Nerdpocalypse

This comment thread right here, breaks the nerdmeter beyond repair.

Does swinging at a pitch constitute a melee attack or does it require a saving throw?

Yes, you read that right. A D&D argument among SABRmetricians. Get your fallout shelters ready.

Consumption junction

Well done chart estimating how long the Earth's natural resource will last at the current rate of consumption.


Click to embiggen.

Yikes.

(via Gizmodo)

Numbers and pictures, oh my

I guess it's a good time to be a graphic artist with an understanding of finance.

The whole site will prove to be quite the time-suck when I get a chance.

(h/t Sully)

Numbers, stat!

Placed my order for my three annual baseball books (for about a decade now), plus second editions of a couple more recent additions to the collection.

Within a few days, these two will be on my coffee table and/or at my bedside:



And as they're released in February, these will get added to the pile.



Oh. Baby.

I cannot tell you how many times I've read 2007's first edition of The Fielding Bible, or 2008's Gold Mine. And the Hardball Times Annual? Chock full of good shit every year.

Of course, I've got Anathem to work on too. It will be a good Winter/Spring for reading. Then again, it always is.

Heh-heh/Groan

"An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third, a quarter of a beer. The bartender says 'You’re all idiots', and pours two beers."

Excellent website.

See image in post below, also.

Boom boom, out go the waves

"This full-scale Schlieren image shows the discharge of a .44 Magnum revolver.

The basic optical Schlieren system uses light from a single collimated source shining on a target object. Variations in refractive index caused by density gradients in the fluid distort the collimated light beam. This distortion creates a spatial variation in the intensity of the light, which can be visualized directly with a system designed to capture shadows."

Nerdgasm in 3... 2... 1...

This is a great site.

Here is Cotton Production in 1860 combined with county-by-county election results for this year.



Sweat tea consumption, north vs. south:



Check it out, but fair warning, it's easy to get lost in the archives.

Nerdgasm

An amazing collection of puzzles. The free ones are intense enough, but I may just have to pony up for this place.

I'm currently ADD-hyperfocusing on Split Words, in the Language section.

Did you know there was an insect called the cockchafer?

Well, now you do.

The coolest thing in the history of things

The pictures and videos at this post are fantastic! Follow the link to the BBC site too.

Beautiful.

We are goddamned nerds

So, the IT guy and I were debating motherboard brands the other day.

I said: "I'm an ASUS man myself."

And we laughed.

It's time like these I wish I could win the lottery

Seriously, who needs work when the complete papers of Charles Darwin are online? Who has time to work?

Nerdtastic

Nerdgasm - Veyron v. Typhoon

I love answers to questions I didn't have.



Yeah, I need to figure out how I'm going to get myself a Veyron.

(h/t some republican radiologist I know)

Science!

For more information...

I am a nerd

This was a VERY tough quiz.

Found at Toast's place, and he found it at Kona's place.

I missed #1, #5, and #22.

I don't do myspace, I don't upload to YouTube, and I didn't know what OSI was until I looked it up after the quiz.

Not bad.

O. M. F. S. M.

Nerd + philosophy = genius.

Nerd!

Apparently this is a very old joke, but it's new to me, and man does it tickle my nerdy bone.

Guy is visiting New England for the first time. Lands at Logan, gets in a cab, and starts asking the driver for recommendations for things to do. Some small talk ensues.

Finally, the tourist asks "Where can I get scrod around here?"

Answer: "I've been asked that many times, but never before in the pluperfect subjunctive."

Blogrolling

I've updated the sports section of my blogroll.

I've been reading the latest additions for quite a while, but forgot to add them.

Fire Joe Morgan - the name alone would be enough, as Joe Morgan is the biggest idiot in the universe of color-guy idiots. But the snark and statistically logical goodness that backs up the truth behind the snark is what I love. This post is the perfect introduction, if you've never read them before. And here's another one.

Flotsam Media - I've already posted about the greatest blog post in the history of blogs. But they bring the funny and the true almost every day.

Shysterball - Just good damned commentary and news.

Vegas Watch - Comentary, odds, commentary on odds, links.

That is all.

The greatest blog post in the history of blogkind

Would be this one.

You see, it's beautifully, amazingly, ridiculously funny, in a completely esoteric way. You get it, or you have no fucking idea what's going on.

"But there a million funny posts out there, full of esoterica," you say? Well, you are correct. I must grant you that.

They didn't take this much math. And they weren't about baseball. So they lose.

This one's for you, Mike.

Oh happy day!

Today, my copy of the 2008 edition of this wonderfully nerdtastic book arrived in the mail. One of the three baseball books I buy every year, and probably the best of the three.

Cryptonomicon will have to take a break for a couple days while I do my cover-to-cover browse of all this statistical goodness.

Then I'll slowly attack the hard-core analyses chapter by chapter, especially the new WPA and defense stuff.

Mmmm, numbers.

I should have been a fucking actuary.