William M. Briggs

Sloppy Language About What’s True: Part I

"All cats are creatures understanding French," said Alice's father. "And some chickens are cats." "Wait, I know!" said Alice, chirruping. "That means that some chickens are creatures understanding French."1 "What…

Statistics

EPA Can Fine You As Long As It Wants—With No Review

EPA Agent Stephen Segal protects the wetlands The EPA came to Idaho and said in a booming voice Stop! to Mike and Chantell Sackett, who were building a home on…

Philosophy Statistics

On Probability Leakage

Submitted for your approval, yet another paper. On Probability Leakage, posted at Arxiv. Once you, my beloved readers, have had a go with it, I'll incorporate your comments in an…

Statistics

Differences In Brains Between Believers And Atheists?

The following question was posed at the (inaptly named) magazine Scientific American, "Is there a difference between the brain of an atheist and the brain of a religious person?" It…

Fun

First Signs of Rampant Global Cooling Seen At Nome, Alaska?

The headline from the 12 January 2012 Nome Nugget ("Alaska's Oldest Newspaper!") strikes a chill into one's heart: Nome in long deep freeze. The Nome post of the National…

Philosophy Statistics

Curtis’s The Science Of Subjectivity

An unfocused post today; just some notes on a paper. Busy day for me. Andrew Curtis wrote, "The science of subjectivity" in the January 2012 issue of the journal Geology…

Philosophy Statistics

What’s The Difference Between A Confidence Interval And A Credible Interval? Update

Twitter @ceptional reminded me of this post, which I had forgotten. Since it is highly relevant to The Great Bayesian Switch, I decided to repost. Some minor errors in grammar…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

The Great Bayesian Switch

Update: See this post on the definition of confidence and credible intervals. Submitted for your approval, a new paper. A polemic describing in nascent terms the paradise that awaits us…

spetzer86 on Belgian Judge Wants To Arrest Little Nate Cofnast Because Cofnast Says Smart People Are Smarter Than Dumb PeopleMarch 23, 2026
Jordan Peterson's discussion regarding intelligence and how people with IQ's below 100 are struggling with today's jobs and how this…
Tars Tarkas on Belgian Judge Wants To Arrest Little Nate Cofnast Because Cofnast Says Smart People Are Smarter Than Dumb PeopleMarch 23, 2026
IMHO, intelligence does not define moral worth. This seems to be the sticking point for people like the learned judge.…
Sid Porter on Belgian Judge Wants To Arrest Little Nate Cofnast Because Cofnast Says Smart People Are Smarter Than Dumb PeopleMarch 23, 2026
Tread carefully here Sarge. Buried deep in Belgian law it is probably illegal to criticize judges. I hear the waffles…
Brian (bulaoren) on Belgian Judge Wants To Arrest Little Nate Cofnast Because Cofnast Says Smart People Are Smarter Than Dumb PeopleMarch 23, 2026
The crime, of which Mr. Cofnast stands accused, is called "Noticing"; Steve Sailor wrote a book about it.
NLR on Belgian Judge Wants To Arrest Little Nate Cofnast Because Cofnast Says Smart People Are Smarter Than Dumb PeopleMarch 23, 2026
Of course, people are not equal and the judge is misusing his authority. But to be honest, I don't care…

William M. Briggs

Belgian Judge Wants To Arrest Little Nate Cofnast Because Cofnast Says Smart People Are Smarter Than Dumb People

Class 83: Why Were Paul Ehrlich’s Predictions So Good (and so Bad)?

The Great Effeminization of the Academy

The Only Metric That Matters: Or, Pinker’s Folly

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

Belgian Judge Wants To Arrest Little Nate Cofnast Because Cofnast Says Smart People Are Smarter Than Dumb People

Class 83: Why Were Paul Ehrlich’s Predictions So Good (and so Bad)?

Sloppy Language About What’s True: Part I

EPA Can Fine You As Long As It Wants—With No Review

On Probability Leakage

Differences In Brains Between Believers And Atheists?

First Signs of Rampant Global Cooling Seen At Nome, Alaska?

Curtis’s The Science Of Subjectivity

What’s The Difference Between A Confidence Interval And A Credible Interval? Update

The Great Bayesian Switch

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