Fun – Page 38 – William M. Briggs

Dinner With Atheists: A Mini-Play In One Act

SCENE: The monthly meeting of the Madison Atheists Evangelization Society at the I-12 Marriot Courtyard's Badger Room, a rambunctious group sitting at a table, long side to the audience, like…

Culture Fun

Knife-Wielding Teens Invade High School

What you are about to read is a true story. The question is why none of this has been picked up in the media. In late March a "flash mob"…

Culture Fun Philosophy

Best Books Project

I need your help. Together, we will reach out to those whom we consider to be possessed of the Biggest Brightest Brains and ask them to provide a list of…

Fun Philosophy

Richard Dawkins Is A Dangerous Man: Update

I'll tell you how. He makes people feel smarter than they are. And in our world of self-esteem substituting for accomplishment and ability, his villainous power is especially poisonous. For…

Fun Statistics

How Long Do Popes Serve? Update

Update 14 March 2013. The Guardian has released the data on the popes. Its list and mine differ trivially, except that they were able to include the popes' ages (starting…

Culture Fun

What Day Most Changed History?

Such was the title of The Atlantic's "The Big Question" column of March, 2013. This is the sort of piece one finds uppermost in the toilet's magazine rack. So now…

Fun Statistics

On Dowsing—Guest Post by Ray Kidd

I dug a one-meter square test pit outside an 18th century ruined cottage. A "dowser" invited to test his powers stood beside the pit dangling a bob on a string.…

Fun Statistics

Best Movie Oscar Prediction Via Statistical Modeling: Update, The Model Wins

Update I humbly accept your congratulations. Argo will win Oscar for Best Picture, according to our non-patented, statistically significant almost-mathematical computer model. The key reasons for its victory will be:…

Johnno on Funding Increases To Foster Even More Cheating In ScienceAugust 14, 2025
Briggs you fool... what you so outdatingly call cheating, I prefer to see as a more progressive healthy open relationship…
hudbwu on Lying Increases Trust In Science, Says AcademicAugust 14, 2025
To be fair, the center of this article (that I looked at from the link provided) is a reduction-to-absurd argument…
hudbwu on Funding Increases To Foster Even More Cheating In ScienceAugust 14, 2025
I love how the scale in the last graph is *LoGaRithMic_!
hudbwu on Compulsory Moral Bioenhancement Should Be Covert Says Academic Who Says Ticks Should Be Genetically Modified To Stop You Eating MeatAugust 14, 2025
Do you remember the time when craving loonies posted these things not in peer-reviewed journals, but on Internet fora? Man,…
NLR on Funding Increases To Foster Even More Cheating In ScienceAugust 13, 2025
From the link at the end of the post: On the one hand, we have the fabricated research of an…