William M. Briggs

What The Sale of Barnes and Nobel Means To Reading

Not too long ago, on the outdoor-shopping-mall-like 86th street in New York City---chain stores everywhere---Barnes and Noble opened a new store. Enormous, wide aisled (a rarity for stores in the…

Culture

California Judge Reverses Prop 8: A Right To Marriage?

A judge in California has, as we have all heard, struck down the publicly created law which bans two-person, same-sex marriage. This was no surprise, as most expected that this…

Philosophy

Shermer Tries, And Fails, To Take Down Chopra

Aurora last night masked by clouds. Saw plenty of bats. Here is a review of another article you might like to read. Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, tried to…

Statistics

Manzi: What Social Science Does—and Doesn’t—Know

This article is nothing but an extended link to a must-read piece in City Journal. Internet still once daily. Thanks to reader I. for suggesting this topic. If you haven't…

Culture Statistics

Everybody Has A Mental Disease: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5

I am so far Up North that I heard a radio interview with Uncle Ted Nugnet on the best kinds of arrowheads to bring down feral pigs. Internet still only…

Philosophy Statistics

Correlation and Causality: Have A Drink, Get Rich

I am down to one brief internet connection daily, found, intermittently, at a coffee shop in town. I apologize for lack of or slowness in answering questions. According to the…

Statistics

Three Cards: One Black, One Red, One Half & Half

Just a short one today, all. I'm heading further North. So far from civilization that when I was a boy, it was a cause to celebrate when a cit thirty…

Culture Philosophy

Professor Fired For Offending Friend Of Student (Then Rehired)

Whatever you do, don't diss John Stuart Mill or Jeremy Bentham at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. You might just "offend" the friend of a student, and will thus…

Brian (bulaoren) on The Equality ParadoxJuly 9, 2026
"Manners Maketh the Man" I plan to submit a more elaborate "Ex Cathedra" after I've knocked back a couple of…
Philip Rogan on The Equality ParadoxJuly 9, 2026
...not having any familiarity with the task, he forgot to light the fire. And not to forget that he also…
John Pate on My Horrible Interaction With AIJuly 9, 2026
Of course, indexing is the last task an LLM would be capable of because it works using next token prediction…
John Pate on My Horrible Interaction With AIJuly 9, 2026
Tagging by hand! I would have spent at least the same amount of time writing a perl script or three…
Brian (bulaoren) on My Horrible Interaction With AIJuly 8, 2026
Many items I find on line seem redolent of AI; they contain a great deal of superfluous verbigeration. Perhaps the…

William M. Briggs

The Equality Paradox

My Horrible Interaction With AI

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