Creative Commons
Blogs I Follow
Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol
We saw a Black Swan today!
Nate Silver — yes, that Nate Silver, who had predicted Brasil to win the World Cup (see diagram in the post above, courtesy of FiveThirtyEight) — compares his complex (and, dare we say, opaque) statistical methods, like the Soccer Power … Continue reading
Memo to Murrieta
Nous somme tous américains …
Just deserts for Brasil?
Are the Brasilians themselves mostly responsible for Neymar’s horrible on-the-field injury during their quarter-final match with Team Colombia on 4 July? Before you say “no,” check out this excellent analysis by Sam Borden recounting the sordid details of Brasil’s dirty tactics as well as the one-sided officiating … Continue reading
William Faulkner Reviews Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea
Originally posted on Biblioklept:
His best. Time may show it to be the best single piece of any of us, I mean his and my contemporaries. This time, he discovered God, a Creator. Until now, his men and women had…
Posted in Uncategorized
1 Comment
The ethics of flopping
A reader of The New York Times asked Chuck Klosterman (a/k/a “The Ethicist”) the following thought-provoking questions about the ethics of flopping in football: “If (nearly) every player does it, is it wrong to flop? … If flopping is part of the game, … Continue reading
#Say no to racism!
Why are there so many angry faces in this picture? The next time these citizens complain about “illegal aliens” taking over our country, they should ask themselves two simple questions: (1) did your ancestors come to our country legally?; and (2) was our nation’s war of conquest … Continue reading
Posted in Current Affairs, Immigration, Racism
Tagged Current Affairs, Immigration, Racism
2 Comments
What if the colonies had never declared their independence?
Amid today’s Independence Day festivities, let’s reflect … Why don’t we see closer political cooperation among all English-speaking peoples, to borrow Winston Churchill’s beautiful phrase? Suppose, for example, that the 13 North American colonies had never declared their independence from Britain or that the British … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
What the world’s urban poor really want …
… relief from traffic congestion! Here is an excerpt from Michael Hobbes’s excellent essay “What I learned from the crippling gridlock in Dhaka, Bangladesh”: I am in a tiny steel cage attached to a motorcycle, stuttering through traffic in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Leave a comment
Does sex improve athletic performance?
Credit for the diagram goes to David Yanofsky. Read more here: “All of the teams that banned sex at the World Cup have been eliminated … so have a lot of the teams that didn’t ban it. So let’s not draw any inferences.” … Continue reading
This isn’t a math test …
Two cheers for Team USA … next time in Russia!
prior probability 