William M. Briggs

The Showman’s Courtship: Guest Post By Artemus Ward

Artemus Ward, who wrote this piece circa 1858, was a showman and writer who toured these great United States with his artistic exhibition, which consisted of "three moral Bares, a…

Statistics

Italian Scientists On Trial For Manslaughter After Failing To Predict Earthquake

Seven Italian geologists have been hauled before an Italian judge---whether in chains or no, we are not informed---and charged with the heinous crime of manslaughter. Specifically, these men are being…

Philosophy Statistics

Proving What You Want To Believe

You can always find a way to believe anything. That "always" is strict---the magic of belief, like a card trick with a gaffed deck, can always be worked. But just…

Statistics

The Myth Of Killer Mercury: Guest Post By Willie Soon & Paul Driessen

Willie Soon has graciously allowed us to reprint his and Paul Driessen's editorial that ran in the 25 May 2011 Wall Street Journal. Dr Soon received double our normal rate…

Culture Statistics

India Aborting Girls At Full Speed: Sex Selection And Demographics

Science is great. It---"it" is always an it, an invisible entity, a guiding sapience, an intelligence that can be looked to for guidance---can now us tell the sex of a…

Culture Fun

Parents Raising Child As ‘It’

When I first saw that the website with the story of parents raising "gender free" kids ended in ".ca", I thought for sure it came from California. But---Holy Saskatchewan---it's Canada!…

Philosophy Statistics

The Trolley Problem And Experimental Philosophy

The Trolley Problem, as given by Eric Schwitzgebel (as part of a larger survey): You are standing by the railroad tracks when you notice an empty boxcar rolling out of…

Culture Statistics

Wishcasting The End Of The World: Update

Wishcasting is when a forecast or prediction is shaded in the direction the forecaster or predictor wants the event to happen. For example, if you forecast this weekend's weather, you…

Brian (bulaoren) on The Solution To EvolutionNovember 2, 2026
As flies to wanton boys are we to evolutionists...
Uncle Mike on The Solution To EvolutionNovember 2, 2026
Good call, Mr. Rhodes. Readers, please search Darwinian Fairytales. A wonderful rabbit hole awaits you.
Mark Rhodes on The Solution To EvolutionNovember 2, 2026
Stove’s book is Darwinian Fairytales, not Darwinian Fantasies. Doesn’t change the point you were making, but if it aroused one…
The Solution To Evolution – William M. Briggs on Don’t Panic, But Intelligent Design Is Trivially True (Breathe, Breathe…)November 2, 2026
[…] from the beginning. It had to be, or we would never have gotten water. (I tried making this point…
Brian (bulaoren) on Class 99: Entropy Part IOctober 31, 2026
During the summer of 1977, I was living with a woman who had a 2 year old daughter. My brother,…

William M. Briggs

The Solution To Evolution

Class 99: Entropy Part I

Book Update: Launch Date

Reading Bryan Johnson’s The Immortalism Manifesto

Class 98: Limitations of Genetic Associations With Personality

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