Briggs

Trust Me. I’m A Scientist — WMBriggs Podcast

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dzAsvJpC10 Download MP3. You'll have to listen in. This is the busiest time of year for me, so I haven't the time to write out a transcript of the show.…

Philosophy Statistics

A Brief Explanation Of Occam’s Razor

We're interested in whether some proposition Y is true. One explanation, perhaps causal or deterministic, or even only probabilistic, is X. Thus, Pr(Y | X) is high or equals 1.…

Culture

Stream: California Tried To Make Global Warming Skepticism Illegal

Today's post is at The Stream: California To Make Global Warming Skepticism Illegal. "All right, Briggsy. We know you're in there! Throw out your notes on improved cloud parameterizations in…

Philosophy SAMT

Summary Against Modern Thought: Arguments Against The World Being Eternal

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. We had…

Culture

Rampant Harassment by Atheists Expected At Reason Rally 2016

The Angry Atheists are meeting today, this time in DC, and evidently they're expecting an uppity crowd, because their Code of Conduct for Reason Rally warns of a host of…

Culture Philosophy

Animals Aren’t Men, Even If Government Says So

I once saw, with mine own eyes, a squirrel steal an acorn from a second squirrel. This shouldn't be surprising; squirrels are career criminals and everybody knows it. Think of…

Philosophy Statistics

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…

spetzer86 on A New Kind Of University: Your Comments WantedAugust 25, 2026
Sadly, you'd never get through the traditional academic review boards and the required certifications forcing compliance with mainstream thought. You…
Bill Hankel on A New Kind Of University: Your Comments WantedAugust 25, 2026
As someone who is currently almost 65 years old, and has never attended college, I'm in! It has been obvious…
McChuck on A New Kind Of University: Your Comments WantedAugust 25, 2026
It's not a terrible idea. It could work, given sufficient determination and willpower over decades and generations.
Brian (bulaoren) on Bad Black Health Blamed On SlaveryAugust 22, 2026
Enough time has passed, since this post went up, for me to feel no need to stick to the topic.…
David on Bad Black Health Blamed On SlaveryAugust 20, 2026
I would also like to point out that slaves often had *better* medical care than their working-class white counterparts, being…