William M. Briggs

The Endangered Species Act & Counterfactual Arguments

Most species that have ever lived on this our glorious planet Earth have been put on permanent hiatus. And by "most" I mean something approaching, but obviously not yet reaching,…

Statistics

Putting The Squeeze On Bob Newhart, Duck Dynasty

The culture war continues, with most of the battles still being won by the side which employs its devastatingly effective Shock Shrill Squad (the SSS). Two examples. Heard of Legatus?…

Philosophy Statistics

Causation And Correlation

Our friend Christopher Monckton of Brenchley wrote a piece over at Anthony Watt's place in which he said (Reader KA Rodgers asked me to have a look): CO2 concentration continues…

Culture Philosophy

Belgian “Doctors” To Kill Kids They Think They Can’t Cure

Belgium has just made it legal for "doctors" to kill children. Not those who haven't yet escaped the womb---those kids have been fair game for any quack with a sharp…

Culture Philosophy

Entry For The Most Pompous Statement Of Scientism

Our friend John Cook came (via The Renaissance Mathematicus) across what is easily one of the most pompous declarations by a scientist we have ever seen. The words came from…

Culture

Professor Confesses Why She Inflates Grades

I had a student come into my office (where I was a visiting mathematics professor) shaking with emotion. This was a day or two before the final exam. I couldn't…

Statistics

Exposure to Fast Food Impedes Happiness, Researchers

That don't call it the unhappy meal for nothing. Or, wait... What we have here is yet another instance of scientists claiming to have done something they did not do.…

Statistics

Global Warming Creating Anxious Fish

Fish the world over are rubbing their fins together and fretting over news of climate change. One day they are told earnestly that the world's oceans are going to boil…

gareth on Class 61: Does This Guy Have ESP? IIAugust 16, 2025
Errr... Calculating the probability of what we did see should be = 100% So why calculate it? (Enquiring minds, etc.)
Johnno on Funding Increases To Foster Even More Cheating In ScienceAugust 14, 2025
Briggs you fool... what you so outdatingly call cheating, I prefer to see as a more progressive healthy open relationship…
hudbwu on Lying Increases Trust In Science, Says AcademicAugust 14, 2025
To be fair, the center of this article (that I looked at from the link provided) is a reduction-to-absurd argument…
hudbwu on Funding Increases To Foster Even More Cheating In ScienceAugust 14, 2025
I love how the scale in the last graph is *LoGaRithMic_!
hudbwu on Compulsory Moral Bioenhancement Should Be Covert Says Academic Who Says Ticks Should Be Genetically Modified To Stop You Eating MeatAugust 14, 2025
Do you remember the time when craving loonies posted these things not in peer-reviewed journals, but on Internet fora? Man,…

William M. Briggs

Class 61: Does This Guy Have ESP? II

Funding Increases To Foster Even More Cheating In Science

Compulsory Moral Bioenhancement Should Be Covert Says Academic Who Says Ticks Should Be Genetically Modified To Stop You Eating Meat

Lying Increases Trust In Science, Says Academic

Class 60: Does This Guy Have ESP? 1

Lady Pilots Better Than Men, Says The Science

Academics Say It’s Morally Obligatory To Bioengineer Ticks To Stop You Eating Meat

New Definition Of Death To Increase Organ Harvest Bounty

Class 59: The Hardest Hypothesis In The World

The If I Were God Fallacy & Evolution

Universities Need To Be Made To Lose Prestige

Only Credentialed Artists Can Appreciate This

Does Watching TV Cause Autism?

Peer-Reviewed Research: Men Find Looking At Nearly Naked Women Distracting

A Week’s Vacation

Class 58: Hypothesis Testing Is All Wrong

Vegetarians Crave Power And Success More Than Meat Eaters Do, Study Finds

Jung’s Synchronicity & Coincidence

Reader Opinion Requested: What Science Do You Find Sketchy, Exaggerated Or Wrong?

Class 57: The Second Best Model

Don’t Lose Sleep Over Research On “Climate Change” & Sleep Apnea

Class 61: Does This Guy Have ESP? II

Funding Increases To Foster Even More Cheating In Science

The Endangered Species Act & Counterfactual Arguments

Putting The Squeeze On Bob Newhart, Duck Dynasty

Causation And Correlation

Belgian “Doctors” To Kill Kids They Think They Can’t Cure

Entry For The Most Pompous Statement Of Scientism

Professor Confesses Why She Inflates Grades

Exposure to Fast Food Impedes Happiness, Researchers

Global Warming Creating Anxious Fish

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