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…

John Pate on Reading Bryan Johnson’s The Immortalism ManifestoOctober 27, 2026
I long ago concluded that people like this are only fit for laughing and pointing at. They are mentally ill…
C-Marie on Reading Bryan Johnson’s The Immortalism ManifestoOctober 27, 2026
And, Jesus Christ? Lord and Saviour .... So sad, leaving out God our Father .... And the Holy Spirit ....…
Cary Cotterman on Reading Bryan Johnson’s The Immortalism ManifestoOctober 26, 2026
I'm probably going to croak sometime within the next twenty years, but at least I have the pleasure of being…
Tars Tarkas on Reading Bryan Johnson’s The Immortalism ManifestoOctober 26, 2026
There are thousand year old machines in England still capable of running, though not in general use. I saw a…
NLR on Reading Bryan Johnson’s The Immortalism ManifestoOctober 26, 2026
All of this is vast speculation. Is it possible for people to live much longer, hundreds of years? Maybe so.…