Blog Posts Below (or choose category)
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Priceless from the Worthless
Back in the 1890s, some loggers were felling virgin forests north of Grayling, Michigan. As the 1890s were well past the peak of the Michigan logging boom, this couldn’t have been the choice patch of forest for lumber in the first place. Then disaster struck in the form a stock market crash and the company…
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January-March Northern Michigan Search Interest Forecast
The January forecast for Northern Michigan Google search interest predicts similar search interest to the December forecast which is similar to previous years. The Upper Peninsula forecast is lower than the December forecast and shows slightly lower search interest from previous years. For January, I have a special edition segment on Lower Peninsula places with…
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December-February Northern Michigan Search Interest Forecast
My Google search interest forecast for Northern Michigan places during the next three months continues to show higher levels for the Upper Peninsula and slightly lower forecasts for the Lower Peninsula. During this period, we would expect some of the lowest search interest of the year with this impact reduced in the Upper Peninsula due…
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The Skills Shortage in Data Related Occupations
You won’t be around any sort of professional circle, social media, or talent network long without hearing about the extreme talent shortfalls for data analytics, data science, data engineering, and data analysis along with related skill sets in math, statistics, computer science, and quantitative business and social science. This leads one to wonder to what…
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A Bird in Search of Heaven
Ruffed grouse are a large, non-migratory bird of the northern forests. They are northerners especially these days as they’re in short supply in areas like the Appalachian Mountains where they were once plentiful. In Indiana, they have been on the state endangered list since 2020. Nonetheless, they are plentiful in the northern portions of Michigan,…
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Regularized Regression: Good for Goldilocks or the Worst of Both Worlds?
Is regularized regression a happy medium or does it simply combine the disadvantages of traditional regression and machine learning approaches? The answer is that there is a bit of truth to both outlooks. (Note: Moving forward I refer to regression as more traditional linear/semi-linear prediction models for either continuous or classification tasks. This is as…
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Back to the Basics of Camping
Many people say that humans are social animals. But there are plenty of social animals. Our obsession with things is what makes us human. Our ability to use and make everything from basic tools to the most complex modern technology is what makes us different from the other animals. It’s not surprising that this has…
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Northern Michigan Search Interest Forecast Nov-Jan 2024
This is my forecast of Google search interest for places in Northern Michigan during the next three months. I forecast the Upper Peninsula to have higher than normal search interest and the Lower Peninsula to have slightly lower than normal search interest. This month, I have created several more figures that will help motivate future…
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How I developed my idea for the Northern Michigan search interest project.
How we come up with a data science, analytics, or data based research project is the subject of both common lore and debate, or at least debate as defined by dissenting behavior. Common lore dictates that we start with the business question that we are most concerned with irregardless of available data and methodologies and…
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Northern Pines
Humans find beauty in order, even in our natural environment. Consider the cookie cutter yards of suburban America. These are neatly mowed and landscaped with clean lines. Brush piles that are hiding places for small animals are removed. Even the forbs (weeds), which are choice wildlife food sources, are tediously killed leaving the non-nutritious grass.…