Eric J. Pedersen | Lightnews

Eric Pedersen

@ericjpedersen.bsky.social

2.3K followers 770 following 180 posts

Associate prof of biology prof at Concordia University. Lost in the wilds between ecology, statistics, and dynamic systems. Always interested in chatting all things GAM- and nonlinear-system related.

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Environmental science 80%

Geography 20%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you! We worked very hard to make it clear without compromising on accuracy, and I'm glad it paid off

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 1d

There's a couple papers on using it for estimating fish abundances (authors' names are escaping me). I would look for papers on spatial stock assessment

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 1d

It's an old friend. Although I once tried to code up a tweedie likelihood, and it was then I realized my friend had dark secrets that I was happier not delving into

Reposted by Dietram A. Scheufele, Richard McElreath, Elena Litchman , and 2 more Dietram A. Scheufele, Richard McElreath, Elena Litchman, Rebecca Sear, Eric J. Pedersen

iDiv Biodiversity Research @idiv-research.bsky.social · 5d

📢 Call for registrations - Science:TBD
📍 Leipzig | 3–4 March 2026

Join us for an inspiring lineup of keynotes:
⭐Sheena F. Bartscherer
⭐Alice Hughes @achughes.bsky.social
⭐Wolfgang Forstmeier
⭐Ulrich Dirnagl
⭐Dietram A. Scheufele @dietram.bsky.social

Register now: www.idiv.de/science-tbd

Reposted by Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Michael T. Meyer, Maria Paniw , and 4 more Ben Bond‐Lamberty, Michael T. Meyer, Maria Paniw, Eric J. Pedersen, Julen Astigarraga, Maria Faticov, Karl Andraczek

Gavin Simpson @gsimpson.bsky.social · 6d

🚨 GAMs have moved on—so it’s time for an update.

On March 3, 2026 (17:00–19:00 CET) I’ll be livestreaming an updated introduction to Generalized Additive Models in R

📺 YouTube livestream link: youtube.com/live/A9U8e1K...

#RStats #mgcv #GAMs #gratia #statistics 🧪

What's new in the world of Generalized Additive Models

YouTube video by Bottom of the Heap

youtube.com

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

Apparently it's actually fries... Although I've been assured that it's only food for children (it does seem to be Naples specific). Pizza with thin-sliced potatoes is amazing though, and pear + goat cheese pizza is a staple for us; I'd like to try it with gorgonzola

www.mashed.com/1416368/fren...

French Fries Most Certainly Belong On Pizza - Mashed

If you've never topped a pizza with fries, then it may be time to test this tasty food duo. Just be sure to consider what type of fries complement your pizza.

www.mashed.com

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

As someone who grew up playing in abandoned combines, it's got to be the cemetery one; number one is just common sense

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

I love it too! But somehow most of the world seems unwilling to accept that pineapple belongs on pizza.

I have recently learned that it's common in Italy to put fries on pizza though, so I am more skeptical now about Italian dedication to the purity of pizza

Reposted by Marco Festa‐Bianchet

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

We must never let it revealed to the world that Hawaiian pizza is a Canadian invention

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

I don't mind cod tongues, but they are very much an acquired taste (I also really like Jig's dinner, but see above). I am genuinely surprised that toutons have not caught on as a food craze though. So good, and easy / cheap to make

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

Newfoundland has a lot of distinct foods, but not a lot I think would do well went exported. However, I do think that someone could make a killing starting a touton food truck

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

I feel like the Irish have the worst of it; I've never seen an Irish restaurant that wasn't a slightly grubby looking pub called something like "Shamrock's Charm"

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

I'm hosted with folks at IDiv, and am doing a couple trips around the country to meet people (Potsdam and Berlin this next week)

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

I'm in Leipzig for the next few weeks! If you want to meet up to chat stats at some point, I might be able to bring one; my wife and I are good bakers

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

The sad thing is that desserts are one of the places where we actually*do* have a distinct food culture! And you can't tell me Germans wouldn't love butter tarts

Picture of butter tarts, a flaky pastry tart with a rich butter custard filling

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

It's one of our specialties!

