William M. Briggs

Tolkien Wants A King, Cheating With Statistics

Cheating With Statistics Reader Matt Lewis points us to Planet Moron, to an article which tears apart a statistical argument used by the Washington Post, an argument which sought to…

Culture Statistics

Peer Review Fails? Sympathetic Priest? What’s Going On Here?

Duke Scores Another Own Goal According to Science, Duke University oncologist Anil Potti quit after being caught cheating: Anil Potti had published papers in prominent journals identifying gene signatures in…

Culture Statistics

The Government Loves You And Wants You To Stop Smoking

As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking…

Culture

New Expert Panel To Pick Experts For Expert Panels: Lessons From The TSA

But climate change experts opposed to [Prime minister Julia Gillard's idea of creating a citizens panel to discuss climate change] were saying 'these are citizens, they are not experts on…

Culture

TSA Full-Body Scans Would Not Pass Hospital IRB Reviews

Zzzzaapp! Some angry photons have just been blasted off toward your body, scouting for "contraband." In the process of the search, these energetic massless particles will kick the crap out…

Culture Statistics

College Students More Loquacious Than Erudite: Vocabulary Test Results

The results of the Great Vocabulary Test of 2010 are in. Two weeks ago, in this thread, after announcing my surprise that no student in any of my classes knew…

Statistics

TSA Cops A Feel: More Bad Statistics

As far as I can discover, Janet "There's Nothing To See Here" Napolitano's newly created policy of feeling up and peeking under the skirts of random airline passengers has not…

Culture Statistics

Texting Leads To Sexting…Leads To Bad Television

Researchers Find What they find is a way to publish yet another study documenting what everybody already knew. According to this article, sent in by reader Jack Mosevich, researchers have…

Eyrie on On Not ReadingMarch 11, 2026
Yep, finding the same thing. Unfortunately many of the good authors have died. We lost Michael F Flynn a couple…
BDavi52 on On Not ReadingMarch 11, 2026
Definitely not you. Writing has changed, or if not writing, publishing has changed. It seems obvious that written works are…
John M on On Not ReadingMarch 11, 2026
I'm with you Briggs. I'm a Jack London, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Louis L'Amour reader. The nice thing is my…
Rudolph Harrier on On Not ReadingMarch 11, 2026
Even most mass market paperbacks aren't really the "pocket paperbacks" of old. Either because they are too large or (more…
Cary D Cotterman on On Not ReadingMarch 11, 2026
I'm at least your age, probably older, and I read both novels and non fiction constantly. I've made the mistake…

William M. Briggs

On Not Reading

The Great Smoothing: Another Reason Not To Fear (or trust) AI

A Synchronicity Or Coincidence? What Is Behind Curious Events?

Class 81: The Second Biggest Error In Time Series

The Paper Test Shows Why AGI Is Not Possible: And Why The Brain Is Different In Kind

Researcher Imagines Weather With No Human Influence: Concludes Climate Change Hurts Incomes

Faith Deposited: Why Godless Science Fails

Class 80: Granger Causality; Per Se & Accidental Time Series; Stationarity

Scientists Seeking To Escape Criticism Run To The Warmth & Comfort Of Bluesky

The Loss of Ephemera — Guest Post by The Blonde Bombshell

Class 79: Time Series Example

The Importance Of Not Making Decisions

Don’t Take The ‘Long-Covid’ Alzheimer’s Study Seriously

AI Is Driving Many Crazy: Our Latest Panic

Class 78: The Attempt To Turn Correlation Lead Into Causation Gold In Time Series

Desperate Need For Equality: AP Exam Performance

Some Sanity: Experts Sued For Creating Gender Delusions

Why The Recent Claims Of AGI Fail: Plus, A New Test For AGI

Polar Bears Are Doing Fine: Activists, Not So Well

Impossible LSAT Statistics Question

How Women’s Equality In Democracies Changes Voting (And Everything Else)

On Not Reading

The Great Smoothing: Another Reason Not To Fear (or trust) AI

Tolkien Wants A King, Cheating With Statistics

Peer Review Fails? Sympathetic Priest? What’s Going On Here?

The Government Loves You And Wants You To Stop Smoking

New Expert Panel To Pick Experts For Expert Panels: Lessons From The TSA

TSA Full-Body Scans Would Not Pass Hospital IRB Reviews

College Students More Loquacious Than Erudite: Vocabulary Test Results

TSA Cops A Feel: More Bad Statistics

Texting Leads To Sexting…Leads To Bad Television

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