William M. Briggs is a Senior Contributor to The Stream. Author of Uncertainty, he is a writer, philosopher, and itinerant scientist living on a small but densely populated island in the Atlantic Ocean. He earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University in statistics. He studies the philosophy of science, the use and misuses of uncertainty, the corruption of science, and the uselessness of most predictions. He began life as a cryptologist for the Air Force, slipped into weather and climate forecasting, and matured into an epistemologist. He maintains an active and lively blog at wmbriggs.com.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Netherlands … “Mommy?” “Susie, is that you? Aren’t you at school? Is something wrong?” “No, Mommy. I cut my finger. Hold on, the nurse wants to talk to you.” “Mrs Verstandig? This is the school nurse….
