William M. Briggs

Freeman Dyson, NPR, TSA X-rays, Northwestern University’s Bachelor Party

The Lady Tasting Tea continues tomorrow. Freeman Dyson Speaks From our man-on-the-spot WS comes this link to an interview with Freeman Dyson regarding his work "In Praise of Heretics." That…

Culture

Vicar Of Vintage Vinyl Vanquished: Danny Stiles Dead At 87

It finally happened, though we thought, we hoped, he would go on forever. Danny Stiles, radio personality in the New York metro area for over 60 years, died on Friday,…

Culture Philosophy Statistics

Obama’s Faulty Pay Gap Statistics, Philosophy Of Abortion; Plus, The End Of The World

Deadline: 21 May 2011 Family Radio Worldwide has hit the road (in a bunch of mobile homes) to preach that the end shall come just over two months from now.…

Culture

Earthquake Ghouls, Colleges As High Schools, The Robinson DeFazio Controversy, More

J-school Ghouls On the radio, a female American reporter in Tokyo, unnecessarily breathless and somewhat disappointed. "I can only imagine if it were here, it would have been much worse…

Philosophy

The Sorites Paradox Isn’t

Clearly, a guy with no hair on his head is bald. But so is a guy with just one---if and only if we define bald as "a man with little…

Philosophy Statistics

Group Differences: An Exceedingly Brief Introduction To Bayesian Predictive Inference

Read the first entry in this series. All of what follows will appear ridiculously obvious to those who have had no statistical training. Those who have must struggle. In a…

Statistics

Iowahawk Does Statistics—-Properly!

Thanks to the many readers who sent in this tip. The Iowahawk, a.k.a. David Burge, the beloved assassin of pomposity and pretension has taken the often hysterical Paul "Global Warming…

Philosophy Statistics

Global Average Temperature: An Exceedingly Brief Introduction To Bayesian Predictive Inference

Update This post is mandatory reading for those discussing global average temperature. I mean it: exceedingly brief and given only with respect to a univariate time series, such as operationally…

Another “Curate’s Egg?” Comments on Magnifica Humanitas – The American Catholic on Laudato Si: “The Curate’s Egg.” The Not So Excellent Parts. Guest Post by Bob KurlandJune 15, 2026
[…] If ever one wanted an analogy to show that a flawed work had good parts, it would be the…
Truly Random Numbers Found? – William M. Briggs on Quantum Potency & ProbabilityJune 15, 2026
[…] Which leaves open the possibility we might gain at least some knowledge of non-local causes. This article gives one…
Brian (bulaoren) on Truly Random Numbers Found?June 15, 2026
Wait...Does this mean that all those non-winning lottery tickets, I've bought over the years, were drawn from non-randomly-generated numbers? I…
McChuck on Truly Random Numbers Found?June 15, 2026
What QM leaves out of their "randomness is fundamental" picture is the state of the entire rest of the universe.…
John M on Climate Change Increases Risk of Even Slower World Cup Games!June 15, 2026
LarryG, I appreciate that sport and game participants can enjoy their favorite activity but that doesn't make the activity entertaining.

William M. Briggs

Truly Random Numbers Found?

Class 91: Try Not To Use the ROC Curve & AUC

Climate Change Increases Risk of Even Slower World Cup Games!

The Ultimate IQ Test: Guessing the Author’s Mind and Escaping the Infinity of Answers

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!