William M. Briggs

Ask A Scientific Ethicist: Baby Making, Auto Mishap, ISIS Attacks

This was supposed to run this morning. No idea why it didn't. This week, three letters from concerned readers. Too many babies Dear Scientific Ethicist, Hopefully this subject matter isn't…

Statistics

It Makes No Sense To Say You’re More Likely To Die Of Bee Sting Than Shark Bite

The National Journal says: "The odds of being killed by a shark are about 1 in 3.7 million. The odds of being killed by a sting from a bee, wasp,…

Statistics

Decline Of Participation In Religious Rituals With Improved Sanitation

Answer me this. Earl at the end of the bar, on his sixth or seventh, tells listeners just what's wrong with America's science policy. His words receive knowing nods from…

Philosophy Statistics

Comments On Dawid’s Prequential Probability

Phil Dawid is a brilliant mathematical statistician who introduced (in 1984) the theory of prequential probability1 to describe a new-ish way of doing statistics. We ought to understand this theory.…

Philosophy Statistics

Explanation Vs Prediction

Introduction There isn't as much space between explanation and prediction as you'd think; both are had from the same elements of the problem at hand. Here's how it all works.…

Philosophy

Philosophic Issues in Cosmology V: What Measurements Tell Us—Guest Post by Bob Kurland

Bob Kurland is a retired, cranky, old physicist, and convert to Catholicism. He shows that there is no contradiction between what science tells us about the world and our Catholic…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: God Has No Passive Potentiality

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. We started…

Culture Philosophy

Gibbon (And O’Brian) On Too Many Lawyers

This is Gibbon, quoted in Patrick O'Brian's The Reverse of the Medal by the character Dr Stephen Maturin, who then speaks: '"It is dangerous to entrust the conduct of nations…

spetzer86 on Death By Organ DonationJuly 28, 2026
Right out of the old Monty Python skit where the guy was a "liver donor" and the guys came to…
The Four Chords of Modern Music - Roadie Music Blog on Four Chords Is All You Need: The Limited Nature of Pop MusicJuly 28, 2026
[…] Four Chords Is All You Need: The Limited Nature of Pop Music […]
Mary Sova on Wolfgang Smith For EveryoneJuly 28, 2026
I caught a small portion your interview with Ken Craycraft on my car radio yesterday, but didn't realize it was…
shawn marshall on Wolfgang Smith For EveryoneJuly 28, 2026
I'm not able to digest a lot of your essay but able to glean some fuzzy notions of the points…
JH on Death By Organ DonationJuly 27, 2026
Here they have no authority: none whatsoever. Is this an appeal to authority used in reverse? It seems that Dr.…

William M. Briggs

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

SOON

The Court’s Slow Theft Of The Constitution — Guest Post by Ianto Watt

Happy Birthday to US

Never Use Or Trust P-values (Pagan-Values)

Musk Doges Deaths: Researchers Say USAID Absence Kills Kills Kills!

The Intellectual Capacity Of Women by David Stove

Marbles!

Class 92: Simple Optimal Decisions: PSA & Cancer Example

Math Is Epistemic Violence, Says Lady Academic

Truly Random Numbers Found?

Class 91: Try Not To Use the ROC Curve & AUC

Climate Change Increases Risk of Even Slower World Cup Games!