without Inequality: Stove 1

Impose Your Beliefs Before They Impose Theirs

Telekinesis: Ideas In Our Reenchantment & Rectification

The Physics Of Blessings: Ideas In Our Reenchantment & Rectification