Briggs

Realism vs. Anti-Realism III: The anti-realist response — Guest Post by G. Rodrigues

We have no space to follow St. Thomas through all these negative heresies; but a word must be said about Nominalism or the doubt founded on the things that differ.…

Statistics

Eating Chocolate Increases Chance Of Nobel Prize, P< 0.05

Yesterday, those noble Nobel fellows, the same committee that honored President Obama---what was it? six, seven days after he assumed office?---, gave this year's Peace Prize to the European Union.…

Philosophy

Realism vs. Anti-Realism II: The realist challenge — Guest Post by G. Rodrigues

The one who will not work fits what is written about the virgins of Israel: he gives birth to wind -- but the one who will work gives birth to…

Culture Philosophy

The Year Of Faith: What Strange Things People Believe

What better way to start the Year of Faith than with this headline: Experts: Global warming means more Antarctic ice This was atop an article penned Seth Borenstein, who noticed…

Statistics

The Future of Scientific Publications: Abandon Journals?

It took three years--or was it four?---for a paper I submitted to the august journal Annals of Statistics to wend its way through peer review. When it came back to…

Philosophy

Realism vs. Anti-Realism I: Introduction — Guest Post by G. Rodrigues

The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve. We should…

Book review Philosophy

Caring Is Killing Us: What’s Wrong With Benevolence by David Stove

This review ran last August, but because of pressures of work and the relevance this important book has to our upcoming elections, it's time for another look. Regular posts resume…

Statistics

Debate Thread: “Where Was This Romney Before?” Always There

Chris Matthews looked as though he saw the men with the nets coming for him, the tingles evidently having traveled from his leg and lodging in his frontal cortex. An…

John Pate on Class 98: Limitations of Genetic Associations With PersonalityOctober 23, 2026
The plasticity available in the brain and CNS is the confounding factor. Nature via nurture. What actually gets expressed is…
Brian (bulaoren) on Class 98: Limitations of Genetic Associations With PersonalityOctober 22, 2026
Across the world, many jurisdictions ban pet "pit bulls". Are they in error?
NLR on Against Numerology: Some Basic CalculationsOctober 19, 2026
The mathematician Richard Guy wrote a paper "The strong law of small numbers", where he said, facetiously, but also serirously:…
aGrimm on Book UpdateOctober 16, 2026
I'm looking forward to the book; warts and all the first was enlightening and fun to read.
John Pate on Book UpdateOctober 14, 2026
I'm a big fan of LaTeX. I wrote a class package that made it into one or more of the…