Dr. James Howard of Howard
@jameshoward.us
A Mathematician, a Different Kind of Mathematician, and a Statistician https://jameshoward.us
Pinned
I realized it’s been a while since I properly introduced myself:
I’m James, I create content about public policy, science, heraldry, and the weird edges of civic life, and I do it for people who care how the world really works.
Whether you’ve been here a while or just joined, I’m glad you’re here.
I’m James, I create content about public policy, science, heraldry, and the weird edges of civic life, and I do it for people who care how the world really works.
Whether you’ve been here a while or just joined, I’m glad you’re here.
Fifty years ago today, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior with all 29 aboard. Its loss still echoes across the Great Lakes, where memory runs as deep as the water. #GreatLakes #EdmundFitzgerald #maritimehistory jameshoward.us/2025/11/10/t...
The <i>Edmund Fitzgerald</i> and Fifty Years of Memory
On November 10, 1975, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald disappeared from radar during a violent Lake Superior storm. At 7:10 p.m., the ship’s captain, Ernest McSorley, radioed another vessel with what...
jameshoward.us
November 10, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Fifty years ago today, the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior with all 29 aboard. Its loss still echoes across the Great Lakes, where memory runs as deep as the water. #GreatLakes #EdmundFitzgerald #maritimehistory jameshoward.us/2025/11/10/t...
Today, I gave you all an unsolicited Dick pic.
November 4, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Today, I gave you all an unsolicited Dick pic.
No, this is not a love song. www.polygon.com/mcdonalds-mo...
McDonald's Monopoly game has become an exasperating mess
In search of free food and rare Monopoly game pieces, McDonalds customers are dumpster diving and visiting multiple stores
www.polygon.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:32 PM
No, this is not a love song. www.polygon.com/mcdonalds-mo...
Matthew Howard helped bridge the Chesapeake’s early frontier, moving from Virginia to Maryland with the Puritan migration and founding one of Anne Arundel’s enduring families. #genealogy #MarylandHistory #colonialAmerica jameshoward.us/2025/10/25/m...
Matthew Howard of Virginia and Maryland
The early Chesapeake was shaped by a wide cast of settlers, from landed gentry and indentured servants to Puritan merchants and opportunists. Among the names that recur in seventeenth-century…
jameshoward.us
October 29, 2025 at 1:05 AM
Matthew Howard helped bridge the Chesapeake’s early frontier, moving from Virginia to Maryland with the Puritan migration and founding one of Anne Arundel’s enduring families. #genealogy #MarylandHistory #colonialAmerica jameshoward.us/2025/10/25/m...
Quaker governance has no bishops, no creeds; there are just communities listening together for truth. Learn how their layered system of meetings has endured for centuries. #Quakers #History #Faith jameshoward.us/2025/10/20/u...
Understanding Quaker Polity
When most people think about how churches organize themselves, they tend to imagine one of three familiar patterns. There is congregational polity, where each congregation governs itself. There is…
jameshoward.us
October 20, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Quaker governance has no bishops, no creeds; there are just communities listening together for truth. Learn how their layered system of meetings has endured for centuries. #Quakers #History #Faith jameshoward.us/2025/10/20/u...
A reflection on heraldic entitlement in an American context, documenting descent not merely from a surname, but from those who bore arms under European law. Featuring John Hoar, Henry Adams, and others whose stories endure. #genealogy #heraldry #lineagesocieties jameshoward.us/2025/10/16/b...
By the Arms, Know the Man
I am pleased to say that I have recently been accepted into the Order of Americans of Armorial Ancestry (OAAA). For those unfamiliar, this is a lineage society devoted to...
jameshoward.us
October 16, 2025 at 2:48 PM
A reflection on heraldic entitlement in an American context, documenting descent not merely from a surname, but from those who bore arms under European law. Featuring John Hoar, Henry Adams, and others whose stories endure. #genealogy #heraldry #lineagesocieties jameshoward.us/2025/10/16/b...
