William M. Briggs

Data Mining, PRISM, NSA & False Positives: Update

Remember how---this is a really brief history lesson--remember how the NSA, CIA, FBI, and many other of those lettered agencies with their ever-increasing budgets, super-sophisticated computers, genius brain mathematicians, statisticians,…

Philosophy Statistics

What Should Philosophers Of Statistics Do?

A while back, far longer than it should have been, D.G. Mayo asked me to stop by her place and comment on a couple of posts. But laziness and excessive…

Philosophy Statistics

Never Say “Caused By Chance”

One of the services of this blog is grammatical guidance. In that spirit, here are phrases which should be forbidden, and will be once I am in charge (all highlights…

Book review Culture

George Weigel’s Evangelical Catholicism, A Brief Review

Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church, George Weigel. The Good Old Days may never have existed, but surely there were better days. Worse days, too. It is also…

Statistics

The Consensus On Global Cooling

It is an interesting exercise to read press reports of the Consensus. The Consensus as was, not as is. The Consensus as of 1975, when the sky was literally going…

Culture Philosophy

Relevance, Tolerance, And Vanishing Christianity

From Tim Stanley of the Telegraph: America's liberal Christians might be progressive and inclusive, but they are also dying out. The marketing mantra of liberal Christianity is "change or die."…

Fun

Taiwanese And Chinese Toilet Icons

I found these on a public toilet in Ping Shi, more famous for its lantern festival. It's only a matter of time before tourists flock to see them. I was…

Statistics

Tweet Hate Map: Awful, Really Awful Use Of Statistics

I give you "Dr" Monica Stephens from Humbolt State University and her widely dispersed Twitter "Hate Map." The thumbnail here doesn't give the picture the full injustice it deserves, so…

Brendan P O'Sullivan on Class 85: Proper Scores of Model GoodnessApril 9, 2026
Bill - An opportunity to help fellow Vets! Look at the following - regarding jet fuel exposure to vets -…
Steve on Proof!April 9, 2026
You don't need a publisher. It's just Godwin's Law in action. For whatever reason, that seals the deal for most…
gareth on Proof!April 9, 2026
Read it here, please. Which I did, and recommend others do too :-)
Cloudbuster on Justice Ketanji RoarsApril 8, 2026
One logical conclusion you could draw from this is that psychology isn't medicine and therapists and psychologists should not be…
spetzer86 on Justice Ketanji RoarsApril 8, 2026
Black people are reported as having a life expectancy of 75 years in the USA. That would give us another…

William M. Briggs

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)?

The Great Effeminization of the Academy

The Only Metric That Matters: Or, Pinker’s Folly

Lancet Discovers Public Health Is Politics

Class 82: Be More Uncertain (About Models)

On Not Reading

The Great Smoothing: Another Reason Not To Fear (or trust) AI

A Synchronicity Or Coincidence? What Is Behind Curious Events?

Class 81: The Second Biggest Error In Time Series

The Paper Test Shows Why AGI Is Not Possible: And Why The Brain Is Different In Kind

Researcher Imagines Weather With No Human Influence: Concludes Climate Change Hurts Incomes