William M. Briggs

Belgian “Doctors” To Kill Kids They Think They Can’t Cure

Belgium has just made it legal for "doctors" to kill children. Not those who haven't yet escaped the womb---those kids have been fair game for any quack with a sharp…

Culture Philosophy

Entry For The Most Pompous Statement Of Scientism

Our friend John Cook came (via The Renaissance Mathematicus) across what is easily one of the most pompous declarations by a scientist we have ever seen. The words came from…

Culture

Professor Confesses Why She Inflates Grades

I had a student come into my office (where I was a visiting mathematics professor) shaking with emotion. This was a day or two before the final exam. I couldn't…

Statistics

Exposure to Fast Food Impedes Happiness, Researchers

That don't call it the unhappy meal for nothing. Or, wait... What we have here is yet another instance of scientists claiming to have done something they did not do.…

Statistics

Global Warming Creating Anxious Fish

Fish the world over are rubbing their fins together and fretting over news of climate change. One day they are told earnestly that the world's oceans are going to boil…

Culture Statistics

Lord, Save Us From Impact Factors

Randy Schekman, a Big Cheese in the sciences, is right: people use "place of publication as a proxy for quality of science". Where a paper is often counts more than…

Philosophy Statistics

What Is And What We Know Of It, Probabilistically Speaking

Ontology is the study of what is and what is not. Epistemology is the study of our knowledge of what is and what is not. Though there are obvious points…

Statistics

Is It Okay To Force A Baker To Sell Cakes In Violation Of His Religious Conscience?

Here's the setup: a Colorado judge has ordered a Christian man and owner of a bakery that he must bake cakes for homosexual civil ceremonies (homosexual "marriage" is illegal in…

Johnno on Shocking Abortion Numbers: Death Distributions Show We’re Living LongerMay 27, 2026
Well, hopefully they enjoy those longer lives while they last, because there is an eternity in Hell waiting for them…
~Nona on Shocking Abortion Numbers: Death Distributions Show We’re Living LongerMay 27, 2026
Self-serving comment? Maybe. BUT it was really interesting to read. As a child I lived next door to a centenarian.…
Cary D Cotterman on Shocking Abortion Numbers: Death Distributions Show We’re Living LongerMay 27, 2026
When I was a kid, in the 1960s in the U.S., every adult in my family, and most of their…
John Pate on Shocking Abortion Numbers: Death Distributions Show We’re Living LongerMay 27, 2026
If they're just keeping dementia patients alive longer because it's profitable for the medical industrial complex then we're not really…
Robert Sides on Shocking Abortion Numbers: Death Distributions Show We’re Living LongerMay 27, 2026
A totally self-serving question (although, one that I know you could work through). If of no value to the whole,…

William M. Briggs

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

How A Miracle Turns Mundane

Contest Winner Announced!

Trump’s Last Stand: Mea Culpa, Redux — Guest Post by Ianto Watt

Class 85: Proper Scores of Model Goodness

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

Blessed Memorial Day; No Class; See You Wednesday

Belgian “Doctors” To Kill Kids They Think They Can’t Cure

Entry For The Most Pompous Statement Of Scientism

Professor Confesses Why She Inflates Grades

Exposure to Fast Food Impedes Happiness, Researchers

Global Warming Creating Anxious Fish

Lord, Save Us From Impact Factors

What Is And What We Know Of It, Probabilistically Speaking

Is It Okay To Force A Baker To Sell Cakes In Violation Of His Religious Conscience?

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