Some things speak for themselves.
The Patriots just came back from a 25-point second-half deficit to win the Super Bowl.
There is a difference between 'luck' and 'skill'.
Nonetheless ... luck favors the prepared.
And, in life as in sports, hard work beats talent, when talent fails to work hard.
The Patriots, under Bill Belichick, epitomize that.
Belichick has been a coach in 10 of 51 Super Bowls (seven of them with Tom Brady).
When you see this picture from the 2000 NFL Combine, it's hard to believe that Tom Brady would be a 3-time Superbowl MVP taking the Patriots to their 5th under his reign.
via CBS Sports.
It didn't happen by accident.
The Patriots are a well-oiled machine, and it's not because their players are better than the rest.
Keep in mind, the NFL is a league at the top of the food chain (their athletes are the best of the best). Moreover, the NFL actively creates rules designed to level the playing field and create parity.
So, it is hard to create a team that 'can't be beaten' – When it happens, it happens because of culture, coaching, and process. Ultimately, somehow, winners find a way to win.
Bill isn't known as the friendliest (and he's certainly not known for dishing out praise) – but he is known for discipline (and lauding hard work when it's deserved).
More importantly, Belichick created a framework of success that isn't reliant on the individual - and it is that which allows the individual to shine.
Frameworks create the structure that allows, focus, specialty, and the freedom to improvise.
The System is the 'system'; but, within it, you can measure what works, who contributes, and use it to identify the best things to try next.
Win, lose, or draw ... some things speak for themselves.
When people think oil, they think Middle East. But, in reality, our biggest importer is Canada (with 3,169,ooo barrels a day imported in 2015).
The chart is a little old, but is interesting nonetheless.
see U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Perhaps more surprising is that America gets most of our oil internally ... with 8,796,000 barrels produced last week.
Meanwhile, we are using approximately 19,400,000 a day.
Crazy numbers. Do you think they'll go up, or down, in 2017?
Lots of crazy stories from the Olympics. For example, an Olympic Kayaker capsized after hitting a submerged sofa. At least they figured out how to deal with the mosquitos.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
While conspiracy theorists argue whether the NBA rigged the finals to get to get to game 7, I find this more disturbing ... it's a photo combining Hillary and Trump into a Clump.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
A friend of mine just bet me that Trump would win the election. So far, Trump has offended a lot of "interest groups" with campaign remarks. But, then there is Hillary. It is going to be close.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
Muhammad Ali, considered by many to be the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time, died last Friday at 74 years old.
Besides boxing, he was known for his quick wit, sharp tongue, and memorable quotes.
Here's one of my favorites.
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
Here's another.
via USAToday.
Here is a link to some great photos.
There are many videos recounting his life and the times, but I like this video because it shows him doing what made people call him "The Greatest".
Somebody has to win the election. 16sucks.com hopes it will be them, by selling "Everybody sucks" 2016 campaign signs to America's feeling about the two presumed main contestants for the presidency in November.
Presumed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's net "strongly unfavorable" rating is hovering at about 37% these days (around 5% higher than the previous high for candidates getting close to the general election), according to FiveThirtyEight.
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump makes Clinton look beloved. His "strongly unfavorable" rating is sitting at about 53%, which is off-the-charts awful for a candidate who is supposed to compete for the White House.
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye. Hope you find something interesting.
March Madness: The Last Perfect Bracket Busted After Just 40 Games
March Madness is in full swing, and it feels like everyone (and their mom) has filled a bracket. But how do they do it?
More importantly, how do the people that are successful do it?
The video, below, highlights the "Bracket Busters" of 2015.
via FiveThirtyEight
So, who were they? A 13-year-old who used a mix of guesswork and preferences, a 47-year-old English woman who used algorithms and data science (despite not knowing the game), and a 70-year-old bookie who had his finger on the pulse of the betting world.
Proof that different factors can lead us to believe we have control over something with odds at 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. For those who don't wanna do the math that's 9.2 quintillion.
That's not to say that different factors don't provide an edge. Knowing the history of the teams, their ranks, how they performed historically in the playoffs, all provide important information, to humans and machines that try to make the perfect bracket.
The way people fill out their brackets often mimics the way investors pick trades or allocate assets. Some use gut feel, some base their decisions on rank and past performance, and some use predictive models.
Just as an FYI, this March Madness, the last perfect bracket busted after just 40 games. This includes reporting on tens of millions of brackets from NCAA.com, Bleacher Report, CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports and Yahoo.
People aren't as good at prediction as they predict they are.
Something to think about.
Posted at 01:02 AM in Current Affairs, Games, Ideas, Just for Fun, Market Commentary, Science, Sports, Trading, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
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