The University of California publishes a trove of data regarding applications by high school seniors. For each high school in the state (public and private), it lists the number of applications to each UC campus (and to the UC system as a whole). The data also include the admission rate (how many applications were accepted … Continue reading Enrollment Rate at UC
A First Look at Education
Let's talk about education. The US Census' American Community Survey (ACS) provides lots of data about education attainment. The most detailed survey categorizes seven levels of education: Less than 9th grade 9th to 12th grade, no diploma High school graduate (includes equivalency) Some college, no degree Associate's degree Bachelor's degree Graduate or professional degree I've … Continue reading A First Look at Education
Shoo-In of the Week
An interesting story came out of this past weekend of NFL games. In the second quarter of the Chargers-Jaguars game, with the Chargers winning 27-0, a gambler placed a live bet on the Chargers to win. Since the Chargers were pretty much a sure thing at that point, the moneyline he got (in real time, … Continue reading Shoo-In of the Week
World Cup Odds
Soccer's World Cup tournament starts in less than two weeks. Thirty-two national teams will vie for the title; some having a realistic chance of winning, while others are just happy to be there. As with any sporting event, there is gambling involved. Gambling involves odds, and odds involve numbers, so here we are. The favorite … Continue reading World Cup Odds
Lots of Choices
Let me lead off with a correction of my previous post. It turns out that the restaurant dataset has some flaws with respect to the "fast food" cuisine. Many fast food restaurants were not labeled as such; even McDonald's or Burger King were often labeled with the "Restaurant" or "American" cuisine, but not "Fast Food". … Continue reading Lots of Choices
What’s for Dinner?
This week the Washington Post published an article about restaurants across the US, which uses a dataset (and interactive map) gleaned from marketing data. The dataset contains the location and type of over 700,000 restaurants. There are lots of ways to slice this data, but I'll start with cuisine popularity by state. Here is the … Continue reading What’s for Dinner?
I’m Still Searching for the Ants’ Invasion
A report released today by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimates that there are 200 quadrillion ants on earth. That's 20,000,000,000,000,000. A number that big, it's kind of hard to get your head around. Here's some help. There are around 7.8 billion humans on earth. That works out to more than 2.5 … Continue reading I’m Still Searching for the Ants’ Invasion
102 Years of Temperatures
In a given location, the daily high temperature can fluctuate significantly. On the whole it's colder in winter and warmer in summer (of course), but in a single year, there's lots of variation day-to-day. For example, here are Chicago's temperatures in 2021, from January through December: Warmer in summer, colder in winter, but there are … Continue reading 102 Years of Temperatures
How Tall is Your Thermometer?
My friend Paul, who lives in Kalispell, Montana, introduced me to the concept of a "tall thermometer". This represents the difference between the high and low temperature on a given day. So if the overnight low is 50, and the high that day is 70, your thermometer is 20 degrees 'tall'. What happens when you … Continue reading How Tall is Your Thermometer?
When is it Coldest?
Last post I looked at when the hottest day of the year occurs, across several thousand US weather stations. This time I'll look at when the coldest day happens (the lowest average low). The earliest happens on December 1st, near Savannah, Georgia. That really is an outlier, but how nice: it's not even winter yet … Continue reading When is it Coldest?