Data Analysis of Exuberant and Uncouth College Fight Songs

Fivethirtyeight.com did some data analysis of college fight songs.

UCLA's fight song is apparently called "Sons of Westwood" (ugh).

How can they write such an article without mentioning Tom Lehrer?

Caltech Baseball Team Wins First Conference Game in 29 Years!

Yes, seriously.

(And I am looking forward to the stories on ESPN and other venues.)

I got the news from Greg Fricke's post:

BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN! BEAVERS WIN!

After 586 (est, including 83 I played in) straight losses in SCIAC, dating back to 1988:
Caltech Beavers DEFEAT Pomona-Pitzer 4-3 on WALKOFF single.

No one on this team had yet been born the last time Caltech registered a SCIAC win in baseball.


1988... such a magical year for baseball...

Update: And here are some details: Caltech baseball has just won its first SCIAC game since 1988! Trailing 3-2 headed to the 9th inning, the Beavers got a two-out single from David Watson, who was replaced on the base paths by Schaffer Reed. Senior Kai Kirk then smacked a double to left center to tie the game, bringing freshman Alex Corado came up to bat. The rookie got ahead 3-0 before facing a full count and slashed a single to left field to plate the historic walk-off run.

Update: Also take a look at the video and the ensuing victory celebration.

Update (4/01/17): This is not an April Fool's Day joke. (I know it sounds like one.)

Mario and the Rio Olympics

Well, Mario came out of a giant pipe and made a stunning appearance at the closing ceremony of this year's Olympics. Naturally, this was to help "announce" the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Tongue-in-Cheek Play-by-Play

In terms of style, the tongue-in-cheek play-by-play in the new XKCD reminds me very much of some of Zifnab's play-by-play over the years. (I don't think this xkcd is particularly funny, but the unintentional homage --- not that that is technically possible, as I think it's supposed to be intentional by definition --- and the resulting nostalgia are the reason I am posting a link to it.)

The Big, the Rich, and the Good (Data)

Nate Silver has written a fascinating article about the stellar success and rapid progress of baseball analytics versus the less-than-rapid progress of data analytics in other areas (e.g., economic and earthquake forecasts).

Putting the baseball angle aside (and of course I like that angle very much), one thing I really like is the very concise comments about "big data" versus what Silver calls "rich data" and why sports analytics have genuinely improved answers to many important-for-it questions, whereas other situations still struggle immensely to use their data for genuinely large increases in understanding.

Note that I have sometimes used the term "good data" before as a contrast to "big data", though importantly good data can be either big or small, and I think that Silver is thinking of Rich Data strictly as a subset of Big Data. See this blog entry of mine as well as additional blog entries referenced therein.

One could also, I suppose, ask whether these other systems are "more complex" than sports competitions, but I'm not sure (a) whether that's actually true and (b) how to quantify it in a way that goes beyond "Ooh, it's complex." Of course, we have measures of information content, but I expect there would be a lot of assumptions involved in crunching such numbers in these cases. Anyway, it's a thought I had, so I figured that I should at least bring it up.

"GER... ARG"

As Dave Relyea has pointed out: For all Buffy fans: The world cup final has a scoreboard, and it reads: "GER... ARG".

I approve!

Monday Cricketblogging

Here are some pictures of me playing cricket last Friday. Also notice that I am consuming ice cream in the team photo (and that the number 137 was requested with complete forethought and malice).

Ground Quidditch

The first person interviewed in this BBC story about real-life quidditch is our very own Somerville undergrad mathematician Brigitte Stenhouse.

Weighed Random-Number Generators, Sports Commentary, and Dungeons & Dragons

Yup, there is a lot of truth to this xkcd.

I probably blogged about this xkcd panel before, but anyway here it is again. On a slightly related note, take a look at Slate's coverage of Aaron Clauset's (and collaborators) recent work on sports.

(Tip of the cap to MoMath [The Museum of Mathematics].)

Olympic Gymnast Uses Music From Zelda

OK, this is awesome! Olympic gymnast Elsa Garcia Rodriguez Blancas of Mexico used a medley of Zelda during her Olympic performance. Now that rocks! [And, as the article discusses, this isn't the first time she's done that. That's my kind of woman. :) ] This is just awesome beyond belief!

(Tip of the cap to Louis Wang.)

Caltech NCAA Demotivational Poster

Here is my first attempt at a demotivational poster in "recognition" of Caltech's NCAA rules violation.

(Thanks to Greg Fricke, Janet Sheung, and Michael Woods for inspiration.)