Democrats cannot support any move that ensures the military gets paid during the shutdown as long as troops are operating on American soil or against Americans.
October 9, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Democrats cannot support any move that ensures the military gets paid during the shutdown as long as troops are operating on American soil or against Americans.
Zebra mussels were an ecological disaster, but they also made the Great Lakes clearer than ever before. A paradox of purity and collapse. #GreatLakes #ecology #invasivespecies jameshoward.us/2025/10/08/w...
When Zebra Mussels Made the Great Lakes
When people talk about the Great Lakes in the late twentieth century, they often do so with an air of despair. By the 1960s, the lakes were badly polluted. Industrial...
jameshoward.us
October 8, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Zebra mussels were an ecological disaster, but they also made the Great Lakes clearer than ever before. A paradox of purity and collapse. #GreatLakes #ecology #invasivespecies jameshoward.us/2025/10/08/w...
On September 12, 1683, the Winged Hussars thundered down the hillside and broke the siege of Vienna. Chase asked how much energy the charge carried, and the answer is both physics and legend. #MilitaryHistory #WingedHussars #September12 jameshoward.us/2025/09/12/t...
The Charge That Shattered a Siege
When Sabaton sings “when the winged hussars arrived,” they are not exaggerating the drama. The image of armored riders, wings rattling in the wind, thundering downhill to save Vienna, is...
jameshoward.us
September 12, 2025 at 1:13 PM
On September 12, 1683, the Winged Hussars thundered down the hillside and broke the siege of Vienna. Chase asked how much energy the charge carried, and the answer is both physics and legend. #MilitaryHistory #WingedHussars #September12 jameshoward.us/2025/09/12/t...
Thomas Arundell of Wardour won the title "Count of the Holy Roman Empire” for his valor at Gran in 1595. #history #nobility #Habsburg jameshoward.us/2025/09/07/t...
Thomas Arundell of Wardour, Hero of the Empire
Few English nobles of the early seventeenth century lived lives as perilous or as fascinating as Thomas Arundell (c. 1560–1639). Born into the ancient family of Arundell of Wardour, he...
jameshoward.us
September 7, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Thomas Arundell of Wardour won the title "Count of the Holy Roman Empire” for his valor at Gran in 1595. #history #nobility #Habsburg jameshoward.us/2025/09/07/t...
Inter-rater reliability matters when judgments differ. Here’s how hypothesis testing helps us measure agreement beyond chance. #statistics #researchmethods #interraterreliability jameshoward.us/2025/09/03/h...
Hypothesis Testing for Inter-Rater Reliability
Hypothesis testing for inter-rater agreement sounds like something you might find buried in the appendix of a methods textbook, but it shows up in more of our lives than we...
jameshoward.us
September 3, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Inter-rater reliability matters when judgments differ. Here’s how hypothesis testing helps us measure agreement beyond chance. #statistics #researchmethods #interraterreliability jameshoward.us/2025/09/03/h...
The same babies who made us listen to "Let it Go" on repeat are now teenagers making us listen to "Golden" on repeat. #frozen #kpopdemonhunters
August 28, 2025 at 12:55 PM
The same babies who made us listen to "Let it Go" on repeat are now teenagers making us listen to "Golden" on repeat. #frozen #kpopdemonhunters
Ohio gives private & charter kids guaranteed bus rides—while some public school students get nothing. Driver shortage or not, that’s the law. #Ohio #SchoolChoice #education
Ohio requires buses for private school kids. Public school students have to find their own ride
School districts are responsible for transporting private and charter school kids, leaving thousands of public school students behind
www.theguardian.com
August 12, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Ohio gives private & charter kids guaranteed bus rides—while some public school students get nothing. Driver shortage or not, that’s the law. #Ohio #SchoolChoice #education
For centuries, education was the mark of nobility, not birth. Learning conferred dignity, duty, and the capacity for greatness, and education's purpose was to make you a better person. #education #civics #nobility jameshoward.us/2025/08/07/t...
