Briggs

The Bayesian Metaphor Can Do More Harm Than Good: Update

Quoting from a post on vampires, "In Bayesian inference, you start with some initial beliefs (called 'Bayesian priors' or just 'priors'), and then you 'update' them as you receive new…

Podcast

Multiverses, Infinities, Probability & The Deadly Sin of Reification — WMBriggs Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZffCuj9ZHA Download MP3 June is Probability Month here at WMBriggs.com, mostly because I'll be teaching (I'll be in Ithaca the 12th to 24th) and want to keep from being distracted…

Philosophy

Stream: Pretend to Believe In Free Will Or Else You Will Make Bad Choices

Today's post is at The Stream: Pretend to Believe In Free Will Or Else You Will Make Bad Choices. I want to be nice about this, but believing that we…

Culture

Church of Scotland Goes For Gmarriage (Government-Defined Marriage)

https://twitter.com/churchscotland/status/733980861905928194 Notice that they couldn't resist that horrid, unnecessary bar graph. The Kirk caved. Dateline Glasgow: "Church of Scotland votes to allow ministers to be in same-sex marriages". The Church…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: Failed Arguments For The Eternity Of The World II

See the first post in this series for an explanation and guide of our tour of Summa Contra Gentiles. All posts are under the category SAMT. Previous post. Format change…

Culture

On The Foreseeable Rise Of ‘White Supremacists’

Two stories with one central theme today, the second one being of more import. Headline one: "Debates Over Buildings Honoring White Supremacists Grow". Research shows that many past personages were…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

Why Is Economics Plagued By Math?

The answer is easy: because math is numbers and numbers are measurement and measurements are necessary to make a subject "scientific" in the modern sense of that word. Why should…

Culture

Stream: Doctors Killing Patients And Harvesting Their Organs

Today's post is at The Stream: When Doctors Kill Patients to Harvest Their Organs. "How's your headache, Mr Jones?" "Gettin' worse, doc. Had it off and on all week." "That's…

Hagfish Bagpipe on Changes Are Coming: Our Return to 1970sOctober 31, 2025
To follow up, on screaming -- in 1986 I fell off a turnip wagon, blond and blue, in New York…
Hagfish Bagpipe on Changes Are Coming: Our Return to 1970sOctober 31, 2025
Briggs, you are the master of hard-boiled, surreal, precise, colorful, expansive poetry masquerading as cultural commentary. You are our age's…
Briggs on Stay The Course: Have Some ClassOctober 30, 2025
Nate, Now how in the world did that happen. I fixed it and it didn't take. Fixed again, and this…
Nate on Stay The Course: Have Some ClassOctober 30, 2025
Matt it still says @briggs.com I sent you some dough using the right address though. end p values for ever!!
Briggs on Last Call For Alcohol-Cancer PapersOctober 30, 2025
Rich, Yep.