prior probability

Which letters (or keys on your keyboard) do you use the most? Via Robert Allison: “For a simple first-test, I copy-n-pasted the text from my most recent blog post (the one about monitoring the number of M&Ms in our break room) into a text file, and wrote some code to import the text into SAS and count how many times each character (or number) was used. I then plotted that data on a simulated keyboard, and shaded each key based on the number of times that letter appeared in the text. Now you can easily see which letters I used most frequently.”

Hat tip: u/graphguy (via reddit)

The United States Air Force Space Command was founded on this day in 1982.

1. Which do you prefer: 140 or 280?

2. When do you know when to stop scrolling?

FYI, we have assembled below for your edification and delight our previous posts on various aspects of Ernest Hemingway’s timeless novella “The Old Man and the Sea” (OMAS), from most recent to oldest:

1. The old man and the Bayesian sea (8/8/18)
2. The Cuban origins of “The Old Man and the Sea” (7/19/16)
3. The law and economics of “The Old Man and the Sea”
   (2/25/15)
4. The young man and the sea (2/24/15)
5. William Faulkner Reviews “The Old Man and The Sea” (7/7/14)

Here’s one of our favorite John McCain stories, via this beautiful eulogy in The Atlantic by Todd S. Purdam: “When his North Vietnamese captors demanded the names of his flight squadron, McCain recited the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line, knowing that the false information would suffice (for the moment) to end their abuse. ‘There’s no bar fight he will walk away from,’ his onetime political strategist John Weaver once told me.”

And when I lived in them:

1. Amsterdam (summer of 2011)
2. Cuernavaca (summer of 1989)
3. Los Angeles (where I grew up)
4. Ocho Rios (summer of 2012)
5. La Habana (spring of 2003)

Honorable mentions: Ponce, P.R. (1998-2009) and Viejo San Juan, P.R. (1993-1995)

We are reposting this tweet in memory of our favorite Latin American man of letters, the late Jorge Luis Borges, and in honor of our 50th birthday today. (Actually, I’m not 50. I’m really 18 with 32 years of experience!)

Also: Happy Paris Liberation Day!