William M. Briggs

Bad Arguments Against The Death Penalty: Update

Big news is that both lefty and righty Catholic news sources banded together last week to issue an editorial "Capital Punishment Must End". The subject is enormous; there is no…

Culture Statistics

Race Norming At Universities And The Doctrine Of Unintended Consequences

The Los Angeles Times had a story about how hard East Asians have to work to be admitted to college. Problem is these kids are too smart, an attitude which…

Philosophy Statistics

Sampling Variability Is A Screwy, Misleading Concept

https://twitter.com/Bigdatanalysis/status/573739862924353536 Because of travel and jet lag, exacerbated by "springing forward", we continue our tour of Summa Contra Gentiles next week. If you can't read the tweet above, it says…

Culture

You’re A LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM-aphobe!

I admit it. I am afraid of the sort of person who boasts of being a card-carrying LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM member. I would not want to be in a room alone with…

Culture

Journalist Bias For Sale Vs. Academic Freedom: More On The Soon Pseudo-Controversy

Two parts to this. An email exchange with a reporter, and the column he eventually wrote. Regular readers know I've been documenting these so other can people can see just…

Statistics

Can Microbes Manipulate Minds? Guest Post by Petro Starokadomskyy

Starokadomskyy is at the Department of Internal Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center. He writes about his work in the area our original post "Decline Of Participation In Religious Rituals With…

Statistics

Der Spiegel Asks About Global-Warming-Causes-Syrian-Civil-War Paper

That peer-reviewed Colin Kelley et al. paper "Climate change in the Fertile Crescent and implications of the recent Syrian drought", which the traddy media is portraying like Wired did---e.g. How…

Statistics

Journal Bans Wee P-values—And Confidence Intervals! Break Out The Champagne!

Well, it banned all p-values, wee or not. And confidence intervals! The journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology, that is. Specifically, they axed the "null hypothesis significance testing procedure".…

Steve on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 5, 2026
The bikini rule -- less is more, but it has to cover all the important stuff. As with human bodies,…
Heresolong on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 5, 2026
Yes.
Jose Miro Julia on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 5, 2026
I'd prefer 3-4 short ones a week.
Ivdas Machabevs on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 4, 2026
Longer, deeper, rarer.
Jean Lesperance on Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?June 4, 2026
Rather than short or long, I prefer "significant" posts. These days energy and religion aka morals are particular interests. Your…

William M. Briggs

Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?

No Model Will Save Us: Pope Leo, the Miserostat, and AI’s Woke Coders

How High an IQ Must A Person Have To Be Executed?

Class 90: Simple (Optimal) Decisions

Shocking Abortion Numbers: Death Distributions Show We’re Living Longer

Blessed Memorial Day; No Class; See You Wednesday

Why There Are (Probably) No UFOs: “Climate Change”

Creating Microbial Monsters To Terrorize Ourselves

Class 89: The Measure Most Modelers Forget: Skill Examples

The Shocking Conclusion of the HR Trilemma!

The HR Trilemma: Which Door Decides Your Fate?

Capital Punishment Deters Crime More Than The Death Penalty

How Experts Use “Calamities” to Find Official Victims & Gain Power

Richard Dawkins, The Big Muscles Fallacy & AI Pachinko

Class 88: The Most Neglected Concept: Skill

The Red-Blue Button Dilemma & Its Surprising Answer

UFO Reports About To Blast Off!

Class 87: Calibration & Conformal Prediction: Examples

Noticing Differences Between Races Does Not Pay

What Are The Chances Of All These Scientists Dying, Killed, Or Going Missing?

Class 86: Calibration & Conformal Prediction: Theory

Reader Poll: Shorter or Longer, Frequent or Rarer Posts?

No Model Will Save Us: Pope Leo, the Miserostat, and AI’s Woke Coders

Bad Arguments Against The Death Penalty: Update

Race Norming At Universities And The Doctrine Of Unintended Consequences

Sampling Variability Is A Screwy, Misleading Concept

You’re A LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM-aphobe!

Journalist Bias For Sale Vs. Academic Freedom: More On The Soon Pseudo-Controversy

Can Microbes Manipulate Minds? Guest Post by Petro Starokadomskyy

Der Spiegel Asks About Global-Warming-Causes-Syrian-Civil-War Paper

Journal Bans Wee P-values—And Confidence Intervals! Break Out The Champagne!

There Is No Culture Without Inequality: Stove 1

Impose Your Beliefs Before They Impose Theirs

Telekinesis: Ideas In Our Reenchantment & Rectification

The Physics Of Blessings: Ideas In Our Reenchantment & Rectification