William M. Briggs

CARB Misinterprets Statistics, Calls For Elimination Of Dust

The California Air Resources Board, or CARB, has issued a press release that shows how easy it is to misunderstand statistics. That most do---fail to comprehend what statistical results are…

Fun Statistics

Are Moneylines Useful In Predicting NFL Games?

Today's post is over at Edgehogs. I wanted to know how good moneylines were at predicting wins and loses. Since Las Vegas is still in business, it was a good…

Fun

Count Zappula, Horror Host Par Excellence

Gaylord, Michigan, 1979, population 3000. It was 11:30pm, I was 15, in bed watching television with the house dark, parents asleep, a small B&W portable set perched on the blanket,…

Fun

Open Thread: What To Chat About Next?

It is once again Travel Day---or was: I'm writing this in state of advanced jet lag. So, in lieu of thought I've written this little introduction to nothing, hoping you…

Statistics

Increasing Replication Of Un-Reproducibility In Science

Best science picture of the year, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal (and thanks to reader Dan Hughes): In just the last decade---ten mere years---the number of "peer-reviewed" journal articles…

Culture

Make Colleges Co-Signers Of Student Loans?

As often has been said, if everybody is a genius, then nobody is. The wisdom in this apothegm is little changed by the modification: if everybody has a certification of…

Culture Philosophy

Science Explains Belief In God Through Genetics

Let's look at "Life's Extremes: Atheists vs. Believers", a piece on Live Science (the home of unexpurgated university press releases; hat tip to HotAir). The article is itself slight---it begins…

Statistics

Geo-engineering The Climate: Durban Global Warming Conference

A group of scientists, funded generously by Big Green, which includes the Environmental Defense Fund, have released a report to coincide with the efforts of the Durban Global Warming Conference,…

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…
Briggs on Stay The Course: Have Some ClassOctober 30, 2025
Nate, Now how in the world did that happen. I fixed it and it didn't take. Fixed again, and this…

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