William M. Briggs

Good Ways Of Speaking About Truth

"Quid est veritas?" Pilate asked. Famously, his interlocutor did not answer, perhaps because Pilate didn't give Him the chance. Then Pilate may have been (understandably) addled because the Answer was…

Philosophy Statistics

Bad Ways Of Speaking About Truth

Easy It is true that all men are mortal. It is also true that 2 + 3 = 5. Yet it is not "true" that all men are mortal, nor…

Fun

Dinner With Atheists: A Mini-Play In One Act

SCENE: The monthly meeting of the Madison Atheists Evangelization Society at the I-12 Marriot Courtyard's Badger Room, a rambunctious group sitting at a table, long side to the audience, like…

Statistics

Regression To The Mean (And Performance Curses) Simply Explained

I've just read about The Second Term Curse which supposedly besets (of course) second-term presidents. There is also the infamous Sports Illustrated Curse, which is said to befall athletes soon…

Statistics

Sam Harris Asks, “Can Science Answer Moral Questions?” No, Sam, It Cannot

I was having a back-and-forth on Twitter with Craig Mazin â€(@clmazin) about Sam Harris's claim that morality is a scientific and not a metaphysical question. As evidence, Mazin pointed me…

Culture Philosophy

The Unbelievers: The Movie. Richard Dawkins & Lawrence Krauss On Tour

A camera followed two village atheists on their wanderings, spliced together some of their less tedious talks, sprinkled in a few celebrity cameos, such as one by noted scientist Woody…

Culture Statistics

The Horrors And Hurt Feelings Of Profiling

"Ver are your papers!" "Um. Hang on. I'm sure I have them on me. Wait. Here," said the man, handing them over. The clerk examined them closely. He arched his…

Culture Fun

Knife-Wielding Teens Invade High School

What you are about to read is a true story. The question is why none of this has been picked up in the media. In late March a "flash mob"…

John Pate on My Horrible Interaction With AIJuly 9, 2026
Of course, indexing is the last task an LLM would be capable of because it works using next token prediction…
John Pate on My Horrible Interaction With AIJuly 9, 2026
Tagging by hand! I would have spent at least the same amount of time writing a perl script or three…
Brian (bulaoren) on My Horrible Interaction With AIJuly 8, 2026
Many items I find on line seem redolent of AI; they contain a great deal of superfluous verbigeration. Perhaps the…
Bill Hankel on My Horrible Interaction With AIJuly 8, 2026
I hope you're promote your new book here when available, as it sounds quite intriguing. I only discovered your website…
Brian (bulaoren) on The Court’s Slow Theft Of The Constitution — Guest Post by Ianto WattJuly 6, 2026
Sorry folks, my 1st comment today seems to have been lost in the ether. The Howard Johnson's reference makes no…

William M. Briggs

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!

The Ultimate IQ Test: Guessing the Author’s Mind and Escaping the Infinity of Answers

Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?

No Model Will Save Us: Pope Leo, the Miserostat, and AI’s Woke Coders

How High an IQ Must A Person Have To Be Executed?

Class 90: Simple (Optimal) Decisions

Shocking Abortion Numbers: Death Distributions Show We’re Living Longer

Blessed Memorial Day; No Class; See You Wednesday