Misc

Very informative slide deck discussing SARS-CoV-2 from Dr. Michael Lin.

I recently had to buy a car, and one of the trickiest things I found was figuring out how to decide between buying new, buying used (how used?) and leasing. Growing up, my parents never bought a new car. To my knoweldge, the only new car they ever bought was my dad right after he graduated college. My wife’s parents, OTOH, buy new almost exclusively. They typically own for a few years (3-5), trade it back in to the dealer and get a new vehicle.

I think its great that sports statistics are a big thing in popular media. It makes fans and media better informed about their team and players, and it provides an entry point for people to get interestd in statistics. That said, there seems to be a perpetual innumeracy in the way folks talk about a lot of these metrics. One thing I see come up repeatedly is the distinction between metrics that look at a player’s past performance and say, “How important was that player to the team’s success?

Not the bit about plays, the bit about sonnets. Writing song parodies is like writing sonnets Sonnets are an interesting because of how restrictive they are. According to American poet Aaron Kramer First, you are handcuffed by having to write fourteen lines. Then, you are shackled by having to write with a set meter. They put you into a sack called rhyme. But think what a magic act it is if you can set your meaning free!