The Ancient Dignity of Education
In 1595, Emperor Rudolf II of the Holy Roman Empire granted a title of nobility to Thomas Arundell of Wardour. The document, composed in Latin, begins not with a list...
jameshoward.us
August 7, 2025 at 11:44 AM
For centuries, education was the mark of nobility, not birth. Learning conferred dignity, duty, and the capacity for greatness, and education's purpose was to make you a better person. #education #civics #nobility jameshoward.us/2025/08/07/t...
The Gini mean difference measures inequality without assuming symmetry or shape—just pure difference. A better lens for messy, real-world data. #statistics #inequality #Gini jameshoward.us/2025/08/04/t...
The Gini Mean Difference
Everyone learns the mean. Some make it to the variance. A few even get standard deviation tattooed on their soul. But almost no one meets the Gini mean difference. And...
jameshoward.us
August 5, 2025 at 2:30 PM
The Gini mean difference measures inequality without assuming symmetry or shape—just pure difference. A better lens for messy, real-world data. #statistics #inequality #Gini jameshoward.us/2025/08/04/t...
A 17th-century lead cloth seal found in Orkney reveals ties between local merchants and Baltic trade. Small artifact, big global context. #archaeology #Orkney #ScottishHistory journals.socantscot.org/index.php/ps...
‘This flag was never a French one’: Abbotsford, authenticity and the Battle of Waterloo | Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Kirsty Archer-Thompson (Author)
journals.socantscot.org
August 4, 2025 at 7:38 PM
A 17th-century lead cloth seal found in Orkney reveals ties between local merchants and Baltic trade. Small artifact, big global context. #archaeology #Orkney #ScottishHistory journals.socantscot.org/index.php/ps...
A good coat of arms is more than tradition, it can carry a pastoral message. German heraldists argue that church heraldry should inspire and communicate faith. #heraldry #CatholicChurch #design english.katholisch.de/artikel/5862...
Heraldist: Good coats of arms can convey pastoral messages
Antonio Pompili calls for the establishment of a heraldic office in the Vatican
english.katholisch.de
August 4, 2025 at 12:12 PM
A good coat of arms is more than tradition, it can carry a pastoral message. German heraldists argue that church heraldry should inspire and communicate faith. #heraldry #CatholicChurch #design english.katholisch.de/artikel/5862...
In 1813, British forces threatened Norfolk, Virginia—but a ragtag U.S. force held the line. This forgotten battle shaped coastal defense strategy in the War of 1812. #WarOf1812 #Norfolk #AmericanHistory www.archives.gov/publications...
Defending Norfolk
An Early Battle with the British in 1813 Saves a Thriving American Port Spring 2013, Vol. 45, No. 1 By Stuart L. Butler PDF verison “Virginia . . . hangs on the fate of Norfolk” Gen. Robert Barraud…
www.archives.gov
August 2, 2025 at 2:27 PM
In 1813, British forces threatened Norfolk, Virginia—but a ragtag U.S. force held the line. This forgotten battle shaped coastal defense strategy in the War of 1812. #WarOf1812 #Norfolk #AmericanHistory www.archives.gov/publications...
If I were this bad at my job, I'd want to fire numbers person, too. I guess. I don't know, I've never been this bad at something. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07...
Economy Updates: After a Weak Jobs Report, Trump Fires That Agency’s Commissioner
Hours after data showed cracks in the U.S. economy, President Trump said without evidence that Erika McEntarfer “rigged” the data “to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad.”
www.nytimes.com
August 1, 2025 at 11:04 PM
If I were this bad at my job, I'd want to fire numbers person, too. I guess. I don't know, I've never been this bad at something. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07...
In 1812 America was deeply divided: Federalists in New England opposed the war while Republican administrations pushed ahead. Battles raged, press was attacked, and the Treaty of Ghent restored pre-war status—but both sides claimed victory. #WarOf1812 www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/w...
