There is a hierarchy of models in the sense they offer insight into the thing modeled. The order of importance is: causal, deterministic, probabilistic, statistical. Most models use mixtures of…

There is a belief---a persistent and beguiling, yet false belief---that a formula exists that can predict anything. This formula will differ, it is thought, by the thing predicted, and it…

Equality kills everything it touches, eventually. So much is well known. It is also realized by regular readers that requiring academics to publish or perish causes them to perish intellectually.…

Today's post (more a news report) is at The Stream: Government Lab Has Been Faking Data for Years. A person or persons at the same US Geological Survey Lab in…

Ladies and gentlemen, the opening line of the peer-reviewed paper "Hunger promotes acquisition of nonfood objects" appearing in the (once) venerable organ Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, by…