George Rebane

• SuperBowl Analytics – we were a mite early
• More on the DA space issue in the Union
• How closely do the candidates match your views?

SuperBowl Analytics – On this SuperBowl weekend Jo Ann and I will watch one of our few sporting events during the year.  We only get excited when season-long competitions come to an end – i.e. World Series, NBA Finals, …, and when on the off-chance that UCLA athletes do something notable.  Anyway, I ran across an interesting article on how rocket science (aka analytics) has become embedded in athletic decision making both on and off the field.  In the 70s when friend Gary Irving and I were doing ‘black studies’ in the defense of our country, Gary (a former world-class sprinter) suggested that what we did for Uncle Sam could be of great profit to sports like football.  We were two hotshot systems engineers and there wasn’t a technical problem in the world we couldn’t solve. 

So after some fun noodling we had a portfolio of ideas and specific methods on applying high-falootin’ math and science to sports.  With colored pictures and graphs under our arms Gary got us appointments with a number of coaches on both sides of the country.  One, I remember, was with George Allen of the Washington Redskins.  All were genuinely interested, but all assured us sports was such an intuitive and complex field that analytics would be of little use.  Well, it turns out we were either too early or too easily turned away (we did have day jobs and families to feed).  Twenty years passed and analytics entered sports on a full time basis.  For tomorrow’s SuperBowl in this article you can read how analytics are used today in high-powered athletics.

Good article on the new DA office space issue in today’s Union here.  The writer satisfactorily answers most people on the ‘need to move’ question.  The matter that The Union considers yet unresolved is the Supes’ choice of the new Union Street Building.  The implication by the paper and many of its correspondents is that there are better digs available and the selection job was not properly carried out, or worse, that it was done in an underhanded way to reward cronies.  The Union asked three questions to illuminate the matter (see my post on this), which, until they explain themselves,in reality posited an accusation of impropriety that still stands.  The final resolution of this will be to identify over-looked alternatives that point-by-point satisfy the county’s and DA’s specifications for new office space.  We will try to help to resolve this shortly, stay tuned.

Finally, in this election season my daughter pointed me to a site where you can answer a few questions on issues and then be shown the candidates ranked in the order in which you agree with their positions.  Revealing and lots of fun.

It’s been snowing all day and all week here in Nevada County, and we’re happy to be staying home huddled around a warm fire.  I’m ready to make a bigger carbon footprint if it’ll help things get warmer.