Update: Here is a slightly revised version that I like better.

Update (7/15/12): Predrag Cvitanovic has alerted me to a New York Times article on Caltech's sanctions. That article notes that no ineligible players were used in the streak-breaking basketball game. Hence, this demotivational poster is misleading. I might have to come up with a different take on this whole thing. :)

Update (7/17/12): Nimish Telang has alerted me to this opinion piece in the New York Times (which, by the way, gets it exactly right).

Caltech Sanctioned for Athletic Violation!

Yes, really. Caltech has been sanctioned by the NCAA for athletic violations.

This is like the start of a comic routine.

(Tip of the cap to Michael Woods and Yan Zhang.)

Update: This article from The Washington Post starts off the article rather snarkily, and rightfully so. We are so going to be the butt of jokes for this. (Thanks to Rachel Gray for posting this article.)

Update (7/15/12): Deb Eason has posted a link to an LA Times opinion piece by Bill Plaschke. In fact, this whole slew of stories has actually been really good for Caltech's publicity. Caltech turned itself in, which was absolutely the right thing to do. In so doing, Caltech is showing other schools how things should be done.

Invention of the High Five

I just read a very interesting article that discusses the invention of the high five. Tommy Lasorda plays a role in it (and not a positive one at all) and might even hold a key missing piece of the puzzle.

Another Caltech Movie

Yes, that's right. It looks like there will be a fictionalized version of the documentary Quantum Hoops (which I still need to see).

Oh, and of course there is also this movie.

(Tip of the cap to Craig Montuori.)

The 26-year Losing Streak is Over!

The Caltech men's basketball team has won its first conference game in 26 years, breaking a 310-game losing streak!

Of course, the world has changed quite a lot since our last victory.

(Tip of the cap to Vincent Kong and Greg Fricke for this article, and a tip of the cap to numerous Techers and one non-Techer for the news itself. I linked to a story that Greg Fricke posted.)

Update (2/25/11): Here is an article posted on Caltech's website about the victory. And the Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times wrote an absolutely brilliant comment in his article: "The partying continued long into the night, with players failing to return to their homework after a weeknight game for the first time in many years."

Techer on "Champion" Magazine

A Techer has made the cover of NCAA Champion Magazine.

The funny part is that the magazine cover has only the word "Champion" in large letters on the top.

Here is what I wrote in my Facebook entry: "Clearly, the correct Caltech --- or at least Lloydie --- usage of the term "Champ" has been lost. :) Oh dear... They have doomed this guy."

Then I looked a bit more closely at the cover and corrected myself in a comment: "Um, I should have looked more carefully at the cover. They have doomed this girl."

(Tip of the cap to whoever does Caltech's Facebook postings.)

3 in a row!

Caltech's basketball team has won 3 games in a row for the first time since I was a frosh.

Did I wake up to an alternate universe today?

The Wacky World of Sports

First, we have spontaneous concert-disrupting soccer matches breaking out and now this? At least we can still count on Jamie Moyer...

(Tip of the cap to Zifnab.)

My Interview with Princeton University Press blog for Mathematics Awareness Month 2010

I was interviewed by e-mail for the Princeton University Press blog in honor of Mathematics Awareness Month 2010 (on "Mathematics and Sports"). You can find that question and answer session on this page.

Cornell versus Kentucky

It's amazing that Cornell unexpectedly earned a birth in the "Sweet 16" of men's college basketball. Unsurprisingly, #1 seeded Kentucky beat us. Nevertheless, here is a fun comparison between Cornell and Kentucky. Tonight at dinner, we actually had an all-Cornell table, and we watched the beginning of the game together. The game started with a 10-2 Cornell lead, but then reality quickly set in (and watching the game made it obvious even to me---and I know nothing about basketball---that Cornell was simply outmatched) and we ended up losing 62-45. In one streak, Kentucky got 30 points to Cornell's 6.

The people at dinner included me (obviously), 3 fellow CAMsters (2 of whom overlapped with me), a former Cornell postdoc who overlapped with one of the people who overlapped with me (but not with me), a former Cornell professor who overlapped with us, and a former Cornell grad student from the biometry department. We were all present in one of my 2 seminars today, 3 of the people are faculty at ASU (main campus, which I was visiting), 2 of the people are faculty at ASU West Campus, and 1 person is a visitor from Purdue. And then there's me.

I don't normally care about basketball, but this was pretty cool. I guess that's what it's like to go to a "real" school, although the fact that we were severe underdogs was a big part of the fun for me.