Newsweek’s Daniel Gross explains the Consumer Price Index (here’s the official BLS site) in a very simple video. I could do without the goofy sound effects, but it’s a good, 2 minute explanation of how the government tracks inflation.
Per David Simon’s Berkeley talk, though, the video doesn’t go into why this matters. Perhaps they’ll cover that in the next installment of the Economics 101 series.
|
Blogroll
Friends
CT Politics Politics
Technology
West Hartford Blogs Hartford Blogs |
Active Posts
|
|
Track & Validate
|
This is pretty damn cool, and that’s a dedicated fan. (via Boing Boing)
Got it! Ads on FatMixx are showing the NBA’s playoff video “ad” again. I have some screenshots of what I was talking about earlier. It’s a little embedded interactive app. If you click on the controls, you can navigate to one of 4 features: Recap video, Preview video, Stat Leaders, and the Playoff schedule. If you click just in the window, you get taken to the NBA playoff package on NBA.com. Very slick, and great production values.
Here are the screenshots:
This is neat, but I wonder what the practical upshot is. Google Adsense as a Widget delivery vehicle? Is this content or advertising? Does it employ the same targeting algorithms? What keywords do you buy to deliver this ad? How much is the NBA paying? This is an interesting development.
Quick note: I was checking out NYC17’s comment on my “Why I Left ESPN.com” post below and saw something I hadn’t seen before: The square Google Ad placement before the comments was a video ad that let me watch highlights from last night’s Spurs game. I didn’t embed it, and it wasn’t a traditional ad (I didn’t get redirected to NBA.com or another site). I just got to navigate a menu and play back the highlight right there.
That’s a pretty cool setup. Ad as content…
Does anyone know anything more about this? The only thing I can find online (after a quick Google) are passing references in various Adsense Video coverage (which is different).
I wish I had taken a screenshot. I’ll grab one if I see it again.
Some interesting notes on the NBA’s counter-study about the ref race bias issue.
An excerpt from the story:
“We conducted our own study with experts in mathematics and statistical analysis, and those experts, looking at far superior data that included 148,000 calls, concluded unequivocally that there was no racial bias in officiating,” Litvin said. “You cannot use box scores to do a definitive analysis of whether race affects an individual action. We have the information on specific referees and the specific calls they made, and they don’t.”
The particular issue is that the study didn’t have access to which ref made which calls. In other words they used the racial composition of the ref crew as a guide to the number of calls. It’s an interesting point, but it’s also not surprising that the NBA would take issue with this. It is, of course, interesting that the NBA studies these things without outside prodding. Not sure what to make of that.
Interesting study… haven’t thought about it, just wanted to pass it on.
It’s actually frightening, sad, and funny… I was pins and needles waiting for one of them to say something completely offensive.
I have OTL on right now and they’re doing a report on Stephon Marbury and his new low cost shoe and apparel line, “Starbury.” The cornerstone of the brand is his new sneaker, designed to match the needs of an NBA player but priced at $14.98. Marbury plans on wearing the shoes during NBA games this season, and hopes that the shoes make it easier for families to afford brand-name sneakers.
You can listen to a report at NPR on the sneakers.
Marbury may have some detractors as a basketball player (that Knicks contract makes it easier to give up some sneaker money?), but this is a long overdue idea. It’s great to see a basketball player stepping up and challenging the notion that basketball sneakers have to cost $150+ to be good.
Larry Brown no longer has to suffer as the coach of the NY Knicks. Isiah Thomas fired him and took over as head coach. That’s right: the worst executive in the NBA will now have the opportunity to ruin his team both strategically AND on the court.
With Isiah and Doc Rivers coaching in the division, the Sixers are now assured of a 3rd or better finish next year. They might be 20 games under .500, but that should be enough for 3rd place!
It’s unfortunate, really, that they won because aside from Wade, I can’t really root for any of the other guys on the Heat. Shaq and Gary Payton head up the spoiled brat bunch there, and Pat Riley isn’t exactly fan friendly either.
But, Dwyane Wade. Congratulations, man. It’s actually hard to root against you, even when you were shooting the free throws that put the game away. And congrats to the fans of the Miami Heat, winning their first championship. It’s got to feel good. Wish I could know what it feels like, since my first love are the Philadelphia teams that haven’t won anything since I’ve been paying attention to sports.
