The lurid headline! "Heatwave likely killed 263 people in London, study estimates". The "heatwave" was a small increase in daily temperatures experienced in the UK at the end of this…

In the Class, which I know all readers are dutifully following, bless you, I often cite Tyler Vigen's Spurious Correlations site. It is a glorious (growing) compendium of ridiculous results…

My heart soared like a hawk by the hundreds of supportive comments I got on Twitter from last week's story about two academics who want government to genetically modify ticks…

The title today is identical to the peer-reviewed paper of the same name in Theory and Society by BVE Hyde. Hyde begins: "This study begins by outlining the transparency paradox:…

What do you make of this headline? "Female pilots perform better under pressure, study finds". Story opens thusly: Female pilots may outperform their male counterparts in high-pressure flight situations, according…

A stupid man will make stupid mistakes. He will show up on TV being escorted into the back of a police cruiser. An intelligent man will make intelligent mistakes. He…

The If I Were God Fallacy runs like this: If I were God, here is how the world would work;The world does not work like that;Therefore, God does not exist.…

This classic column originally ran 31 July 2008. I edited it to provide a working link to the paper and to add the author's Fig. 1. I have no idea,…