Posted inStatistics
How Many Geniuses Are There?
This post originally appeared 15 September 2008. Here is a question I often give on exams: What is the probability that the next child to be born will be a…
Posted inPhilosophy
A Brief Note On Democracy, Authority & Power Inspired by Patrick O’Brian: Houellebecq Trump-Is-Good Update
The scene is this: Dr Stephen Maturin, physician and surgeon of England's Surprise sits dining with his messmates in the ward room, near the end of the Napoleonic wars. The…
Posted inStatistics
What Lousy Philosophy Tells Us About Belief In Global Warming
One reason people doubt global-warming-of-doom is because of lousy philosophers like N. Ángel Pinillos (note the New York Times-sophisticated inclusion of the accent). He wrote a piece entitled (in some…
Posted inCulture
Insanity & Doom Update LXV
Item The Future of American Sexuality and Family: Five Key Trends How many Americans have entered into civil same-sex marriages? It's hard to say, since same-sex households themselves have never…
Posted inCulture
Insanity & Doom Update LXIV
Item The Name 'Weight Watchers' Is Apparently Politically Incorrect, So They've Changed It The weight loss juggernaut formally known as Weight Watchers wants "everyone" to be included, and thus has…
Posted inCulture
Insanity & Doom Update LXII
Item Students Demand Professor Be Fired After He Champions Due Process, Says 'Accusers Sometimes Lie' Nearly 100 students at the University of Southern California attended a rally at noon on…
Posted inStatistics
The Getting Of Bastards
'We have kept back the pudding for you, sir,' said Mowett, 'and meanwhile Mr Butcher has been asking us riddles, some of them most amazingly clever. The present one, that…
Posted inCulture Statistics
Pew’s Materialistic Mix Up
Pew has a new survey result with title Americans are far more religious than adults in other wealthy nations. Key was the picture below---or at their site, bigger and better,…