William M. Briggs

Richard Muller’s Political Move—BEST is Best? Sophisticated Statistics!

Our Berkeley Earth approach used sophisticated statistical methods developed largely by our lead scientist, Robert Rohde, which allowed us to determine earth land temperature much further back in time. Ah,…

Statistics

Doctors For Disaster Preparedness Talk

Here's the PDF of my talk DDP 30th Annual Meeting. "Statistical Follies and Epidemiology." They picked the title. Have fun!

Fun

Google’s Eric Schmidt & Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel Blaze Path Of Ugliness

This is a picture of Google's Eric Schmidt & Chicago's Rahm "Crisis" Emanuel from today's Wall Street Journal story Google Move Buoys Chicago Tech Hub. Chicago! The city of the…

Culture

The Chicago Way With Chik-Fil-A

There is a sense in which we all argue that is statistical. For instance, if we say of a group that it sports an "arrogant attitude" we do not mean…

Philosophy Statistics

True Value Of A Parameter

Jelle de Jong writes in to ask: Working as a quant analyst in finance I recently got interested in the Briggsian/Jaynesian/Bayesian interpretation of probability but am still struggling a bit…

Philosophy Statistics

What Probably Isnâ€™t: Heat Waves and Nine Feet Tall Men: Part II

McKibben's Folly Suppose it is true that we have E = "A six-sided object, just one side of which is labeled 6, and when tossed only one side will show."…

Philosophy Statistics

What Probably Isn’t: Heat Waves and Nine Feet Tall Men: Part I

Probability is screwy, and we statisticians do a horrible, rotten job of teaching it. The first thing students learn in normal statistics classes is about "measures of central tendency" or…

Statistics

Men Nine Feet Tall And Bayes Theorem

The OFloinn put up a most readable and recommended essay When is Weather Really "Climate"? and in one of the comments a reader named Gyan in part said: Many economists…

John Pate on Caution Against The Precautionary Principle: Interview with Jaap HanekampJuly 22, 2026
Considering "climate change" went out the window when the powers that be wanted more data centres I'm sure the Precautionary…
Cary D Cotterman on Believing In God Makes You Crave Potato Chips, Say AcademicsJuly 22, 2026
Hean Tat Keh Good Pharaoh name.
The True Nolan on University of California Prof Tries To Save System From DIEingJuly 20, 2026
?I used to know a guy who didn't speak German. But that didn't stop him from sounding like he spoke…
spetzer86 on Believing In God Makes You Crave Potato Chips, Say AcademicsJuly 20, 2026
How are hash browns "ultra-processed"? They are essentially baked potatoes that were shredded and then fried until their collective exteriors…
Jethro Rusticus on Believing In God Makes You Crave Potato Chips, Say AcademicsJuly 20, 2026
Alternative interpretation of the data: Believing in God mKes you less depressed so you eat rather than starve yourself like…

William M. Briggs

$7.11 at 7:11 PM on 7/11 at 7/11: What Are The Chances?

Caution Against The Precautionary Principle: Interview with Jaap Hanekamp

Believing In God Makes You Crave Potato Chips, Say Academics

Hume’s Guillotine, Euclid’s Catapult: Induction, Axioms, and Objective Ethics

University of California Prof Tries To Save System From DIEing

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?

$7.11 at 7:11 PM on 7/11 at 7/11: What Are The Chances?

Caution Against The Precautionary Principle: Interview with Jaap Hanekamp

Richard Muller’s Political Move—BEST is Best? Sophisticated Statistics!

Doctors For Disaster Preparedness Talk

Google’s Eric Schmidt & Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel Blaze Path Of Ugliness

The Chicago Way With Chik-Fil-A

True Value Of A Parameter

What Probably Isnâ€™t: Heat Waves and Nine Feet Tall Men: Part II

What Probably Isn’t: Heat Waves and Nine Feet Tall Men: Part I

Men Nine Feet Tall And Bayes Theorem

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