The joy of stats

An evening pause: As we approach the end of the this first decade of the 21st century, let’s take a look back at the progress of the past two hundred years, illustrated by the progress of a single graph and animated in a way you’ve never seen before.

Tom Seaver tribute

An evening pause: For those who remember the 1969 Miracle Mets (Happy birthday Lloyd!), here is a tribute compilation of newsclips, celebrating Tom Seaver’s Hall of Fame career. Ya gotta believe! (Though Tug McGraw said it, it was Seaver more than anyone else who made it happen.)

Facing the facts

An evening pause: The reaction of the ship captain in the opening section of this clip from the movie A Night to Remember (1958) exemplifies better than anything I have ever seen the clarity and courage of an open mind, willing to face new facts instantly and to react correctly, even if by doing so you risk failure and disgrace.

If only our leaders today had as much courage.

George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra

An evening pause: The central scene from the 1976 television production of George Bernard Shaw’s Caesar and Cleopatra, starring Alec Guinness and Genevieve Bujold.

[The uproar in the streets again reaches them.]
Caesar: Do you hear? These knockers at your gate are also believers in vengence and in stabbing. You have slain their leader: it is right that they shall slay you. If you doubt it, ask your four counselors here. And then in the name of that right [he emphasizes the word with great scorn] shall I not slay them for murdering their Queen, and be slain in my turn by their countrymen as the invader of their fatherland? Can Rome do less then slay these slayers, too, to show the world how Rome avenges her sons and her honor. And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood and create a race than can understand.

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