Gilmore or less – rick-gilmore.com

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Welcome to my blog. It’s a catch-all and a sandbox of writings about this and that. But mostly, it’s a place to put things that I’d probably lose track of without it.

Posts

You’ve got to be carefully taught

prejudice

We visited my mom and brother last Christmas in Denver. We didn’t know then it would be the last time any of us celebrated the holiday there. My mom’s friends gathered at…

Data stories: Climate change II

climate change

data science

Rather than dwell on the horrifying outcome of the American election, let’s continue our exploration of the EDGAR data.

The revolution will not be televised

music

change

Martha Hirschfield introduced me to this song in college. Martha had excellent taste in music. She also dragged me to a Grandmaster Flash concert.

Data stories: Climate change

climate change

data science

It’s impossible to ignore the big decisions that Americans will be making next Tuesday. But neither campaign is talking about climate change in a serious way. I have my own…

Heroes take many guises

heroes

teaching

Mr. Ridgway was my 10th grade English teacher. We called him Don, but not to his face. He did not suffer fools. We were fourteen or fifteen and often foolish.

A conversation about open science

open science

psychological science

reproducibility

Quarto

trust in science

My department’s clinical area invited me to present in PSY 543, Clinical Research Methods on open science. I gratefully accepted. We have a strong clinical program, and I…

Eclipse propagation

propagation

ham radio

Flex 6400

wspr

eclipse

I ran my Flex 6400 at low power (5 W) to generate propagation data for the HamSCI project during the 2024-04-08 total eclipse. The WSJT-X program generated the signals. With…

Awestruck

astronomy

eclipse

Michelle and I drove to Kane, PA Sunday night, then on to Ashtabula, OH for the eclipse.

Automation…is the way

R

GitHub

Paperpile

visual acuity project

research

I mentioned the Paperpile/Github integration we’re using for the Legacy Project: Visual Acuity initiative in a recent post.

Optimism about the future; pessimism about our neighbors

climate

future

data

The outstanding team at Our World in Data has an interactive graphic showing the results of a recent survey about who would be willing to contribute 1% of their income to…

Cool Paperpile/GitHub integration

GitHub

Paperpile

visual acuity project

automation

Several years ago, on the recommendation of Tal Yarkoni, I started using Paperpile for reference management. I like the Google Chrome integration and the easy ability to…

Good enough data and project management workshop

open science

Penn State

Quarto

Today is a workshop on “Good enough data and project management practices.” I’m delighted to be a member of a team that is bringing these ideas to a wider audience here at…

It’s a very big country

family

travel

dogs

Tom, Bear, and I drove cross-country in a U-Haul this past weekend. Our first night was spent in Topeka. Our second was in Dayton. Then it was a short-ish haul on in to…

Beware of scammers

Someone is impersonating me and soliciting information from unsuspecting students who are led to think that I am recruiting a highly paid research assistant.

New databraryr v0.6.3

databraryr

A new version of databraryr is now available on CRAN.

Back to GitHub Pages

R

software

GitHub

After working through the configuration settings for W3TM.org, I decided to overhaul my personal website and blog. I’d been using the excellent Netlify service, and there…

W3TM.org

ham radio

quarto

GitHub

On a lark I decided to grab the W3TM.org domain. W3TM.com wasn’t available. I think I know why, but the truth is, I prefer a dot-org domain for this sort of thing. That…

Moon up above

astronomy

A few weeks ago, Michelle and I decided on the spur of the moment to head northwest toward Erie to see the total eclipse.

Gerald Raymond Gilmore 1940-2023

Gerald Raymond (Jerry) Gilmore, 83, died Thanksgiving night at his home in Littleton after a satisfying feast and joyful celebration with family. Jerry worked in the Denver…

Borrowed time

My dad died Thanksgiving night.

Be careful what you wish for

reproducibility

data sharing

One of the assignments in PSYCH 490 this term asks students to give a paper a grade for whether the paper meets as set of emerging standards for replication. In grading…

I never metaprogram I didn’t write

R

programming

Quarto

In PSYCH 490 this week we discussed a paper (Chopik et al. 2018) that surveyed undergraduate students’ knowledge about open science practices before and after a short 1-hour…

We remember

Congregation Brit Shalom will host a memorial service to commemorate the 85th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the fifth anniversary of the Tree of Life shootings, and the…

Choosing sides

My department sent around an email earlier today announcing an event about the crisis in Gaza titled “Genocide in Gaza: A teach-in”.

