William M. Briggs

Statistics Of Drinking, Emailing, Pupil Size

Today, three studies from loyal readers. Drinking Creatively First up, the New York Post's Kyle Smith with an anecdote: Father O'Brien was driving home after lunch when a policeman pulled…

Culture Statistics

Bias Against Conservatives In Academia: Shocking New Study

Gander at this picture: This shows self-reported political affiliation of a group of academic social and personality psychologists (this included some graduate students and post docs). The graph is difficult…

Book review Philosophy

Reasoning To Belief: Feser’s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism — Part IV

Read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part Interlude, Part IV, Part V, Part VI. Part Last. It's God All The Way Down Talk about causality without foreshadowing a tie…

Culture

The Tyranny of Artistic Modernism: Ugly Buildings, Ugly Paintings, Ugly Words, Ugly Life

Title before the colon taken from by Mark Anthony Signorelli and Nikos A. Salingaros's piece at New English Review. No real post today, just quotes from an article which is…

Statistics

A Peculiar Prevalence Of P Values Just Below .05

Today's title is lifted directly from the paper of E. J. Masicampo & Daniel R. Lalande, published in The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. The paper is here, and is…

Book review Philosophy

Reasoning To Belief: Feser’s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism — Interlude: Empiricism Is False

Read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part Interlude, Part IV, Part V, Part VI. Part Last. In going through Feser's book, many in the comments profess to be confused…

Book review Philosophy

Reasoning To Belief: Feser’s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism — Part III

First Things First Read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part Interlude, Part IV, Part V, Part VI. Part Last. There is only one truth, and everybody must operate by…

Statistics

Stressed Men Prefer Chubby Chicks

Here's a title for you, "BMI Not WHR Modulates BOLD fMRI Responses in a Sub-Cortical Reward Network When Participants Judge the Attractiveness of Human Female Bodies." How about that? I…

R W Pearson on On Not ReadingMarch 16, 2026
Good to hear you are an avid reader, Professor Briggs. The word processor gave us the boat anchor novel, and…
James on Lancet Discovers Public Health Is PoliticsMarch 16, 2026
Why is a BRITISH journal (The Lancet) complaining about the US medical establishment? And given the current political establishment in…
bruce g charlton on Lancet Discovers Public Health Is PoliticsMarch 16, 2026
As I have been saying for a couple of decades; science is dead (as a social institution) - but *medical*…
JR Ewing on Lancet Discovers Public Health Is PoliticsMarch 16, 2026
"For these crimes, our rulers paid no price. Not directly." ----------------------- It depresses me when I think about it, so…
NLR on On Not ReadingMarch 15, 2026
quote from Idonotreadcomments: "everything men create is derivative of what came before us. There are no stories that have not…

William M. Briggs

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

Faith Deposited: Why Godless Science Fails

Class 80: Granger Causality; Per Se & Accidental Time Series; Stationarity

Scientists Seeking To Escape Criticism Run To The Warmth & Comfort Of Bluesky

The Loss of Ephemera — Guest Post by The Blonde Bombshell

Class 79: Time Series Example

The Importance Of Not Making Decisions

Don’t Take The ‘Long-Covid’ Alzheimer’s Study Seriously

AI Is Driving Many Crazy: Our Latest Panic

Class 78: The Attempt To Turn Correlation Lead Into Causation Gold In Time Series

Desperate Need For Equality: AP Exam Performance

Some Sanity: Experts Sued For Creating Gender Delusions

Why The Recent Claims Of AGI Fail: Plus, A New Test For AGI

Polar Bears Are Doing Fine: Activists, Not So Well

Lancet Discovers Public Health Is Politics

Class 82: Be More Uncertain (About Models)

Statistics Of Drinking, Emailing, Pupil Size

Bias Against Conservatives In Academia: Shocking New Study

Reasoning To Belief: Feser’s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism — Part IV

The Tyranny of Artistic Modernism: Ugly Buildings, Ugly Paintings, Ugly Words, Ugly Life

A Peculiar Prevalence Of P Values Just Below .05

Reasoning To Belief: Feser’s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism — Interlude: Empiricism Is False

Reasoning To Belief: Feser’s The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism — Part III

Stressed Men Prefer Chubby Chicks

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