Books
Books that I have written.
Media Appearances
Podcasts and Videos in which I have appeared or which I have created.
pyndamics3
Dynamical systems simulation in Python. Includes both continuous and stochastic simulation.
Stats for Everyone
An introductory stats book from a Bayesian perspective, including Python software.
I am a Scientist, Skeptic, and Professor at Bryant University. My goal is to make technical subject matters widely accessible and to use my analytical and computational skills to assist anyone with their science-related problems.
Blog
The Not-so-Hidden Flaw in this Climate Argument
There are sometimes people think that I am a global warming denier (I'm not), but I am not entirely convinced that the dire predictions from the global warming camp are …
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A bit of must-read economics
In the face of Obama's new healthcare initiative, which includes provisions to cap the increases in insurance costs, you can [read here a nice description of the problems of fixing …
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Coin flips and names (Evil problems in probability continued)
In my post about the girl-named-Florida problem, there is a factor in the analysis looking at the probability of having a girl named Florida given that you have two girls …
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Magnetic therapy getting under my skin
Introduction
Every year my family goes to the flower show in Providence. It's a nice time, seeing flowers in the middle of February, snacking on the pretzel and dip samples …
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Economics
In a post about Ten Principles of Economics, Harvard Professor Greg Mankiw writes a little acrostic device about economics. In addition to things like "Everything has a cost. There …
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Faith and Science
I was listening to a very nice talk by Ken Miller, from Brown University. He's the Biology professor who testified in the Dover Evolution Trial. The reason that he is …
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A couple of interesting videos
With the advent of computer technology, it can be challenging to distinguish fact from fiction. Both of the videos below are, in my opinion, strikingly real but are both fake …
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Creativity, Science, and the Brain
In my post about Bruce Hood's interview I said there wasn't anything I disagreed with. After re-listening to it, I find my position is a bit more nuanced. I'd still …
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Believing the unbelieveable
Have a listen to this excellent interview of neuroscientist Bruce Hood. I can't think of a single thing I disagreed with this guy on. I may have more specific to …
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A teachable moment...lost
So I just watched the Mythbusters episode where they recreate the bus jump from the movie Speed. They do two things: a miniature version and full-scale recreation. In their miniature …
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There once was a girl named Florida (a.k.a Evil problems in probability)
In a [previous post][] I described the Monty Hall problem, and noted that a simulation can often lead to clarity of thinking on tough probability problems. I take another example …
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Weird associations and the brain
You ever have deja vu? The brain associates many things together, and can often give you the visceral feeling that you've been there before. For several years I have had …
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Cool little fact of the day...
Did you know that if you interleave the pages of two phone books, that it is nearly impossible to separate?
For those Mythbusters aficionados this won't be news, but since …
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Polar Bears, Data, Opinions, and Global Warming
So I had a nice discussion with a student, who was confused after receiving some opposing viewpoints on Global Warming from different professors in a relatively short time period. In …
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Open Information, Reproducible Research, and Climategate
David Donoho, the creator of Wavelab is featured in an article about [reproducible research in the journal CISE (Computing in Science and Engineering)]. I am struck by the resonance of …
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Word of the Day: Micromort
I'm not starting a new "word of the day" series, but I did learn this
work today from the following video on risk analysis:
youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch …
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Climate Change Denial is not the same as Evolution Denial
Articles like this one and this one and others make the comparison between, what they call, global warming deniers and evolution deniers (aka Intelligent Design (ID) proponents), and even holocaust …
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Climategate, oh my!
I've been reading a lot about Climategate, and have a few comments now, and hopefully more to come. What sparked this current thread of thinking for me was this post …
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Universality of Religion
On the Effect Measure blog, there is post about "Freethinker Sunday Sermonette: Dawkins on evolution and religion", with the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czMU4-vNkiE
I am …
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A great observation
So [this post][] from Laura Wattenberg's "Baby Name Wizard" blog has a wonderful observation: > Here's a little pet peeve of mine: nothing rhymes with orange. You've > heard that before, right …
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Information
It all started with "information is beautiful", with this post about the 2012 non-issue, and then it went to this interesting figure which I am pondering...not sure if the …
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