2014 – Page 37 – William M. Briggs

Prosecute Global Warming Heretics. Update 2: Kill, Nuremberg Them, Too!

Prosecute the heretics! is the new cry from the high priests of global warming. Climate "deniers", they say, are no better than mobsters, good fellas who are extorting the climate,…

Philosophy Statistics

The Mysticism Of Randomness: Philosophy of Probability & Statistics Video Series

Nothing can be caused by "chance". Chance, like randomness, isn't a thing, it isn't real, it isn't physical, therefore it cannot cause anything. Randomness means "unknown." Therefore "random variables" are…

Culture

From Latin & Greek To Remedial English

From Twitter's @LeMarquand came this picture: An overstatement, sure. Not every high school went in for amo, amas, amat or saw students parsing snatches of The Odyssey in the original.…

Culture Philosophy

The “Right” To This, That, And The Other Thing

A good friend of mine, an inveterate lefty who tortures himself by reading Think Progress and other horror sites designed to confirm the worst fears of their readers, posted this…

Culture

Surprise! A Professional Organization Comes Out Against Euthanasia

https://twitter.com/mattstat/status/436146531503058946 In James Bradley's Flyboys he relates how the Japanese in Manchuria would line up Chinese citizens for the benefit of Japanese army recruits to bayonette. Most were squeamish at…

Statistics

Researchers Claim Gays Who Face Prejudice Live Shorter Lives

The Daily Mail reported it like this: "Gay people who face regular homophobic abuse have a shorter life expectancy than those who live in more tolerant communities." Homophobic abuse, they…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

Scientists: Moral Traits Considered Most Essential Part Of Identity

Answer me this. You're on the job and the fancy iH20 cooler (with remote iPhone app) blows and shoots a bolt through your skull. The doctors say removing the bolt…

Philosophy Statistics

What Statistics Really Is: Part Last

Read Part I, Part Paradox, Part II Recapitulation: we have Pr(p|qm) where p is a proposition of interest, q the evidence we have compiled in the form of observations and…

Steve on The If I Were God Fallacy & EvolutionJuly 30, 2025
@Briggs, "Many say various oaths and whatnot, but looking at their behavior it’s clear most have no idea what these…
Maypo on The If I Were God Fallacy & EvolutionJuly 29, 2025
Wow, (re)reading a TOFian essay makes it so blasted plain how much I miss the man. May he rest in…
C-Marie on The If I Were God Fallacy & EvolutionJuly 29, 2025
God is, and always has been, and always will be. It is your choice to exercise your free will, to…
hudbwu on The If I Were God Fallacy & EvolutionJuly 29, 2025
> If I were God, and loved rational creatures, I would make myriad rational species; He should come back in…
NLR on The If I Were God Fallacy & EvolutionJuly 29, 2025
What gets me about these kind of arguments is that they presuppose too much. People will have extensive debates about…