William M. Briggs

My Failure To Purchase Something In The Market Subjects Me To Regulation

The title words were spoken to Solicitor General Verrilli by Justice Scalia in yesterday's oral arguments. Scalia was making the obvious point that because he might not buy a thing…

Book review Philosophy

The Universe Created From Nothing Says Lawrence Krauss

This fragment of conversation was reported to me by a reliable witness. It occurred between a gentlemen we will call "Daffy" and Lawrence M. Krauss upon the occasion of the…

Culture

Supreme Court To Check The Doctrine Of Unintended Consequences?

This country, like all other countries, has at times lost its mind. But this country, again like all others, since it is constituted differently than the others, goes insane in…

Culture

Why You Don’t Want Free Health Care: Supreme Court Hears Arguments On Obamacare

Our reading today is from the Constitution, first Act, eighth Section, third Clause: [The Congress shall have Power] To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and…

Philosophy Statistics

Bayes Theorem Proves Jesus Existed And Didn’t Exist

In his shockingly neglected, A Treatise on Probability John Maynard Keynes put his finger on the difficulty people have with probability, particularly Bayes's Theorem: No other formula in the alchemy…

Culture Philosophy

Experts Say People Aren’t Smart Enough

Public Policy Polling's Tom Jensen said recently, "The first lesson you learn as a pollster is that people are stupid." Jensen represents a common attitude among media denizens that ordinary…

Fun Statistics

Global Warming Feedback Confirmed!

Just some gentle teasing today. Every climate scientist knows that it's the feedback that counts, that the few squirts of carbon dioxide contributed to the atmosphere are powerless in isolation.…

Fun

This Page Intentionally Left Blank

I was, as regular readers know, in the U.S. Air Force. I was a crypto specialist. Top Secret stuff, code words, all that. Part of the job required reading and…

Johnno on Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education Causes Mass SquealingNovember 3, 2025
Briggs, you fool! There are always the judges! There is no shortage of left under handed women on the bench…
Uncle Mike on Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education Causes Mass SquealingNovember 3, 2025
Vox clamantis in deserto
NLR on Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education Causes Mass SquealingNovember 3, 2025
The universities have serious problems and the criticism of them is justly warranted. But from these excerpts this compact is…
Hagfish Bagpipe on Changes Are Coming: Our Return to 1970sOctober 31, 2025
To follow up, on screaming -- in 1986 I fell off a turnip wagon, blond and blue, in New York…
Hagfish Bagpipe on Changes Are Coming: Our Return to 1970sOctober 31, 2025
Briggs, you are the master of hard-boiled, surreal, precise, colorful, expansive poetry masquerading as cultural commentary. You are our age's…

William M. Briggs

Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education Causes Mass Squealing

Stay The Course: Have Some Class

Last Call For Alcohol-Cancer Papers

UFO Hits United Flight. All Survive. This Time!

Changes Are Coming: Our Return to 1970s

Class 70: Most Claims Of “Controlled For” Are Wrong: The Right Way

The Triumph Of The Feminine

At What Point Does Transsexualism Become A Conservative Value?

The Superpower You Didn’t Know You Had

Class 69: Why Parameters Don’t Exist

Putin, Xi Who Must Obeyed, Occult Rituals & Living Forever

Nobody Believes Anything Based On “No Evidence”

Good Vs Bad Science (Models) & How You Can Tell The Difference: Think Twice Science

Class 68: The Philosophy Of Models (Regression): The WRONG Way

The Lancet’s New Push To Ban Meat

‘Termination Shock’: Newest Entry In Science Doom Naming Contest

Changing Clocks In Fall Will Stroke You Out, Fatty: Research

Class 67: The Philosophy Of Models (Regression): The Right Way

Big Things Are Happening With Celebrities, The Pope & “Climate Change”!

The Main Barrier To Reproduction Is Ideas

How You Helped Academics Justify Sex With Children