A plot of good that did

R

visualization

data sharing

This week in my senior seminar on the reproducibility crisis in science (Gilmore 2023) we discussed the “many analysts” paper (R. Silberzahn et al. 2018). The main take home…

You and I need good UI

ham radio

Flex 1500

PowerSDR

I ~~Lola~~ woke up early. We took a walk to drain her tanks, and there was a beautiful morning Moon. So, when we got back I made some coffee and sat down to practice operating…

Void and vast

I don’t recall exactly when I first saw the Eames’ “Powers of Ten,” but I know it made a powerful impression on me. Later, when my task as an instructor was to teach about…

iframe, you frame

R

Quarto

This is a very short post to bookmark this amazing how-to site on using iframes in Quarto:

Please release me

R

Python

databraryr

Databrary

software

I am pleased to announce that the databraryr has been released on the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN).

Choosing light

Terrorists terrorize.
They destroy and divide.
They provoke reaction and compel reactionaries.
They valorize violence.
They corrupt compassion.
They mangle meaning.
They…

Come sail away

sailing

Last week, Michelle and I joined friends at the Annapolis Sailboat Show. Before the trip we joked that it would be like an RV show, just on the water. We weren’t wrong. But…

Move it, move it

Quarto

webr

Ok, so this is not an especially thoughtful post. Its purpose is to test video embedding, test some text animations using the Animate.css extension, and test the quarto-webr …

Trust but verify

commentary

climate

politics

The New York Times published a fascinating piece yesterday on Americans’ changing views about science and scientists, especially whether and when we are trustworthy. From…

Vaxxed to the maxx

public health

COVID

citizenship

I got my COVID booster, flu, and RSV shots this morning. My health insurance through Penn State covered the full cost.

Sail away ladies

folk music

Acoustic Brew

Tonight the Rustical Quality String Band will perform in the Acoustic Brew concert series at the Boal Barn Great Room in Boalsburg.

Delivering the package

Databrary

databraryr

R

reproducibility

open science

software

At long last, I submitted my first R package to CRAN. It’s called databraryr, and it represents several years of learning. databraryr permits users to interact with the Datab…

What’s old is new again

ham radio

VHF

packet radio

IC-9700

ID-51a

My local club, the Nittany Amateur Radio Club (NARC) has organized an APRS/Packet Special Interest Group. I’ve been an active APRS operator since early in my ham career.…

Unseen forces

science

religion

concepts

I’m in Boston for a meeting of the Developing Belief Network (DBN), a project I support as a member of the Advisory Board. DBN focuses on the development of religious and…

The plot thickens

R

ggplot2

PLAY

KoBoToolbox

visualization

bookdown

I’ve taken on the task of creating workflows for the PLAY Project survey data that is collected using KoBoToolbox. On a roughly weekly basis, I download the survey data and…

Legacy Project: Visual Acuity

vision

visual acuity project

meta-analysis

research

My team has launched a new research initiative I call the “Legacy Project: Visual Acuity.” The overarching effort, the “legacy” portion, aims to capture in more open…

JOTA here we go

ham radio

special events

NARC

Yaesu

Last night I had the delight of announcing a partnership between Cub Scout Pack 67 and the Nittany Amateur Radio Club (NARC). We’re collaborating to participate in the…

We are…not teammates

Academia

Gilmore U

For several years now I’ve argued that unlike the sports for which my institution is most famous, the scholarly side of the shop is not a team effort, not in the least.

Open science for early career researchers

open science

early career researchers

JEDI

I gave a talk last week to our developmental area faculty, grads, and postdocs. One attendee noted that many of the factors that make research less open stem from…

The hex is in

R

hex stickers

ai

Earlier in the summer, I tried to make a hex sticker for the Open Science Bootcamp.

Vote like your future depends on it

voting

elections

politics

The following is a piece I submitted to the Highlands Neighborhood Association newsletter.

Swimming to the other side

folk music

community

LGBTQ+

harmonica

Folk singer Pat Humphries wrote a song called “Swimming to the Other Side” that has been covered by many other artists. Here’s a link to the lyrics: https://emmasrevolution.c…

If a picture paints 1,000 words…

visualization

graphs

R

quarto

mermaid

graphviz

Music lovers of my generation remember that phrase at the lyrics of a song by the group Bread. The phrase is one of those constructive memes that my colleague, Karen Adolph…

Thanks, Mike

R

visualization

mentors

One stats class was required in my grad program, and Mike Meyer was my professor. The class was in S-plus, the closed source inspiration for R. And Mike regularly exhorted…

Scientific norms and counter-norms

ethics

data visualization

R

Quarto

ggplot2

Scholars who study science as an activity have tried to describe the characteristic norms and counter-norms that govern research activities. In this semester’s PSYCH 490 class…

No foolin’

talks

open science

reproducibility crisis

quarto

I have a new talk I call “No foolin’: May all our crises be ‘good’ ones”. It’s a new take on familiar topics. This time, I decided to tell a story about how the…

The webs we weave

genealogy

family

Some years ago when my own children were small, I got bitten by the genealogy bug. Then the products were all on paper, and searching Census records meant going to a library…

What I did on my summer vacation

blog

Quarto

I haven’t posted in a while. Frankly, the blog slipped to the bottom of a long to-do list. But when the graduate student who is coordinating our cognitive psychology area…

Behold

poetry

Behold… Yesterday
I touched tomorrow.

