William M. Briggs

Academic Philosopher Finds New Way To Dehumanize People; Calls For Beetroot Liberation

Update Now with new and improved title! (Title writing is a talent which your humble author possesses not.) In the classic 1978 documentary Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! we watch…

Statistics

Intrade’s Record In Picking Presidents: Is There Market Manipulation?

An "influential forecast" is one in which knowledge of the prediction changes the uncertainty in the thing being predicted. Consider a (respected) political opinion poll which announces Candidate B has…

Culture

Italian Scientists Convicted! Shocked That Their Predictions Were Heeded

Do you feel that chill? It's from a fell wind issuing from an Italian judge's courtroom, where he has just sent a group of seismologists and one politician to the…

Statistics

Risk Analysis And Over Certainty: Classical vs. Bayesian vs. Predictive Statistics

There are two main uses of statistics by civilians, defined as folks who use statistics, who may have even had a class or two in the subject, but who are…

Philosophy

Realism vs. Anti-Realism V: Conclusion—Guest Post by G. Rodrigues

The debate between the three views is ancient, and extremely complicated. It can also seem at first glance to be very dry, esoteric, and irrelevant to practical life. But nothing…

Culture

Stand Up For Religious Freedom San Francisco

The strangest thing about yesterday's Stand Up For Religious Freedom rally in San Francisco were the "undecided" gentlemen who came dressed with brassieres on their heads. This was curious because…

Book review Philosophy

Top 10 Essential (Philosophical) Conservative Book List

Today, a classic column. Original appearance 5 June 2011. A list of (non-fiction) books concerning knowledge, and the limits of certainty, about man's relations to other men. The Federalist Papers…

Culture

University’s Non-Discrimination Clause

I've been looking at university positions and typical is this fine print from the University of San Francisco (which used to be Catholic): The University of San Francisco is an…

Chad Jessup on Capital Punishment Deters Crime More Than The Death PenaltyMay 11, 2026
How about three strikes, and you're dead, which of course would only be for the very violent criminals. Why warehouse…
shawn marshall on Capital Punishment Deters Crime More Than The Death PenaltyMay 11, 2026
General Pyotr Wrangel in his bokk "Always with Honor" immediately stopped the predation by his own troo[s upon peasants by…
McChuck on Capital Punishment Deters Crime More Than The Death PenaltyMay 11, 2026
I firmly support the concept of "three strikes and you're out" as it applies to capital punishment for a series…
McChuck on Capital Punishment Deters Crime More Than The Death PenaltyMay 11, 2026
Capital punishment may or may not (although it almost certainly does) reduce criminality in the general sense. But it undeniably…
dadgervais on Richard Dawkins, The Big Muscles Fallacy & AI PachinkoMay 8, 2026
As I (computer engineer, retired) have always maintained: people who believe in mechanical inteligence suffer from "Clever Hans Syndrome". A…

William M. Briggs

Capital Punishment Deters Crime More Than The Death Penalty

How Experts Use “Calamities” to Find Official Victims & Gain Power

Richard Dawkins, The Big Muscles Fallacy & AI Pachinko

Class 88: The Most Neglected Concept: Skill

The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising Answer

UFO Reports About To Blast Off!

Class 87: Calibration & Conformal Prediction: Examples

Noticing Differences Between Races Does Not Pay

What Are The Chances Of All These Scientists Dying, Killed, Or Going Missing?

Class 86: Calibration & Conformal Prediction: Theory

How A Miracle Turns Mundane

Contest Winner Announced!

Trump’s Last Stand: Mea Culpa, Redux — Guest Post by Ianto Watt

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

Capital Punishment Deters Crime More Than The Death Penalty

How Experts Use “Calamities” to Find Official Victims & Gain Power

Academic Philosopher Finds New Way To Dehumanize People; Calls For Beetroot Liberation

Intrade’s Record In Picking Presidents: Is There Market Manipulation?

Italian Scientists Convicted! Shocked That Their Predictions Were Heeded

Risk Analysis And Over Certainty: Classical vs. Bayesian vs. Predictive Statistics

Realism vs. Anti-Realism V: Conclusion—Guest Post by G. Rodrigues

Stand Up For Religious Freedom San Francisco

Top 10 Essential (Philosophical) Conservative Book List

University’s Non-Discrimination Clause

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