The AstroStat Slog

Someone emailed me for globular cluster data sets I used in a proceeding paper, which was about how to determine the multi-modality (multiple populations) based on well known and new information criteria without binning the luminosity functions. I spent quite time to understand the data sets with suspicious numbers of globular cluster populations. On the other hand, obtaining globular cluster data sets was easy because of available data archives such as VizieR. Most data sets in charts/tables, I acquire those data from VizieR. In order to understand science behind those data sets, I check ADS. Well, actually it happens the other way around: check scientific background first to assess whether there is room for statistics, then search for available data sets. Continue reading ‘accessing data, easier than before but…’ »

I bet there are various scams. One of them is automatic user registration. This blog requires a registration for contributing free of approval comments unless one does not put many web links. Recently, there were frequent anonymous user registrations. What I mean by anonymous is that I don’t see their names or part of identities (for example, someone uses initials of their names in their email accounts or uses email accounts from their affiliations). This slog is open to anyone who is interested in AstroStatistics, although not many are currently active. Upon your request, this can be changed very simply and you immediately start writing your ideas about AstroStatistics. However, I must restrict those scams from now on. Please, provide me a small information about you if you do not want to be eliminated after your registration. As I mentioned, the information does not require your full name, nor email account of academic institution. When you register, use your email account that you use daily bases, not the ones that look like results from phishing.

I grew up in an environment that glamourized mathematical equations. Equations adorned a text like jewelry, set there to dazzle, and often to outshine the text that they were to illuminate. Needless to say, anything I wrote was dense, opaque, and didn’t communicate what it set out to. It was not until I saw a Reference Frame essay by David Mermin on how to write equations (1989, Physics Today, 42, p9) that I realized that equations should be treated as part of the text. You should be able to read them. David Mermin set out 3 rules for writing out equations, which I’ve tried to follow diligently (if not always successfully) since then. Continue reading ‘I Like Eq’ »

Stumbled across this “blog readability test“, and Continue reading ‘Too many syllables?’ »

It seems to be necessary to devise a good system of categories beforehand with wordpress, because plain tags are not (yet?) implemented. Categories can only be defined by the admin, so it is useful to have as comprehensive a list as possible. I suggest the following set:
Continue reading ‘Categories’ »