Data analyses as web books

bookdown

coding

open science

Beyond the open science survey I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve created two additional bookdown books to capture some data gathering, cleaning, and visualization…

Research protocols as web books

open science

R

reproducibility

One of the first formal activities of our very informal open science working group has been a survey on open science knowledge and practices.

Back in the saddle

personal

I woke up insanely early this morning. Of all things, I decided that it was time to update my blog. Little did I realize that it had been more than a year since I’d touched…

More Reverent Hands

poetry

Many in curiosity, some in urgency,
seek secret signs in corners dark and cold,
red and brown,
in rock, or ice, or vapor.

Deep rest

personal

Penn State

This morning I read an article in the New York Times the struggle to find motivation so many of us feel. I myself have fallen off the exercise wagon I’d jumped on a few…

Blast from the past

open science

A colleague reached out to me recently about a project we’d worked on years ago. The work involved a study of how adult observers categorize visual patterns that have…

This is great

politics

Perhaps like me you suspected that the red hats did not share your view of what makes America great.

Yields again to dawn

poetry

a midnight glance proves
that darkness dominates light.

Shovel brigade

poetry

a long-term symptom of this peculiar viral infection
is loss of smell.

This is personal

politics

The Trump campaign is suing Centre County where I live and serve as an election official:

This, I believe

I believe that Earth is the only planet our species can expect to thrive on for the imaginable future.

Don’t cry for us

poetry

covid-19

don’t cry for us argentina.
the truth is we chose ignorance
and embraced cruelty
out of fear
that our boasts
were as empty
as our heart.

Mother Earth

poetry

Mother Earth
loves her children like no other.
She pulls us close–
an attraction lawful.
No mass within her orbit
resists the pull.

Home of the meek

politics

There is no doubt that the corona virus pandemic provides the entire world a terrifying reminder that human life and civilization is vulnerable to the whims of uncaring…

Morse, of course

ham radio

I’ve been a ham for only a few years. In that time, I’ve enjoyed sampling the hobby’s many facets. When I first heard about ham radio as a boy, the thrills were mostly about…

Ho, ho, ho

poetry

Pandemics aren’t funny.
Sure, people still chuckle.
There are jokes.
Some are almost good.

Seeing through the fog

politics

I understand why Republican partisans want to confuse the public. But this is crystal clear.

What makes America great (to me)

Today I rode my bicycle to our public library (an American innovation), and walked around the corner to an Indian restaurant that is owned and operated by people of Latin…

Just do it!

ham radio

Field Day

Two years ago, I participated in my first Field Day as a ham. For the uninitiated, Field Day is an annual event where radio amateurs set-up radio stations in locations they…

Is there a crisis of reproducibility in science?

open science

reproducibility

A recent article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Redish et al. argues that ‘reproducibility failures are essential to scientific inquiry.’ The…

Atheist prayer

politics

poetry

we fear the people who love their guns
more than we love our children.

Devilish details

open science

ethics

data sharing

pre-registration

I’ve found myself at odds recently with colleagues who, like me, view themselves as advocates for open science. This post attempts to clarify what I see as the crux of our…

Poets may know it

poetry

I’ve been slowly moving my poetry into position on this site. There may be scraps left in some corner of the hard drive, but the task is essentially done.

If you JS8…

ham radio

JS8call

One thing I like about ham radio is the variety. There are new modes to try and new things to learn all the time.

Of Donocrats and Trumpublicans

politics

I wish it were otherwise, but I agree with Andrew Sullivan. Regardless of what the Mueller report holds, Trump has severely damaged the country and made our Nation weaker…

Burns a bridge

poetry

burns a bridge
the night long, this heat
retards bitterness and cold
yellow-red flickers illuminate, but dimly
even in that moment fleeting
but wonders he later
wherefore…

Open developmental science

science

open science

If you plan to attend the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) meeting in Baltimore later this week, you might be interested in some of the open science…

April 9: A national day of reflection and reconciliation

politics

America needs a holiday dedicated to reflecting on the many ways we have failed to meet our founding ideals. We need such a holiday to reconcile the past with our common…

Itsy Bitsy

poetry

spiders

i wonder what it is like

Behavior is the linchpin

science

behavior

The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has requested input on a draft strategic plan for 2020-2024.

