bblais on the web

In the Unbelievable podcast episode Do extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence?

As an exercise, I like to reproduce computational papers, but with my own tools.

In this post we are going to explore the simulation of stochastic (i.e. random) processes, and work our way to understanding how the Gillespie algorithm works.

In my post about "naturalism of the gaps" I stated that in evaluating claims, Methodological naturalism is the only choice we have available, because no one has demonstrated any procedure to distinguish supernatural claims.

In this YouTube episode, Bad Apologetics Ep 18 - Bayes Machine goes BRRRRRRRRR I join Nathan Ormond, Kamil Gregor, and James Fodor to discuss Timothy and Lydia McGrew's article in The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology entitled "Chapter 11 - The Argu…

This is another in the series of "Statistics 101" examples solved with MCMC.

The Mac/iPhone Books app has some issues.

This is another in the series of "Statistics 101" examples solved with MCMC.

This is another in the series of "Statistics 101" examples solved with MCMC.

I'd like to walk through some of the "Statistics 101" examples (e.g. estimating \(\mu\) with known \(\sigma\), estimating a proportion, etc...) for which we have simple analytical solutions, but explore them with MCMC.

What would happen if two people out in space a few meters apart, abandoned by their spacecraft, decided to wait until gravity pulled them together?

A while ago I wrote this little package called pyndamics which was a thin wrapper around the scipy odeint function.

In this episode, David (the Graceful Atheist and I explore how Bayes theorem can structure our thinking.

A physics problem from a practice AP test came to my attention, when my daughter was in AP physics this past spring.

In my discussion with Jonathan McLatchie on the Still Unbelievable podcast, I said that there hasn’t been a verified miracle claim even since Hume’s essay on miracles.

Pelican is a Python package for developing static websites.

In this episode, Andrew and Matthew invite me back to talk about Bayes, what it is and how to apply it.

Matthew hosts a conversation between myself and Jonathan McLatchie to further the conversation on why Jonathan is confident that the resurrection of Jesus can be accepted as an historical event.

In this episode I discuss my approach to teaching statistical inference including taking the Bayesian approach first instead of delegating it to an advanced or elective topic.

I find that a common pattern I implement again and again in Python is to build up a list (or multiple lists) in a loop and turn them into arrays at the end for plotting or further calculating.

In this episode, Andrew and Matthew invite myself and Prof.

I find it hard to overestimate the positive effect J.

In a recent discussion about the use of probability in a religious context I saw another poor job of a calculation of the Resurrection (I had read several others that had serious problems).

In this discussion/debate, I talk with Travis Dickinson about the concept of faith.

From the trivial to the monumental our decisions are governed by – or should be governed by – rational thought.

When I first learned probability, I thought it was all about math and counting.

In this episode I join Andrew and Matthew to discuss The Fine Tuning Argument, The Second Law of Thermodynamics, contingency, evidence for the Christian claim of a historical resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, and other topics found in Justin Brierley's b…

On Genies and Muses If you haven't seen Elizabeth Gilbert's TED talk on "Your Elusive Creative Genius", go right now and watch it!

I was reminded of the Gambler's Fallacy in a recent post by Stephen Novella and thought of a twist on the fallacy that makes it a bit more subtle.

Structure of the Review As I finished this review it became apparent that there are two main audiences for what I wrote - those that have yet to read the book and those that have already read the book.

Here's a straightforward problem from Quora - probably found in a textbook - but I try to find a new direction to make it more interesting.

Have a statistics question or project?

Describe dynamical systems in terms of the differential equations without having to write the coding loops or functions.

Simulate biologically derived neural networks of medium complexity - both rate- and spike-based models.

This video is part of the Bryant Faculty Spotlight series.

In his talk about the limitations of science, Rupert Sheldrake lists the "10 dogmas of modern science" (also listed here in text http://wariscrime.com/new/the-ten-dogmas-of-modern-science/).

Here are some notes about time management that I found useful from this article: If you’re with your friends, be with your friends.

I've reproduced below Sam Harris' incredible example of interpreting texts.

Although I am not in software development, and I don't work in a lot of teams, I have recently read the book Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time (https://www.scruminc.com/new-scrum-the-book/) which I find very interesting and possibly…

Here is my TEDxBryantU talk on Skepticism, Probability, and the Guide to Proper Thinking!

In the Unbelievable podcast episode 27 Oct 2007 - Top reasons for belief there is a discussion about good arguments for God.

In the Unbelievable podcast episode 27 Oct 2007 - Top reasons for belief there is a discussion around the results of a small survey of reasons for belief in God and belief in Christianity specifically.

Over the years I have taught introductory physics labs and I have seen that most “canned” labs offer very little to the student in the form of learning.

I posted before about 3 Reasons Why Belief in God Makes Sense from the Unbelievable Podcast.

In Part 1 of this post I walk through a powerful, but false, story of a vindicated math prodigy.

Here I present how our cognitive biases -- confirmation bias, innumeracy, either-or bias -- can lead to significant problems, but also can be solved with the proper use of probability theory.

Stories are a powerful influence on thinking.

I learned a somewhat disturbing fact about sea squirts recently - once they find their permanent home they eat their own brain because they don’t need it anymore - their brain becomes a resource-heavy extraneous organ.

In a new book, Justin Brierley of the very good Unbelievable Podcast writes about 3 Reasons Why Belief in God Makes Sense.

In the October issue of Significance magazine, an article called “Why facts are not enough in the fight against fake news” by Brian Tarran resonated with some of the things I have been thinking.