Author Archives: rpg

About rpg

Scientist, poet, gadfly

Some Important and Weighty Stuff in Statistics

Posted on February 4, 2011 by rpg

(note: to create maximal puzzlement I have cross-posted this at my other blog) Right, now let’s talk about methods for stochastic numerical integration, in particular calculating importance weights. This is a technique that is probably underused, largely because… Why are … Continue reading →

Posted in R, Statistics | 2 Comments

Pleasing News

Posted on February 2, 2011 by rpg

Last year, my student Crispin defended his PhD thesis. The last papers from his thesis have been appearing. This is good news, obviously, but it gets better.

Posted in Science Blogging | 1 Comment

More Ideas About Ideas in Ecology and Evolution

Posted on January 18, 2011 by rpg

A couple of years ago I blogged about a new journal, Ideas in Ecology and Evolution, and it’s experiments in the reviewing process. I was sceptical then, but happy to be shown wrong: I think we need these experiments to … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Publishing | 11 Comments

As sick as a Beast

Posted on January 12, 2011 by rpg

I can’t remember if I’ve had cause to mention this before, but The Beast is an Australian. This may explain his reaction to the news last week of England winning The Ashes series 3-1: he was throwing up the following … Continue reading →

Posted in Silliness, Statistics | 2 Comments

Banned! (no, not me)

Posted on January 11, 2011 by rpg

Oh dear. The Chinese translation of Andrew Gelman’s book on hierarchical models and Bayesian analysis has been banned, due to “various politically sensitive materials in the text”. He must be so proud. I’ll check the text tomorrow to see what … Continue reading →

Posted in Silliness | 4 Comments

Yes.

Posted on January 4, 2011 by rpg

Linda Lin just blogged about the new Google Analytics we have on NN. The most popular keyword (which I assume mean search term) is “Am I wasting my time?”. Irrespective of the message of the post it leads to, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Silliness | 3 Comments

Yay, a banner!

Posted on December 31, 2010 by rpg

I finally worked out The Secret to putting a banner up (it would have been quicker to read the instructions, I suppose). So The Beast is now proudly at the top of the blog, where he feels he belongs.

Posted in Meta | 9 Comments

The Hilarity of Homeopathic Housing

Posted on December 30, 2010 by rpg

Thanks (I think) go to Rob Hinkley for pointing out John Benneth’s blogpost “IN ONE YEAR: Homeopathy could have helped. It’s the bloggy equivalent of walking around with a “Kick Me” label sellotaped to your back.

Posted in Silliness | 21 Comments

Blame the system!

Posted on December 7, 2010 by rpg

Sometimes the system you’re working on just doesn’t work the way you hope. So what do you do? Write a paper in PNAS blaming the system? Well, a paper has just appeared in PNAS with the title “Bimodal gene expression … Continue reading →

Posted in Research Blogging, Silliness | 3 Comments

The Original Red Queen’s Hypothesis

Posted on November 30, 2010 by rpg

Leigh Van Valen (who died last month) is well known for being an original thinker. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that the only way he could publish his most famous idea was to start a journal to print it … Continue reading →

Posted in Research Blogging | 2 Comments