Reposted by Carly D. Ziter

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 8d

I'm slightly disturbed about what Germans seem to think Canadian food consists of

Picture of a menu labelled at the top as "Canadian steakhouse", featuring such Canadian foods as "pasta bolognese", "burger and sandwich" and "salad"

Photo of the outside of a restaurant called "Ontario Restaurant Café", along a cobblestone street in the old city of Dresden

Reposted by Eric J. Pedersen

Robin Ince @robinince.bsky.social · 9d

I will probably get told off for sharing this - but it does give some perspective on why I was under so much pressure to leave Monkey Cage - I accept my career is dead so….

skepchick.org/2026/01/the-...

The BBC Chose Transphobia over Science

Transcript: Over the holidays, there was some news out of the UK that I wanted to highlight, lest it be lost in the news black hole that is Christmas and New Year: the British Broadcasting Corporat…

skepchick.org

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · 11d

My favorite Pascal's triangle fact is that the entries in each row are equal to the number of distinct random walks that end up in that spot. Galton boards are basically just a physical simulation of that process

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · Jan 4

I think RDA redundancy analysis (RDA) would work, by regressing ChemComp on XYZ pmassicotte.github.io/stats-denmar.... Scores for XYZ for the 1st eigenvector from the RDA should give you a gradient. @comecology.bsky.social and @gsimpson.bsky.social would know more

Redundancy analysis (RDA)

pmassicotte.github.io

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · Dec 27

My wife is from Windsor (across the border from Detroit). When we first started dating, she would think of air temperature in Fahrenheit when it was hot out, and Celsius when it was cold. We never quite figured out what the transition temp was

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · Dec 22

I second this; I find the most useful way to teach HW is by saying what question it was proposed to solve: do gene frequencies change in the absence of evolutionary forces?

Students often think that dominant traits will become more common on their own, which HW was meant to dispell

Reposted by Eric J. Pedersen

Carly Ziter @carlyziter.bsky.social · Dec 18

Really enjoying #BES2025. Things I appreciate:
- Morning plenaries (gets people in on time, doesn’t leave morning speakers w/ empty rooms)
- Good length coffee breaks (30 min!)
- Vegan lunch served on site
- Posters across all career stages & spread across rooms
- Strong presence of journals/editors

Reposted by Eric J. Pedersen

Nordic Society Oikos @nordicoikos.bsky.social · Dec 17

What's on your #BES2025 schedule today? We will be at the How to get published-workshop together with the @britishecologicalsociety.org and the @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social to talk about just that! And if you can't make it today, the same workshop is taking place tomorrow.

Reposted by Eric J. Pedersen

Richard Sever @richardsever.bsky.social · Nov 22

"It may be uncomfortable to conclude that a widely used study design has been producing spurious results. But the evidence is in, and telling uncomfortable truths is a part of doing science."

Problems with twin studies.

theinfinitesimal.substack.com/p/the-missin...

The missing heritability question is now (mostly) answered

Not with a bang but with a whimper

theinfinitesimal.substack.com

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · Nov 12

I'm happy to answer hgam questions here! If you emailed me with questions already, my apologies for missing it

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · Nov 11

The saddest thing here is that Musk doesn't recognize that he is clearly Saruman: a weak man corrupted by visions of technology and manipulated by the greater powers of evil, then discarded when he stops being useful

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · Nov 11

Is it too much to ask for them to just show Bond's regeneration process on screen one time?

a man in a suit and tie holds up his hand in front of a wall with bbc written on it

Alt: A gif of David Tennant as Dr. Who starting his transformation sequence into the next doctor, with glowing particle effects coming out of his hands

media.tenor.com

Reposted by Eric J. Pedersen

Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · Nov 11

Explanations that hew to realism in a universe like this can make things worse, because they require you to examine a sequence of events which is secretly not entirely sensible in the first place.

Eric Pedersen @ericjpedersen.bsky.social · Nov 7

I wasn't going to repost this until he mentioned his melancholy

William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · Nov 6

This is abhorrent and repugnant. It’s further evidence of the vile and pernicious nature of these awful platforms. It makes me furious, incendiary with rage. Causes me to fall into deep sadness, melancholy and depression.

Jay Van Bavel, PhD @jayvanbavel.bsky.social · Nov 5

For each additional moral–emotional word in a social media post, the number of shares increases 13%

Our new meta-analysis finds robust evidence of moral contagion (N=4,821,006)

The moral contagion effect is even stronger in larger, pre-registered studies (17%).
academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...

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