[I know there's lots in the news about record temperatures in Europe, but the timing of this post is unrelated. Global climate change is a far bigger issue than I can study. This is just me playing with some historical weather numbers.] In my previous post I started digging into the historical climate data for … Continue reading When is it Hottest?
Highs and Lows
The National Centers for Environmental Information (part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA)) has a dataset of historical climate observations from thousands of stations around the world. Over 25,000 stations are active and their data is updated regularly. Historical data, at times going back over 100 years, is available for active stations as well … Continue reading Highs and Lows
A Little More with ELO
In my previous post, I discussed the use of ELO to measure the relative strength of National Football League teams over history, and how we can identify big upsets that have occurred over the years. Today I'll wrap up with a few random observations about the data. I mentioned that biggest upsets have happened in … Continue reading A Little More with ELO
The Biggest Upsets in NFL History
Originally designed for rating chess players, ELO is a technique that is now widely used to rate sports teams, board game competitors, and eSports players. A team's ELO rating is a single number that defines its strength relative to other teams. When two teams play, the winner gains ELO points from the loser. But the … Continue reading The Biggest Upsets in NFL History
The Rise and Fall of Shirley and Linda
Here's another post about baby names (I know, I just can't resist). This time I'll look at big year-to-year increases (and decreases) in popularity. The metric I'll use is raw increase in the number of babies with a given name. For example, there were 5615 Sarahs born in 1970, and 5845 the next year, that's … Continue reading The Rise and Fall of Shirley and Linda
COVID Deaths and Age
California and Florida had different approaches regarding public heath policies and COVID. California had strong rules enforcing shutdowns, mask and vaccine requirements, school closures, on so on. Florida had a more laissez-faire attitude (in fact, it prohibited localities from enacting strict measures). This resulted in fewer business closings and lower unemployment, but at what cost? … Continue reading COVID Deaths and Age
Truly Random
Quick, think of a random six-digit number. You know, like the one-time security codes you get on your mobile phone. Write it down, I'll wait... Okay, once you've written the number down, click here to read the rest. Look at the number you just wrote. Are any of the digits repeated? Or is it six … Continue reading Truly Random
The Missing Sanity Check
I was reading an article in the New York Times about rooftop solar installations in California, when I came across this paragraph (bold mine). Some energy experts say utilities would not be able to produce or buy enough renewable energy to replace what would be lost from the decline in rooftop solar panels — which … Continue reading The Missing Sanity Check
A Typical Neighborhood
[As usual for these map-based posts, the bigger your screen, the better.] As promised in my previous post, today I'll look at the most typical Single Family Detached Home neighborhoods in the US. First, we have to define 'typical'. As you may recall, there are about 6600 census tracts that met the definition of a … Continue reading A Typical Neighborhood
A Range of Neighborhoods
[As usual for these map-based posts, the bigger your screen, the better.] Today, let us consider the single-family detached home (SFDH). Specifically, neighborhoods that are made up of them. I'm going to use the same two sets of data that I've used in previous posts: the US Census' American Community Survey (ACS), and the Microsoft … Continue reading A Range of Neighborhoods