Fun – Page 48 – William M. Briggs

First Signs of Rampant Global Cooling Seen At Nome, Alaska?

The headline from the 12 January 2012 Nome Nugget ("Alaska's Oldest Newspaper!") strikes a chill into one's heart: Nome in long deep freeze. The Nome post of the National…

Fun Statistics

Only 2 days left! Predictions For 2012: Submit Yours Today!

Update Predictions are closed for this year. Come back New Year's Eve to see how we've done. We'll change the rules slightly this year and ask that everybody now predict…

Culture Fun Statistics

Predictions For 2011. How’d We do?

Last January 1st I asked for everybody to provide verifiable predictions for the year. Time for reckoning! Tomorrow I'll ask us to provide predictions for 2012, so hold off on…

Culture Fun

Merry Federal Holiday Of December 25th That Shall Remain Nameless!

Here's proof that the unnameable Day's---a.k.a. "holiday", a.k.a. "holidays", a.k.a. (rare) "holy day"---spirit is in all of us. Plus sure evidence that Shakespeare was right (yet again). One grand lady…

Fun Statistics

Top 10 Upsets In The NFL Over Last Decade

Today's post is over at Edgehogs. It's all self explanatory. Surf on over to comment. I'd write more, but my North Pole duties have me busier than average. Tip: Even…

Culture Fun

Iowa Professor Shocked To Discover He’s In Iowa

Stephen Bloom is a long-time professor of journalism ("Double spacing has twice as much space as single spacing", "On-line journals are called 'blogs'") at the University of Iowa. Bloom thinks…

Culture Fun

What’s Funny About Tbilisi Ordinands? Hitchens, Stalin, and Buckley

The (we hope eventually) prodigal son of William F. Buckley said in his New Yorker obituary on Christopher Hitchens: As for the wit...one day we were talking about Stalin. I…

Fun Statistics

Top 10 Sure Things: Which NFL Games Were The Easiest To Pick?

Today's post is over at Edgehogs. I wanted to see how extreme bookies would go in making NFL picks, as judged by the probabilities of home-team wins as derived from…

hudbwu on On The Form Of Species: ‘Dance To The Tune Of Life’ by Denis Noble ReviewedDecember 17, 2025
Funny, many decades ago I wondered why do males exist. As in, why waste 50% of a species' total biomass…
hudbwu on How To Tell How Much Of “IQ” Is Inherited & How Much Is EnvironmentDecember 17, 2025
Okay, so the data tells us that if one twin is stupid... er, I mean, if one twin scores low…
Briggs on On The Form Of Species: ‘Dance To The Tune Of Life’ by Denis Noble ReviewedDecember 17, 2025
Rhetocrates, Quite right.
Rhetocrates on On The Form Of Species: ‘Dance To The Tune Of Life’ by Denis Noble ReviewedDecember 16, 2025
I haven't finished the whole thing, but I'd like to flag one thing that may cause confusion to readers, though…
John Pate on On The Form Of Species: ‘Dance To The Tune Of Life’ by Denis Noble ReviewedDecember 16, 2025
Referring to my previous comment, it's nature via nurture. In any complex system transferring the plans to the finished item…