Briggs

Oscar Predictions: Money, Men, & Maturity Make The Difference

Last year, my number two son1 and I created a model to predict the Oscar winning movie (the original post, and the follow up). We found the following characteristics most…

Fun Statistics

Scratch-off Lottery Tickets: Expected Payouts, A Hidden Benefit?

Update See the comments, but thanks to readers' arguments I believe I was wrong in an essential calculation. I've reworked the text to correct my error, which was small in…

Philosophy Statistics

What Is Cause? — Guest Post by DAV

Regular readers will recognize DAV as a regular contributer whose humorous voice of reason has kept many conversations on target. Today he presents ideas to spur a discussion of causality,…

Statistics

Last Night’s Republican Debate

Off in service today, so only a brief word. Debate results: Romney had an easy base hit to center field, Gingrich doubled but with no men on base, Santorum hit…

Philosophy

Santorum And The ‘S’ Word

President Obama has told us, and we can scarcely disbelieve him, that he is a Christian. At a recent prayer breakfast, Mr Obama said: [The prayer breakfast is] a chance…

Culture Philosophy

Why There’s No Point To Arguing About Abortion

I lifted that title, word for word, from (atheist, self-admitted man-of-the-left, City College emeritus Professor of Sociology) Steven Goldberg's article of the same name from his must-read Fads and Fallacies…

Culture Philosophy

American Atheist Association Modifies Lawsuit Against WTC 9/11 Museum

Those of you living in or around New York City might remember that the American Atheists Association was displeased that two iron girders had formed themselves serendipitously into the shape…

Statistics

Heartlandgate Versus Climategate

There are some key differences between Climategate 1.0 and 2.0, where emails from scientists and their hangers on were leaked, and Heartlandgate (am I the first to use this appallingly…

Cary Cotterman on Academics: Achieve Sustainability by Easing Population to 4 Billion by 2200August 6, 2026
The population is (according to the paper) about four times what it was a century ago. As we know, the…
Brian ( bulaoren) on Academics: Achieve Sustainability by Easing Population to 4 Billion by 2200August 6, 2026
@ Leonard x 2 I just thunk up a new slogan for the Progressive Left; "Democracy, It's got electrolytes!". Now…
hudbwu on Academics: Achieve Sustainability by Easing Population to 4 Billion by 2200August 6, 2026
Have you or them heard of "The Rat Utopia"? I think if there's ONLY a two-fold reduction by 2200, people…
hudbwu on Ugly Women Rulers Condemn LookismAugust 6, 2026
Real talk: since young men now outnumber young women, (young) women are in position to extract ever greater value from…
N.S. Palmer on The Impossibility of Proposition NationsAugust 6, 2026
"Human groups that can’t stop killing each other should be physically separated from each other and their interactions carefully controlled.…