Update: see also this story. The U.S. Preventive Services Task force (whatever that is), in the Annals of Internal Medicine, yesterday advised women not to begin mammogram screenings for breast…

Bow wow Republicans make themselves look like asses when they publicly sniff and tiff over Obama's bow of greeting to Japan's Emperor and Mrs Emperor. Is there anything so trivial…

[podcast]https://www.wmbriggs.com/audio/wmbriggs_com_lecture_0005.mp3[/podcast] Today's Lecture: Difficulties I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 9.10, which included a new version of Audacity 1.3.9, a persnickety package that keeps locking up. Word on the 'net is…

A guy named Adam Sacks---as in two---published a list of the five worst enemies of all mankind. George W. Bush is there, of course. But then, he was put down…

Suppose you heard on the radio a breaking news story: "Shots reported at Fort Hood Army base. Several are dead, many more are wounded. Eyewitnesses claim this is an act…

[podcast]https://www.wmbriggs.com/audio/wmbriggs_com_lecture_0004.mp3[/podcast] Today's lecture: Format change The regular and statistics podcasts are undergoing some changes. Stay tuned to this page for details. Today's show is a little rushed because of this.…

"J'accuse! A statistician may prove anything with his nefarious methods. He may even say a negative number is positive! You cannot trust anything he says." Sigh. Unfortunately, this oft-hurled charge…

The closest I come to "Big Oil" is when I create my spécialité de la maison: bacon-olive-oil confit. Incidentally, that's the only way to cook this miracle pig meat---frying removes…