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…

Brian (bulaoren) on Class 99: Entropy Part IOctober 31, 2026
During the summer of 1977, I was living with a woman who had a 2 year old daughter. My brother,…
Ultrarightist on Book Update: Launch DateOctober 29, 2026
Briggs, Thanks for the reply and the information. That is unfortunate. Hardbacks aren't made like they used to be, and…
McChuck on Class 99: Entropy Part IOctober 29, 2026
Entropy is described as a numerical rating of chaos. This is more confusing than not, and a poor descriptor, even…
Briggs on Book Update: Launch DateOctober 28, 2026
Ultrarightist, Apparently not: They use case laminate (also called adhesive case binding or image-wrap) construction: The page block is glued…
Cary Cotterman on Book Update: Launch DateOctober 28, 2026
Most book stores have a rack where employees put new books they've read, accompanied by short, usually hand-written reviews. It's…