William M. Briggs

The Economic Fallacy, Greenpeace, David Suzuki, And Global Warming

"You can't believe what that guy says. He research was funded by Greenpeace!" The person uttering this sentence has committed the economic fallacy, which is the belief that the truth…

Book review

Earth Has A Fever: How Can We Cool It?

Earth Fever: Living Consciously with Climate Change by Judy McAllister, Erik van Praag, and Jan Paul van Soest With Foreword by Hazel Henderson and Preface, by Jacqueline Cramer, Minister for…

Philosophy Statistics

Bathroom Stage Fright A “Real Condition” : Scientists Again Prove What Was Already Known

In standard science-report prose, MSNBC begins: Given the choice, you probably prefer your home porcelain throne to using a public toilet. But for more than 20 million people in North…

Fun Statistics

Does Second To Fourth Digit Ratio Predict You-Know-What Length?

From the storied Halls of Science comes an important new study, here abstracted from the Asian Journal of Andrology1. I apologize for the length of this excerpt, but it is…

Philosophy Statistics

Casey Anthony And The Probability of Guilt

What is the probability that Casey Anthony is guilty of murder? High, but according to twelve men and women honest and true, not high enough. High enough is supposed to…

Statistics

New Editorial Against Editorializing In Science Journals

The editorial is mine, Willie Soon's, David Legates's, and Bob Carter's, and it appears in the latest edition of Water, Air, & Soil Pollution. It's entitled "A Vaccine Against Arrogance"…

Culture Statistics

Title IX And Campus Equality

Under Title IX, a woman is entitled to equal access to everything on a college campus. That includes being safe. The most devastating thing is a young girl who reports…

Culture

San Francisco, Banning Capitol: Adds Pets To Forbidden List

The uber-enlightened which are the San Francisco city council and its hangers on have banned: McDonald's Happy Meals (they objected to kids being happy), cigarette smoking nearly everywhere (they refuse…

NLR on Against Numerology: Some Basic CalculationsOctober 19, 2026
The mathematician Richard Guy wrote a paper "The strong law of small numbers", where he said, facetiously, but also serirously:…
aGrimm on Book UpdateOctober 16, 2026
I'm looking forward to the book; warts and all the first was enlightening and fun to read.
John Pate on Book UpdateOctober 14, 2026
I'm a big fan of LaTeX. I wrote a class package that made it into one or more of the…
Ursula on Book UpdateOctober 14, 2026
i have your first edition which I read, pencil in hand foor the typos. Loved it anyway! Will be buying…
Brian (buaoren) on Book UpdateOctober 14, 2026
Hello again, friend Briggs How colloquial is your French? Please allow me to be te first to wish you; Merde!

William M. Briggs

I’m Thinking Of A Number Between 1 and 5 (that you can’t guess)

Against Numerology: Some Basic Calculations

Class 97: The Goal Of Models

Book Update

Sexual Assault Galore At Cornell

Class 96: Can Bayesianism Quantify True Belief?

Top 10 Reasons AI Will Never Become Superintelligence: It Won’t Destroy Nor Save Us

Viewer Asks: Why Do I Bother?

Academics Call For The Killing Of Babies In “After-Birth” Abortions

Irrational Rationalists: Effective Altruists & The Planet of the Ants

Class 95: Answering P-Value Good Uses Challenges

Whoring For Climate Change

Lady Academics Tire Of Being Judged By Peer Review

Class 94: Quantifying The Unquantifiable

PFAS and Preservatives: Entrenching Chemophobia through Everyday Stuff — Guest Post by Jaap Hanekamp

The MRS Degree — Guest Post by Johnathan Edwards

Politicians Demand “Right” To Be Protected Against AI

Class 93: P-values Challenge! List The “Good Uses” of P-value

Is the West Dying Out? The Demographic Crisis Explained: Jon Harris Podcast

Lindsay Clancy Strangled Her Kids Because Of “Climate Change”

Do Dogs Poop In Alignment With The Earth’s Magnetic Field?