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
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
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 …
#wordpress_migration
Autotune, Science, and Creativity
I was just introduced to a very creative project called the Symphony of Science. It uses a technology called Autotune, traditionally used to keep lousy pop singers in key. In …
#wordpress_migration
Yet another reason to leave Iraq...dowsing for bombs
So it seems as if the Iraqi police are dowsing for bombs and firearms, as covered in the New York Times and James Randi. They are doing this using a …
#wordpress_migration
Netflix prize
Fortune magazine had a recent article on the Netflix prize. A very interesting competition to increase their correct recommendation percentage by 10%. I was struck by a comment at the …
#wordpress_migration
Disturbing video misusing Einstein's name
I saw this video posted on facebook The link to one rebuttal, which links to the original, is here:
http://filipinofreethinkers.org/2009/10/08/does-god-exist-video-campaign-refuted/
I wrote as a …
#wordpress_migration
Recovery from Vision
The following article talks about recovery of vision from people who were blind from birth. A couple of things really jumped out at me.
1.
![7316DF11-C08C-474C-81E3-786ECED034AF.jpg][]
S.K. could …
#wordpress_migration
Probability Problems and Simulation
There are a number of classic probability problems that challenge the intuition, both for students and for teachers. I have found that one way to overcome this intuition block is …
#wordpress_migration
Frequentist thinking, or just bad math?
In Steven Pinker's excellent book "How the Mind Works", he describes how people are bad at probability assessments, but are much better at frequency assessments (pg 348). It almost comes …
#wordpress_migration
A nice series to look at
Bill Harris has a nice blog entry about Bayesian versus Classical stats. I'd like to go through the rest of these posts, because I think there is some great stuff …
#wordpress_migration
