Books
EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVE IS WRONG Pre-published in December 2021, but officially in January 2022. Buy it. Errata page: submit typos and mistakes here, thank you. Free first chapter is here.…
Posted inPhilosophy
The Genetic Fallacy: He Works For An Oil Company!
I'm on the road for the next several days and won't always have access to the Internet. So I'm reposting a series of classic fallacies. Regular service to resume early…
Posted inCulture
University Drops Math, May Add Diversity Requirement
"How much is the cube root of -169?" "Race is a social construct and quotas must exist to increase the proportion of people of color." "Correct. Question two: Describe the…
Posted inCulture Philosophy Statistics
Why Is Economics Plagued By Math?
The answer is easy: because math is numbers and numbers are measurement and measurements are necessary to make a subject "scientific" in the modern sense of that word. Why should…
Posted inStatistics
Brits Psychologists Cry “BS!” Over Research Practices. Or, Die P-Value, Die Die Die
In The British Psychological Society's official organ The Psychologist, two gents Tom Farsides and Paul Sparks, call BS on standard research practices. There is a worrying amount of outright fraud…
Posted inCulture
This Week In Doom — WMBriggs Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIveP1SEZjs Dall'Abaco concerto The week of the worst that was, in aural form, featuring the music of Giuseppe Torelli and Evaristo Felice Dall'Abaco. Torelli trumpet concerto Because they can, and…
Posted inStatistics
Scientism Of The First Kind: Science Shows Laptops Distract Students
https://twitter.com/mattstat/status/722028191582445568 Here's the headline. (It's NPR, so don't expect much.) "Attention Students: Put Your Laptops Away". And here's the relevant sad bit: For one thing, research shows that laptops and…
Posted inCulture
Climate Witch Hunt Now Official: Think Tank Subpoenaed
We've already seen the start of this, but it was only penknife rattling, a group of avaricious lawyers pushing their (wrong) version of climate physics. Yet the mix of greed…