William M. Briggs

Shocking Research: Kids Who Play Games, Watch TV, Text Don’t Read And Do Poorly At School

The New York Times has come to the conclusion that watching television and playing video games is not conducive to reading. Further, preliminary evidence suggests that chatting on cell phones,…

Philosophy Statistics

Tolkien Wants A King, Cheating With Statistics

Cheating With Statistics Reader Matt Lewis points us to Planet Moron, to an article which tears apart a statistical argument used by the Washington Post, an argument which sought to…

Culture Statistics

Peer Review Fails? Sympathetic Priest? What’s Going On Here?

Duke Scores Another Own Goal According to Science, Duke University oncologist Anil Potti quit after being caught cheating: Anil Potti had published papers in prominent journals identifying gene signatures in…

Culture Statistics

The Government Loves You And Wants You To Stop Smoking

As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking…

Culture

New Expert Panel To Pick Experts For Expert Panels: Lessons From The TSA

But climate change experts opposed to [Prime minister Julia Gillard's idea of creating a citizens panel to discuss climate change] were saying 'these are citizens, they are not experts on…

Culture

TSA Full-Body Scans Would Not Pass Hospital IRB Reviews

Zzzzaapp! Some angry photons have just been blasted off toward your body, scouting for "contraband." In the process of the search, these energetic massless particles will kick the crap out…

Culture Statistics

College Students More Loquacious Than Erudite: Vocabulary Test Results

The results of the Great Vocabulary Test of 2010 are in. Two weeks ago, in this thread, after announcing my surprise that no student in any of my classes knew…

Statistics

TSA Cops A Feel: More Bad Statistics

As far as I can discover, Janet "There's Nothing To See Here" Napolitano's newly created policy of feeling up and peeking under the skirts of random airline passengers has not…

Nym Coy on On Not ReadingMarch 13, 2026
Might I interest you in a book? It is called Mumbai Singularity, and it is a mythic cyberpunk detective thriller…
Uncle Mike on Class 82: Be More Uncertain (About Models)March 12, 2026
The probability of significant "climate change" in equatorial Africa is very small because most climate change occurs at the poles.…
Idonotreadcomments on On Not ReadingMarch 12, 2026
First of all, you only need to visit a big chain bookstore to know that the fiction market is driven…
C-Marie on On Not ReadingMarch 12, 2026
Well, I do knpw that Malchi Martin and David McCullough were great authors.... The Final Conclave and John Adams, respectively.…
NLR on On Not ReadingMarch 11, 2026
People have a variety of different reading habits. So the best thing to accommodate that is to preserve a variety…

William M. Briggs

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

Desperate Need For Equality: AP Exam Performance

Some Sanity: Experts Sued For Creating Gender Delusions

Why The Recent Claims Of AGI Fail: Plus, A New Test For AGI

Polar Bears Are Doing Fine: Activists, Not So Well

Impossible LSAT Statistics Question

Class 82: Be More Uncertain (About Models)

On Not Reading

Shocking Research: Kids Who Play Games, Watch TV, Text Don’t Read And Do Poorly At School

Tolkien Wants A King, Cheating With Statistics

Peer Review Fails? Sympathetic Priest? What’s Going On Here?

The Government Loves You And Wants You To Stop Smoking

New Expert Panel To Pick Experts For Expert Panels: Lessons From The TSA

TSA Full-Body Scans Would Not Pass Hospital IRB Reviews

College Students More Loquacious Than Erudite: Vocabulary Test Results

TSA Cops A Feel: More Bad Statistics

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