William M. Briggs

A Sermon You Won’t Forget: The Exorcist at 40

The Exorcist: 40th Anniversary Edition by William Peter Blatty If you're only familiar with the (original, 1973 version of the) movie, it might surprise you that The Exorcist is…

Fun

Taiwan’s Nan-Men Market å—é–€å¸‚å ´

Time to go shopping! On Sunday I strolled through the bustling Nan-men market which is on the far side of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. The basement is crammed with…

Statistics

Two New Papers vs. BEST: Guest Post by Lüdecke, Link, and Ewert

Horst Lüdecke is a Professor of Physiker in EIKE, European Institute for Climate and Energy, Heidelberg; Dr. Link is a physicist with EIKE; Prof. Dr. Friedrich-Karl Ewert is a geologist…

Statistics

BEST And The Wall Street Journal’s Numbers Guy

Carl Bialik, the Wall Street Journal's Numbers Guy, has two columns about BEST's temperature reconstruction model: "Global Temperatures: All Over the Map" and "A New Trove of Global Temperature Numbers").…

Statistics

The Twinkie Defense Defended: Soda Pop And Violence In Teens

In 1979, Dan White1 was tried for the assassinations of San Francisco city district Supervisor Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone. His lawyers argued that he had diminished capacity and…

Fun Statistics

Counterfactuals And Woodchuck Probability Distributions

I have, with mechanical aid, again winged my way across the globe in search of treasure. I landed disoriented and would not trust myself to calculate even the integral of…

Fun

A Final Solution To The Financial Crisis: Guest Post by Uncle Mike

Welcome to our WISE Uncle Mike, who provides for our review a unique idea to solve the world's financial mess. Greek residents will want to pay particular attention. Your Host…

Fun Philosophy Statistics

Best Statistics Question Ever

Several readers have sent this one in1. One Raymond Johnson (or was it Ryan Grover?) said he found the following picture on this blackboard (I pulled my copy from Flowing…

Brian (bulaoren) on The Court’s Slow Theft Of The Constitution — Guest Post by Ianto WattJuly 6, 2026
Sorry folks, my 1st comment today seems to have been lost in the ether. The Howard Johnson's reference makes no…
Steve on The Court’s Slow Theft Of The Constitution — Guest Post by Ianto WattJuly 6, 2026
I wondered the same thing, Cloudbuster. What I understand of the case is even worse -- John Marshall himself was…
Brian ( bulaoren) on The Court’s Slow Theft Of The Constitution — Guest Post by Ianto WattJuly 6, 2026
Yeah, I know; Howard Johnson's is defunct, like our constitution (?).
Brian (bulauren) on The Court’s Slow Theft Of The Constitution — Guest Post by Ianto WattJuly 6, 2026
If an absent voter's mail-in ballot is received after the date of the election but postmarked earlier, is it counted?…
Ray on Math Is Epistemic Violence, Says Lady AcademicJuly 6, 2026
This book looks like a wonderful example of the old saying, if you can't dazzle them with your brilliance, baffle…

William M. Briggs

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?

No Model Will Save Us: Pope Leo, the Miserostat, and AI’s Woke Coders

How High an IQ Must A Person Have To Be Executed?

Class 90: Simple (Optimal) Decisions

Shocking Abortion Numbers: Death Distributions Show We’re Living Longer

Blessed Memorial Day; No Class; See You Wednesday

Why There Are (Probably) No UFOs: “Climate Change”

Creating Microbial Monsters To Terrorize Ourselves

SOON

The Court’s Slow Theft Of The Constitution — Guest Post by Ianto Watt

A Sermon You Won’t Forget: The Exorcist at 40

Taiwan’s Nan-Men Market å—é–€å¸‚å ´

Two New Papers vs. BEST: Guest Post by Lüdecke, Link, and Ewert

BEST And The Wall Street Journal’s Numbers Guy

The Twinkie Defense Defended: Soda Pop And Violence In Teens

Counterfactuals And Woodchuck Probability Distributions

A Final Solution To The Financial Crisis: Guest Post by Uncle Mike

Best Statistics Question Ever

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