Briggs

Increasing Replication Of Un-Reproducibility In Science

Best science picture of the year, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal (and thanks to reader Dan Hughes): In just the last decade---ten mere years---the number of "peer-reviewed" journal articles…

Culture

Make Colleges Co-Signers Of Student Loans?

As often has been said, if everybody is a genius, then nobody is. The wisdom in this apothegm is little changed by the modification: if everybody has a certification of…

Culture Philosophy

Science Explains Belief In God Through Genetics

Let's look at "Life's Extremes: Atheists vs. Believers", a piece on Live Science (the home of unexpurgated university press releases; hat tip to HotAir). The article is itself slight---it begins…

Statistics

Geo-engineering The Climate: Durban Global Warming Conference

A group of scientists, funded generously by Big Green, which includes the Environmental Defense Fund, have released a report to coincide with the efforts of the Durban Global Warming Conference,…

Fun Statistics

Are Experts Better At Predicting Sports Than Ordinary Fans?

Today's post is over at the new and, yes, improved Edgehogs.com. Our launch was a couple of months ago. Since that time we've got a good chunk of games and…

Statistics

What Is A True Model? What Makes A Good One?: Part VI Climate Model Focus

This is a technical addendum to the main series. I would have skipped this, but Climategate 2.0 revealed many misapprehensions of verification statistics that I want to clear up, particularly…

Philosophy Statistics

What Is A True Model? What Makes A Good One?: Part V

We have in our hands (via the predictive posterior) the probabilities that Susy's GPA is less than any number between 0 and 4, given that we accept the normal model…

Philosophy Statistics

What Is A True Model? What Makes A Good One?: Part IV

In Part I we had the simplest kind of model. We complicated it in Part II, built more structure in Part III, and today finally come to the most used…

JH on Iran Has Caught Covid: A Reason For The WarApril 10, 2026
Would Trump attack China or Russia? Why not? Bullying is wrong. War is wrong. [H]is specialty is obfuscation… lol. And…
JH on Justice Ketanji RoarsApril 10, 2026
Although I have not taught many Black students, I have observed that the most academically talented Black students perform at…
JH on Proof!April 10, 2026
Lincoln’s ”Fragments on Slavery” c. 1854 If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B.—why may…
Brendan P O'Sullivan on Class 85: Proper Scores of Model GoodnessApril 9, 2026
Bill - An opportunity to help fellow Vets! Look at the following - regarding jet fuel exposure to vets -…
Steve on Proof!April 9, 2026
You don't need a publisher. It's just Godwin's Law in action. For whatever reason, that seals the deal for most…