2014 – Page 29 – William M. Briggs

Time Series Aren’t Easy: Tornado Deaths Example

Time series are the most abused statistics in the physical sciences. (It's an endless, raucous, peer-reviewed contest for the worst in the "soft sciences.") The Mann problem (is that a…

Philosophy Statistics

Physical Probability Doesn’t Exist

There have been many attempts to tie probability to physical chance. Here, briefly and for discussion, is why I think all of them fail. Ontology does not recapitulate epistemology Let…

Book review Philosophy

True Reason: Confronting the Irrationality of the New Atheism Reviewed

Answer me honestly. How rational is it to believe any of the following: Science can explain everything, even itself; The reason anything exists is because of the laws of gravity,…

Culture

Trigger Warnings And The Feminismization Of America

Update New & Improved title! I think it was Clint Eastwood who, as Dirty Harry, gave the world's most famous trigger warning: I know what you're thinking: "Did he fire…

Culture

Global Warming Update: Titanic Sunk! Contest Update: Other Historical Events. Update: Not Me!

Been a while since I looked out the climate window, because why? Because I figured there'd be nothing to see. After two decades of failed forecasts I assumed most modelers…

Culture Philosophy

Animals Suing People, People Suing Animals: Lawyers Rejoice

An increasing crime rate Regular readers will know both of my deep interest in animal rights and in the law. This is why, as a side business, but always pro…

Culture

Punishment Of Pre-Thoughtcrime On The Rise: You Could Be Next

Certain Canadians have been tried, convicted, and sentenced for pre-thoughtcrime. Bound to have happened, you will say, especially given events such as the howling drooling hate-filled mob that terrorized Brandon…

Culture Statistics

A New Possible Solution Of Fermi’s Paradox

What is the probability the following proposition is true? ``There are rational beings other than humans in the universe." Well, given the evidence of angels, who are rational non-human beings,…

John M on AI: The Earth Is Spinning Faster & Slower (Because “Climate Change”)January 14, 2026
I asked an AI: if the big bang theory is true, where is the center of the universe? The answer…
hudbwu on Confirmation Bias In The Minneapolis ShootingJanuary 14, 2026
@R W Pearson: Okay good, we're talking about it. If I understood Correia correctly, he offers the following defence: "the…
Tim on AI: The Earth Is Spinning Faster & Slower (Because “Climate Change”)January 14, 2026
Absolutely true! After rephrasing or submitting more factual information, I get even more dismissive replies. Yeah, there are certainly "No…
John M on Confirmation Bias In The Minneapolis ShootingJanuary 14, 2026
I think law enforcement needs to revisit how they respond to vehicles. If a vehicle is classified as a deadly…
Rudolph Harrier on AI: The Earth Is Spinning Faster & Slower (Because “Climate Change”)January 14, 2026
One actually useful feature of public LLMs is to see what questions the establishment doesn't want you to ask. If…