Briggs

Tim Tebow’s Super Bowl Ad and the Washington Post Editorial

Very delicate ground, here. I want to be as precise as I know how in discussing the language used in today's Washington Post editorial about the upcoming Tim Tebow ad,…

Culture Statistics

Welcome-to-Saturday Links

My heart soared like a hawk this week after several readers sent in fascinating stories. Here are a few of them. Reader Sara C sent in a wonderful example of…

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R Lecture 4: Help & Plotting

This is the fourth in a series of lectures on R. 10 minutes is a shockingly short period of time! Today, we learn the R way to create comments: start…

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R Lecture 3: Our First Program!

This is the third in a series of lectures on R. (DAV, I kept the intro for one last time.) Open the myRcode.R file we saved in our myR folder.…

Culture

Two-and-a-Half Millennia Don’t Change Much

Herodotus begins his history by telling us that some Phoenician traders came to Argos, Greece and, on a whim, abducted the king's daughter Io and took her to Egypt. Later,…

Statistics

Create Tax Refunds That Must Be Donated To Political Parties?

In the State of the Union address, President Obama thought it would be pleasant to slam the Supreme Court, shaming them for their recent Citizens United v. FEC decision. Our…

Statistics

R Lecture 2: Prepping a Folder

Main page for R Lectures. This is the second in a series of lectures on R. R is command-line software. We need to type in commands. These commands should be…

Culture

State of the Union Snippets: Live Blog (update continuously)

Started by intimating: It's bad now, but when it was bad before, it got good. "Answer history's call." "These struggles are why I ran for President." Thought: It's tough to…

Cloudbuster on Guilty People Aren’t Guilty, Innocent People AreAugust 26, 2026
"It is like punishing a snail for leaving a trail of slime." If this is true, it is a powerful…
gareth on A New Kind Of University: Your Comments WantedAugust 26, 2026
I'm not an academic. What you are suggesting seems a good idea. A formalised system akin to a personal letter…
Steve on A New Kind Of University: Your Comments WantedAugust 26, 2026
The calendar on my fridge this month says, "Common sense is like deodorant. The people who need it most never…
Daniel Lemire on A New Kind Of University: Your Comments WantedAugust 25, 2026
It makes sense.
Emmanuel Salva on A New Kind Of University: Your Comments WantedAugust 25, 2026
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