Introduction I have a macabre fascination with tracking the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. I suspect there are two reasons for this. One, by delving into the numbers I imagine I have some control over this thing. Second, it feels like lighting a candle to show that science can reveal ...

Recently I saw a tweet that shared this hilarious poster of Ramones “wants”. Dan Gneiding (aka Grayhood) is the graphic designer who created this. You can buy it here Very cool, but how accurate is it? I asked Dan and says he took some artistic license, as he should! You ...

Which States Impose the Most “Tax Pain?” Much of the discussion around tax burdens focuses on income taxes but, at the state level, that leaves out two other big sources of tax liability, sales and property taxes. Here we’ll quickly look at the interplay of all three taxes in ...

Introduction Over the last few years I have really enjoyed becoming part of the R community. One of the best things about the community is the welcoming, inclusive and supportive nature of it. I can’t speak for other communities in the computer or data science worlds but I am ...

I’ve been a spreadsheet power user from the days of Visicalc for the Apple ][. I migrated to Lotus 1-2-3, to Borland Quattro and finally to Excel. With Excel, I’ve bludgeoned Visual Basic to create some pretty complicated dashboards and analytics. ...

What is the difference between “computer programming” and “data science?” To someone not invovled in either they look much the same. Most data scientists are also coders, though they don’t need to be. Data scientists (especially amateurs like me) don’t...