Who won the war of 1812? There's still no definitive answer
Authors and historians Ron Dale, Donald Graves and Donald Hickey entertain audience at the NOTL Museum with a deep discussion of America's, Britain's, Canada's and the Six Nations' roles in the…
www.thoroldtoday.ca
August 1, 2025 at 4:21 PM
In 1812 America was deeply divided: Federalists in New England opposed the war while Republican administrations pushed ahead. Battles raged, press was attacked, and the Treaty of Ghent restored pre-war status—but both sides claimed victory. #WarOf1812 www.thoroldtoday.ca/local-news/w...
Scottish researchers discovered a Revolutionary War-era shipwreck off the coast of Wemyss—once a prisoner transport, now a time capsule of transatlantic conflict. #RevolutionaryWar #shipwreck #Scotland www.wqad.com/video/news/h...
Scottish researchers find centuries-old shipwreck associated with the Revolutionary War
The ship, later identified as the HMS Hind, was found in 2024 on the Scottish coastline. Archival research shows the vessel was used by the British Royal Navy.
www.wqad.com
August 1, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Scottish researchers discovered a Revolutionary War-era shipwreck off the coast of Wemyss—once a prisoner transport, now a time capsule of transatlantic conflict. #RevolutionaryWar #shipwreck #Scotland www.wqad.com/video/news/h...
I had no idea lightning could go for hundreds of miles. #climate #physics #weather www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
US lightning flash was longest on record at 515 miles, scientists say
The 2017 flash, which stretched from east Texas to near Kansas City, beat the previous record by almost 50 miles
www.theguardian.com
August 1, 2025 at 12:26 PM
I had no idea lightning could go for hundreds of miles. #climate #physics #weather www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Switzerland has over 4,000 municipal coats of arms—many older than the towns themselves. It is a heraldic goldmine where tradition meets bureaucracy in Alpine style. #heraldry #Switzerland #coatsofarms www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-od...
Switzerland, the promised land of coats of arms
Most Swiss families have a coat of arms. This may come as a surprise abroad, where heraldry is often the preserve of nobility.
www.swissinfo.ch
July 31, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Switzerland has over 4,000 municipal coats of arms—many older than the towns themselves. It is a heraldic goldmine where tradition meets bureaucracy in Alpine style. #heraldry #Switzerland #coatsofarms www.swissinfo.ch/eng/swiss-od...
Zoning boards may seem mundane, but their appeals decisions quietly shape the future of our neighborhoods. Here’s how local process influences regional growth. #urbanplanning #zoning #localgovernment jameshoward.us/2025/07/30/h...
How Local Zoning Appeals Influence Development
Development doesn’t happen in a vacuum. At every step, local planning commissions, zoning boards and courts regulate what can be built, where, and how quickly. These systems are designed to...
jameshoward.us
July 31, 2025 at 2:48 PM
Zoning boards may seem mundane, but their appeals decisions quietly shape the future of our neighborhoods. Here’s how local process influences regional growth. #urbanplanning #zoning #localgovernment jameshoward.us/2025/07/30/h...
In 1812, Baltimore erupted as Federalists opposing the war were attacked by pro-Republican mobs. A free press advocate was killed, and “Light Horse Harry” Lee was nearly beaten to death. #Federalists #WarOf1812 #Mobtown www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex7U...
Mob Town: The Baltimore Riots of 1812
Among America’s conflicts, the war of 1812 is, possibly, one of the least remembered. And even less understood today was the way that war divided the nation.
Check out our new shop for fun The…
www.youtube.com
July 30, 2025 at 8:26 PM
In 1812, Baltimore erupted as Federalists opposing the war were attacked by pro-Republican mobs. A free press advocate was killed, and “Light Horse Harry” Lee was nearly beaten to death. #Federalists #WarOf1812 #Mobtown www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex7U...