Phrases like scientifically valid, the late great philosopher David Stove taught us, signal distress. A writer wants to say valid, a strength word, but somehow can't bring himself to this…

Let's have a look at the peer-reviewed paper "Intelligence as a planetary scale process" by Adam Frank, David Grinspsoon and Sara Walker, in the International Journal of Astrobiology. We might…

With the waning of the coronadoom panic, and our elites unable to juice sufficient consternation over Russia, they will have to turn to other objects to monger their fear. Global…

"Say, Briggs. Since you're Statistician to the Stars!, explain to me how I can tell if two means are different in a simple way that even I can understand." You…

It's easy to sound more certain than the evidence warrants, especially when using classical parameter-based statistical methods. I'll show you how. I'll give you the procedure first, then work through…

You will forgive me if this post is more technical than usual. I try to leave out math, knowing how confusing it can be. But here it is necessary. The…

Ready to Follow The Science? Let's listen to the lamentations of its lecturers and lovers. The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply…

Yesterday I made the claim that academic psychology contained vastly more "banality, ephemera, and outright enforced mandatory quackery than real psychology." This was proved by a paper written by a…