Monday, May 20, 2013

Escaping from Zombies - Visualized (in R! Really!)

Francis Smart, over at Econometrics by Simulation, has the first (and quite possibly, only) R-based simulation of how one can escape from zombies.
From the post
# Escape Zombie Land!# This is a simulation an escape from a hot zombie zone.  It freezes and gives an error if you get get killed so you had best not.  To play it you attempt to navigate the zone by constructing waypoints.
It is remarkably configurable, (you can set the number of zombies, their acceleration, waypoints, and pretty much everything else.  Most importantly, you can generate really cool animated GIFs like the above.
Go check it out, its worth the time :-)

"Big rig carrying fruit crashes on 210 Freeway, creates jam" (Great Headlines - No 384)

Submitted from the LA Times
A Sig Alert on the 210 Freeway was extended until 10 a.m. Monday after a big rig carrying 35,000 pounds of grapes crashed across the center divider in Monrovia.
Talk about a sticky situation.
The wreck, which blocked two eastbound lanes and three westbound lanes near Myrtle Avenue, proved anything but fruitful for commuters looking for an easy drive to begin the work week.



How Most Marketing Works...

Friday, May 17, 2013

Highest paid public employees - Visualized

From Deadspin, we have the highest paid public employees on a state by state basis.  As expected, its pretty much either a football coach or a basketball coach - with a few exceptions for med-school types (and the further exception of the great state of Maine and its law school dean!)
From the article
Most of these databases include only the coaches' base salaries, which are drawn directly from the state fund. This is how you could be led to believe that Virginia's offensive coordinator earns more than its head coach.
Far exceeding these base salaries is the "additional compensation" that almost all of these coaches receive, which is tied to media appearances, apparel contracts, and fundraising. While this compensation does not come directly from the state fund it is guaranteed in the coaches' contracts; if revenue falls short, the school—and thus the state—is on the hook to cover the difference. Plus, even it doesn't come directly from taxpayers, this compensation is still problematic for all the reasons listed above.
Beyond salary and additional compensation, coaches earn money from bonus incentives tied primarily to the team's performance. This analysis ignored those bonuses and focused on guaranteed money, as it's impossible to guess at whether a coach will hit his benchmarks. And we're not even touching the ridiculous amounts of money coaches can get if they're fired before their contract ends.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The beatings will continue... - Europe Edition

Eurostat's report from 5/15 shows that the European continues to suck.  From the NY Times
The 17-nation euro zone contracted by 0.2 percent from the last three months of 2012, Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union,reported from Luxembourg, less than the 0.6 percent decline recorded in the fourth quarter, but more than economists’ expectations of a 0.1 percent fall.
Of particular interest,

  • Greece's economy shrank by 5.3%.  (We're no. 1! We're no. 1!)
  • Cyprus by 4.1% (We're better than Greece!)
  • Portugal's shrank by 3.9% (We're better than Cyprus! And Greece!)
  • Ireland stayed flat (Yay! We're not cratering! (ignore the fact that we're not growing please...))
Seriously, this is good news? That Austerity Now! Austerity Forever! is working?

I guess the EU/Germany is going to continue to bleed the patient till, well, whatever.

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Signs of the Apocalypse - Taco Bell Edition

Yes, this is the food-item that you have been waiting for.
Its the Waffle Taco.
Seriously.
From Eater, we have the following

Ever since Taco Bell discovered they could sell a million Doritos Locos Tacosevery day, they've acquired a taste for novelty tacos. Case in point: According to Brand Eating apparently the Mexican-ish fast food chainis testingWaffle Tacos. You know, tacos but with a waffle instead of a tortilla. They're for breakfast, obviously.
After spying the Waffle Taco (the waffclo?) on Instagram, FoodBeast proved they were real at a Taco Bell in Orange County, California, and a rep for Taco Bell confirmed to Eater that "waffle taco is testing." It turns out these freaks of nature are stuffed with sausage and eggs and come with a side of syrup. Would you like fire sauce with that?

I weep...



Sunday, May 12, 2013

Awesome Advertisements - Episode #317

Roy Rogers for Pennsylvania Railroad.
No further comment necessary...

hat-tip Both Kinds Of Music