I’m a little disappointed that the first person ABC went to was Shaquille O’Neal for the post game when this championship was all about Wade. He made this happen, and he ought to be the man of the hour.
I’m also disappointed in the behavior of Dirk Nowitzki. He absolutely did not behave like a champion at the end there. After getting an admittedly cheap foul called against him, he took the rebound from Wade’s miss and slammed it to the court. Clearly not thinking about how they were going to get the winning points, he was frustrated and not focusing on the game. The Dallas Mavericks self-destructed down the stretch there, and it’s unfortunate that it came down to horrendous officiating in game 5 and stupid mistakes in game 6.
Not to take anything away from Wade and the Heat, who showed up when it mattered. I’m sure we’ll be seeing Wade’s name on a championship roster again.
(yes, I was rooting for Dallas, is it that obvious?)
Are you kidding? Talking about Kobe’s 1pt second half in Game 7, Ric Bucher just said something amazing, at least to me.
Their analysis of Kobe’s 1 pt second half effort was that he was making a point to his teammates and to the public about the criticism he got following game 6 about how many shots he took. So, he passed the ball more and was reluctant to take shots. Then Bucher said that he’d like to see a bit more maturity out of Kobe.
Are you kidding me? The time to make a statement to your team or to the press is before and after the game. During the game, your job is to give everything you can to win the game. You don’t do that during a game, especially during an all-or-nothing game 7.
This isn’t to criticize Kobe, though if this is true, it’s pretty awful. I’m shocked at how casually these commentators are talking about something that goes completely against the ethics of being a professional athlete. This is not something that you go, “oh, I wish he was a bit more mature about this.” It’s something you criticize and call out as unacceptable. So, if that’s their impression of the situation, I hope they would treat it with some seriousness.
(This aired on ESPN’s NBA show, but I’m speaking as a fan and not an employee.)
Very cool analysis performed by the Mavs, Elias, and IU researchers.
The NBA is creating a video archive that fans could use to create their own highlight reels of NBA action. Kareem, a huge basketball fan, has more thoughts. You can also see the Memeorandum buzz.
Sure seems like the referees want to be a part of this game… ticky-tack fouls left and right…
Update: Looking like a Spurs win is coming… Come on DETROIT!
Update: it’s over. Congrats, Spurs…
Update: It’s nice that the commentators aren’t trying to build up the last 22.1 seconds… going to watch the Daily Show now… this was a great series…
Come on Josh, there’s still time to get on the bandwagon: Robert Horry for the Hall of Fame. Is he worthy? I don’t know, but I know that basketball fans should be having that conversation. If any role player deserves to be in the Hall, it’s Robert Horry.
Should we ask the Spurs if home court is significant in the NBA? Just asking…
From the Sports Guy:
A legitimate question: Since Robert Horry has been the third-best player in the series, and he’s probably headed for Ring No. 6 … do we need to start thinking about him as a potential Hall of Famer? Clearly, he’s been one of the more important team players of the last 35 years, right up there with Dennis Johnson, Michael Cooper, Dennis Rodman, Bobby Jones and everyone else. So why wouldn’t we start recognizing these guys in the Hall of Fame? Couldn’t we create a spot for indispensable team players who did all the Little Things over a prolonged period of time? Like their own little wing?
I couldn’t agree more. While Horry has never been in the same class as Jordan, Bird, etc. he’s been on my TV screen so often nailing clutch shots and pretty much killing the hopes of whatever team opposes him, I’d think that he’s gotta be considered for the Hall of Fame. I’m not sure if he’s a Hall of Fame player, though… you could argue (as with a lot of players) that he wouldn’t be anything except for the teams he was a part of… he doesn’t make a team a playoff contender, he makes a playoff contender a championship contender.
I’m watching SportsCenter right now and they’re showing clips of the postgame locker room interviews from the Suns. The players all talked about what happened in their loss tonight and to a man, they talked about getting better shots and making plays. This, even though they had a better shooting percentage, better three point percentage and better free throw percentage.
How about playing some defense?
Following in the footsteps of Brandeis’ own Scott Shandler, Curtis Heroman has entered the NBA draft. Curtis, a Sujal-sized intramural player, has shocked the country by forgoing his last year of college eligibility to make his friends and family laugh.