In search of the ethogram

science

ethogram

behavior

ontology

behaviorome

Psychology is in part, a science of behavior. Mental experience – thoughts and feelings – are also common targets of inquiry.

Parameters for action

science

Several years ago, Florian Raudies, Swapnaa Jayaraman and I published a paper where we simulated the optic flow that infants would experience in different head/body…

The webs we weave

science

motion perception

causal modeling

I’ve been ‘sketching’ out conceptual models for some time without realizing that there is an entire field of analysis where these sorts of diagrams are the starting point…

QSL? QSL

ham radio

CW

Last night, my friend Mike (N3LI) and I made our first-ever CW QSOs. In ham-speak, that means we chatted using Morse code.

New lab logo

research

For I don’t remember how many years I’ve wanted a lab logo. I thought that designing a logo was something that some student might actually enjoy doing. But I never pushed or…

Building walls and tearing them down

commentary

folk music

border wall

The building of walls is of much concern these days. This song from Anais Mitchell’s folk opera “Hadestown” sheds light on why some of us want so desperately to build them:

Test-driven development is hard…and important.

R

software

Databrary

I’ve been developing an R package that interacts with the Databrary.org API and with Datavyu annotation files stored locally or on Databrary alongside shared videos. If…

Ending the endless war

news

politics

I find Andrew Sullivan worth reading almost all of the time even if I disagree with him. This time, I agree completely:

Heroics

poetry

Some rascal or rogue
Stashed kryptonite
Upon my person.

Speedy recovery

poetry

The tools of the do-it-yourself surgeon vary in sharpness.
Some glint in just that light,
and cut in their fashion,
but how deeply
or cleanly
only the scar will tell.

Goad Gunner

poetry

taunts of bad hair boy-men
transfix the play yard.
mine is bigger. no mine. look.

Fourth and long

poetry

sometimes late in the 4th quarter
you’re down a score,
out of timeouts,
and it’s 4th and long.

Delightful delusion

poetry

oh my, yes.
I oh so wanted to see
a tuxedo, penguin crisp, satin shiny,
pseudo-sparkle when he sauntered by
us peons, clinging to
such rags as misfortune
left in her cloud…

Promise

poetry

I flare my talons
and prepare to strike,
but only in defense.
I sharpen my beak, but only in warning.

Specific gravity

poetry

the call always
comes too early
in the morning for anything
but mischief
or the baker

I never metaphysics

poetry

it’s like fireworks, dad.
you said the colors and patterns come from all the minerals.
their making a mutual arrangement designed to ignite and illuminate.

Oh beautiful

poetry

sweet land of liberty of thee i sing

Haiku 4 U

poetry

One last time, Dad says.
Jason squeals ands bolts inside
the mister. Slippery guy.

Lonely cicada

poetry

Lonely cicada.
Bad at math. Off by one? Damn.
No choral singing.

Food for thought

poetry

yes she cranked the handle
but the meat and potato man put his heart in the grinder
and no one saved the pink spaghetti strands for chili.

Who knows how to unmake love

poetry

Who knows how to unmake love?
that fertile ground for growing
goodness
in tiny cracks between beings.

Four letter word

I strangled hope.
Smug bastard annoyed me.
I spring eternal; there is always room for me,
he’d say
(or his fanboys would moonily recite).
So I grabbed his throat
and…

Lipstick on a pig

poetry

some Wilburs inspire no spider-poets
nor earn the love of Fern.

Who shall lionize

poetry

who shall lionize
this deceased?
and where
pray
tell
shall the bodiless
be interred?
i know not
where to
lay bouquets
nor what color
on such
civic holy-days
that celebrate
my…

Unsolicited Advice

poetry

Get it? He says, I’m like a Magritte or an Escher. Self-referential.

In Longing and Light

Dear Friends,

It is the ache
and honor
of those you
have touched

to join you uninvited

to fathom the unfathomable
to grieve the grievous

to go where none
would ever choose
…

Angels Blue

poetry

They don’t wear wings, you know.
Impractical indoors. Hard to fit under a winter coat. Showy.
Too many feathers ruffled already.

Love of death

poetry

Love of death and fear of life
well describes the current strife
in Babylonia today.
Nihilism rules the day.

No one loves a volcano

poetry

spewing strangling gas
red white vapor paints green grass gray.

The physics of love

poetry

like surfing a comet

Worn on the sleeve

poetry

I used to envy those who carried
their hearts
safe
surrounded by the warm fellowship of other organs.

There are no heroes

poetry

there are no heroes
in this comic book,

Burns a bridge

poetry

burns a bridge
the night long, this heat
retards bitterness and cold
yellow-red flickers illuminate, but dimly
even in that moment fleeting
but wonders he later
wherefore…

Joy untethered

poetry

joy untethered by sorrow