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…

Cary Cotterman on Lady Academics Tire Of Being Judged By Peer ReviewSeptember 21, 2026
Every time I think I've read about an academic paper at the very bottom of the abyss of idiocy, another…
Tars Tarkas on Lady Academics Tire Of Being Judged By Peer ReviewSeptember 21, 2026
"articulating that the checkboxes presume a reviewer who is an objective, disembodied expert untouched by power. " They aren't wrong…
Tars Tarkas on Lady Academics Tire Of Being Judged By Peer ReviewSeptember 21, 2026
Among the many flaws of peer review is the weaponization of peer-review for political purposes. Some academic offends the ladies,…
Neil Jordan on Class 94: Quantifying The UnquantifiableSeptember 17, 2026
At last, an opportunity to join you in the "Quagmire of Marginal Statistics." This and later quote are from memory…
McChuck on The MRS Degree — Guest Post by Johnathan EdwardsSeptember 17, 2026
"South Korea and Japan will no longer exist, perhaps in our lifetime, if they don’t start reproducing or bringing more…

William M. Briggs

Lady Academics Tire Of Being Judged By Peer Review

Class 94: Quantifying The Unquantifiable

PFAS and Preservatives: Entrenching Chemophobia through Everyday Stuff — Guest Post by Jaap Hanekamp

The MRS Degree — Guest Post by Johnathan Edwards

Politicians Demand “Right” To Be Protected Against AI

Class 93: P-values Challenge! List The “Good Uses” of P-value

Is the West Dying Out? The Demographic Crisis Explained: Jon Harris Podcast

Lindsay Clancy Strangled Her Kids Because Of “Climate Change”

Do Dogs Poop In Alignment With The Earth’s Magnetic Field?

Lewontin’s Other Fallacy: Race & Intelligence

Fertility Fears Overblown: Tiny Shift in Childless Rate Saves The Species

A New Kind Of University: Your Comments Wanted

Bad Black Health Blamed On Slavery

Is Moral Certainty Possible?

We Passed Peak “Climate Change” (um) Research

Sweet Wee Ps Say Sugar Makes You Lose Your Mind

AI Is Neither Artificial Nor Intelligent

You Can’t Con An Honest Man & The Case of Jason Arday

Academics: Achieve Sustainability by Easing Population to 4 Billion by 2200

The Impossibility of Proposition Nations

Ugly Women Rulers Condemn Lookism

Lady Academics Tire Of Being Judged By Peer Review

Class 94: Quantifying The Unquantifiable

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