Amelia McNamara

Associate professor of stats & data science at University of St Thomas. UCLA/Macalester alumna. Into data visualization and open science, obsessed with R. #RStats #tidyverse #DataViz

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-06-20

Happy approximate 110th birthday, John Tukey! xkcd.com/3104/

[Text formatted as a block quote]

    "Far better an approximate answer to the right question, which is often vague, than an exact answer to the wrong question, which can always be made precise."

    John W. Tukey
    The Future of Data Analysis (1962)

    Caption below the comic:
    Happy approximate birthday to John Tukey, author of my favorite statistics quote, who was born 110.000 years ago sometime this week.

(Alt text copied from explainxkcd.com)
Amelia McNamara boosted:
Kurtis ClarkKurtis_Clark
2025-05-27
Screenshot of the Mister Roger's Neighborhood show. Mister Rogers sits in front of a mid-1990s-style PC, looking at the camera as he says, “You know, your own imagination is far more wonderful.”
Screenshot of the Mister Roger's Neighborhood show. Mister Rogers sits in front of a mid-1990s-style PC, looking at the camera as he says, “than any computer could ever be. You know why.”Screenshot of the Mister Roger's Neighborhood show. Mister Rogers sits in front of a mid-1990s-style PC, looking at the camera as he says, “You’re a living human being. And a computer is just a machine.”Screenshot of the Mister Roger's Neighborhood show. Mister Rogers sits in front of a mid-1990s-style PC, looking at the camera as he says, “Human beings are far more wonderful than machines.”
Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-05-26

Ten years ago today I defended my PhD dissertation. escholarship.org/uc/item/1mm93 Skimming it again, I have a bit of that cringe-y feeling, like listening to your voice on the answering machine. But surprisingly, a lot of it holds up!

Amelia McNamara boosted:
Random Sanborn Mapssanbornmaps@palewi.re
2025-05-22

Saint Cloud, Stearns, Benton, and Sherburne Counties, Minnesota. loc.gov/item/sanborn04377_002/

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-05-13

One of the worst parts about my institution is the culture of wide-eyed obsequence to AI. Our provost, VPs, deans, and many faculty are extremely pro-AI.

As an example, see this "Tommie Expert" piece about the use of facial recognition in criminal investigations: news.stthomas.edu/tommie-exper

I hate being associated with an institution that is so publicly pro-AI. I have spoken to upper administration about this, and they are very committed to continuing as a "AI leader" or whatever.

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-05-12

If you want to do something to help, continue (or start!) masking in indoor public spaces.

Of course we would love better indoor air quality regulations, and more research into the condition. In the US, those things are not going to happen for a while. Masking protects you and your community! Many viruses can trigger ME/CFS, although covid is the most common trigger these days.

#mecfs #MECFSAwarenessDay #myalgicencephalomyelitis #LongCovid

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-05-12

It's International ME/CFS awareness day. My sibling has ME/CFS, brought on by long covid. They've been bedridden for eight months now, unable to even listen to music because it's too much exertion. To learn more, I recommend this Ologies podcast episode: alieward.com/ologies/postviral #mecfs #MECFSAwarenessDay #myalgicencephalomyelitis #LongCovid

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-03-10

Today marks 6 months that my younger sibling has been completely bedridden from long covid. They can't sit up, listen to music, look at screens, handle much spoken conversation, and much more.

Covid rates are down, but the pandemic is very much not over. Protect yourself and your community-- mask!

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-02-20

Interesting to read about the connection between my institution and the Selma to Montgomery march. news.stthomas.edu/tales-from-t

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-02-20

Looking for the answer to a piece of stats trivia/history-- why is it called the "t" distribution? (In other words, it could be named any other letter or word, why t?)

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-01-25
Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-01-25
Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-01-25

Doing my best to get away from FAANG companies (do we still call them that?) so I'm moving from Goodreads to @thestorygraph I must not be the only one with that idea!

Screenshot of The Story Graph website, which says "We've received your Goodreads data, but we're currently experiencing heavy load.

We'll email you once your import is complete.

If you haven't heard from us within 72 hours, please contact us via the app or website."
Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-01-20

I have printed up some Red Cards in languages commonly spoken by immigrants in my area ilrc.org/red-cards-tarjetas-ro Everyone should know their rights. You don't have to open the door for ICE

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-01-20

@srvanderplas @dripapp IANAL but I think you can be required to hand over devices in some circumstances, but providing the device password is not required. I don't use biometrics on any of my devices for exactly that reason!

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-01-20

@srvanderplas @dripapp like, from me directly?

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-01-19

The answer to this seems to be Drip: dripapp.org/ The app stores cycle data locally on your phone, rather than in the cloud. They have data converters for Flo and Clue, and if you previously used Natural Cycles, my conversion code is here: github.com/AmeliaMN/NaturalCyc @dripapp

Amelia McNamara boosted:
Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-01-19

Americans who menstruate-- how are we cycle tracking now? I used Natural Cycles for years (and their data policy is one of the best out there) but it's time to let it go. I would love to do some of the prediction they offer in R or similar. #datascience #menstrualcycle #fertility #rstats

Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-01-13

There are many things I love about Calendly, but one is definitely their year-end summary. 261 meetings booked with me in 2024! If you are someone with a complicated calendar who needs to do a lot of meeting scheduling, I highly recommend Calendly.

Screenshot of Calendly year-end summary. Reads 261 meetings booked, 1,827 emails avoided, 66 hours saved**.
Amelia McNamaraamelia@vis.social
2025-01-06

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