William M. Briggs

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…

I received thoughtful questions from EB about my views of probability and how they fit with science. This is long, but the questions alone make it worth reading. The end…

I am not enough of a historian to say whether the Cult of the Victim forms in every dying civilization, but it sure has in ours. A Victim group is…

Hypothesis testing has told us what probably isn't true. It can't see all evidence. Here's how to do it right. Video https://youtu.be/5yoRSQMWle4 Links: YouTube * Twitter - X * Rumble…

I don't often discuss cheating in science, because the conclusion "It's bad, don't do it" doesn't need explication. Even those cheating are clever enough to swear to the conclusion's truth.…

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:…

A guy correctly "sees" 4 cards out of 52. A wee P hypothesis test says he has psychic powers. Does he? We only begin this difficult question today. Video https://youtu.be/_mgOCfEkIWQ…