prior probability

Check out this survey and interactive report by Sahil Chinoy, a graphics editor for The New York Times. According to Mr Chinoy, how you answer a handful of questions is very likely to determine your political affiliation. Putting aside the unreliability of “self-reports” and social-science surveys generally (people lie!), can you guess what these “handful of questions” are? The visualization of Mr Chinoy’s survey results below should provide some clues:

Image credit: N.Y. Times

Lots of people like to complain about partisan gerrymandering. One problem with all these complaints, however, is this–what would a non-gerrymandered voting district look like? Given this problem, here’s our tentative solution: instead of relying on State legislatures to draw up the voting districts in their respective States, why not create such districts based on the area code zones already in use in each State? Consider the State of Texas, by way of example. Currently, there are 27 Congressional districts and 21 area codes in Texas. So, why can’t we just overlay 21 of these districts on the pre-existing area code zones, with the remaining six members of Texas’s House delegation chosen at-large (State-wide)?

Toni Morrison, our national treasure; may she rest in peace. Here is her obituary, and here is a transcript of her 1993 Nobel lecture, or better yet, listen to the audio of her plaintive and poignant narrative via the YouTube clip posted above.

With the first batch of college football games just around the corner, we want to bring star quarterback McKenzie Milton to your attention. Milton used to start for the University of Central Florida (UCF) before he was seriously injured at the end of the 2018 season, but according to this recent Associated Press report dated 5 August 2019, Milton might be joining the coaching staff at UCF. We’re familiar with the term “student-athlete”; this is the first time, however, we’ve heard of a “student coach”! Here is an extended excerpt from the AP report (edited by us for clarity): Continue reading →

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Yes, according to Zack Kanter, for the following reasons:

Walmart is one of the wonders of the modern world, built from scratch in a hyper-competitive environment, scaled from nothing to the largest company in the US by revenue and by headcount, all resulting from a singular vision of saving everyday people money with everyday low prices. It is the most successful social welfare system ever implemented, saving billions and billions of dollars for everyday Americans without costing taxpayers a dime.

Why are the exteriors of most cars just one color? Why don’t we see more cars with stripes or plaid paint jobs, or even polka dots?

My daughters Adys Ann and Aritzia and I surveyed a remarkable and motley collection of Barbie dolls, including the two beautiful dolls pictured above, at the Expo Barbie at Les Cours Mont Royal in Montreal. See more below the fold: Continue reading →

Did you know that book reviews on YouTube are a thing? By way of example, check out the video review (posted below) of one of Mateusz Urbanowicz‘s beautiful picture books. (This particular tome, which is titled Tokyo Storefronts, is available here and on Amazon.) In addition to Mr Urbanowicz’s lovely watercolors of storefronts, what most called my attention to Teoh Yi Chie’s page-by-page review is that it is in the form of a YouTube video! (Hat tip: @kottke.)