BBC News
Several weeks ago, the city of Tokyo decided to honor the oldest-living man in the city on his birthday only to discover that he had been dead for 30-years. They then decided to look for the oldest-living woman in Tokyo, only to find she had gone missing years earlier.
This has led to a massive investigation throughout Japan to to determine the whereabouts of the over 40,000 centenarians in the country. As of August 20th (after the article above was written) 281 turned out to be dead or missing. In many cases it appears that their families do not report the deaths in order to continue collecting pension payments.
I happened to come across the first article about the missing old man three weeks ago, so it's fascinating to me to see how this whole situation has unfolded.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
NASCAR week 23
12th place contenders.
Bowyer 82%
Martin 13%
Newman 5%
Kahne 0.2%
Despite strong finishes by McMurray, Reutimann, and Montoya, they were unable to stay in contention. In fact, of the top 7 drivers at Bristol, 6 were still contenders for the 12th spot as of last week. Unfortunately, only one get it and Bowyer has opened up a 100-point lead over his nearest rival. Looks like we know who's making the Chase this year.
Bowyer 82%
Martin 13%
Newman 5%
Kahne 0.2%
Despite strong finishes by McMurray, Reutimann, and Montoya, they were unable to stay in contention. In fact, of the top 7 drivers at Bristol, 6 were still contenders for the 12th spot as of last week. Unfortunately, only one get it and Bowyer has opened up a 100-point lead over his nearest rival. Looks like we know who's making the Chase this year.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Gendered Papers
The Gender Genie
I think I may have posted about this years ago, but I was thinking about it again recently as I was writing a bunch of papers. The Gender Genie tries to guess the gender of a person based on a sample of their writing. Men and women have words that they tend use more often than the other gender. So the Gender Genie looks for these words and gives points for each one. Which ever group of words ends up with more points is likely to correspond to the gender of the writer.
So I decided to run all the papers I had to write for classes this summer and see what their scores were. What I'll be giving is a "masculinity rating", which is, the percentage of points that went to manly words out of the total.
Small States in Contemporary World Markets - 68%
Inequality and Democracy in America - 67%
Another Chance for Kyrgyzstan - 64%
International Political Economy Mid-Term - 63%
Untitled Paper About Bulgaria - 63%
International Political Theory Final - 61%
The gender of my papers is surprisingly consistent. Or more likely, my writing style is really consistent regardless of what I'm writing about. Looking over the list of words, I noticed that the female word list contains words like "we, you, me, etc." I try to avoid using first and second-person when doing formal writing, which would explain a bit.
I think I may have posted about this years ago, but I was thinking about it again recently as I was writing a bunch of papers. The Gender Genie tries to guess the gender of a person based on a sample of their writing. Men and women have words that they tend use more often than the other gender. So the Gender Genie looks for these words and gives points for each one. Which ever group of words ends up with more points is likely to correspond to the gender of the writer.
So I decided to run all the papers I had to write for classes this summer and see what their scores were. What I'll be giving is a "masculinity rating", which is, the percentage of points that went to manly words out of the total.
Small States in Contemporary World Markets - 68%
Inequality and Democracy in America - 67%
Another Chance for Kyrgyzstan - 64%
International Political Economy Mid-Term - 63%
Untitled Paper About Bulgaria - 63%
International Political Theory Final - 61%
The gender of my papers is surprisingly consistent. Or more likely, my writing style is really consistent regardless of what I'm writing about. Looking over the list of words, I noticed that the female word list contains words like "we, you, me, etc." I try to avoid using first and second-person when doing formal writing, which would explain a bit.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
NASCAR week 22
Top 19 Chase Contenders:
(red means they're down from last week, green means they're up)
Harvick 100%
Gordon 100%
Stewart 100%
Johnson 100%
Hamlin 100%
Kurt Busch 100%
Kyle Busch 100%
Edwards 100%
Burton 100%
Kenseth 100%
Biffle 100%
Bowyer 38%
Martin 33%
Newman 14%
Kahne 10%
Montoya 3%
McMurray 1%
Reutimann 1%
Earnhardt 0.1%
The gap in points between Biffle and Bowyer is quite substantial now. The chance that Bowyer or anyone else with fewer points could pass Biffle before the Chase starts is less than 1%. This means that the top 11 drivers are locked in for the Chase. The battle for 12th is still largely between Bowyer and Martin, but they haven't been able to shake-off the other remaining drivers.
(red means they're down from last week, green means they're up)
Harvick 100%
Gordon 100%
Stewart 100%
Johnson 100%
Hamlin 100%
Kurt Busch 100%
Kyle Busch 100%
Edwards 100%
Burton 100%
Kenseth 100%
Biffle 100%
Bowyer 38%
Martin 33%
Newman 14%
Kahne 10%
Montoya 3%
McMurray 1%
Reutimann 1%
Earnhardt 0.1%
The gap in points between Biffle and Bowyer is quite substantial now. The chance that Bowyer or anyone else with fewer points could pass Biffle before the Chase starts is less than 1%. This means that the top 11 drivers are locked in for the Chase. The battle for 12th is still largely between Bowyer and Martin, but they haven't been able to shake-off the other remaining drivers.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Music Needs to be Shared
The Arcade Fire
This post was prompted by the fact that the Arcade Fire has a new album out. Apparently their next music video will be directed by Terry Gillian. They did a free online concert, so there's quite a few really good live recordings of their new songs available on YouTube.
Cadillac Sky
Their song "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" is pretty well-known, but I like this song better.
Nneka
Nigerian-German R&B artist. Very retro. Very cool.
Miike Snow
This song got played a bit on WNCW. Took this particular song awhile to grow on me, but now I really enjoy it.
Friendly Fires
This came out awhile ago, but I only recently heard it, so I figured I should share.
Kele
Solo project from one of the guys from Bloc Party.
And... oh no! No Swedish bands!
This post was prompted by the fact that the Arcade Fire has a new album out. Apparently their next music video will be directed by Terry Gillian. They did a free online concert, so there's quite a few really good live recordings of their new songs available on YouTube.
Cadillac Sky
Their song "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" is pretty well-known, but I like this song better.
Nneka
Nigerian-German R&B artist. Very retro. Very cool.
Miike Snow
This song got played a bit on WNCW. Took this particular song awhile to grow on me, but now I really enjoy it.
Friendly Fires
This came out awhile ago, but I only recently heard it, so I figured I should share.
Kele
Solo project from one of the guys from Bloc Party.
And... oh no! No Swedish bands!
Sunday, August 08, 2010
NASCAR week 22
Top 19 Chase Contenders:
(red means they're down from last week, green means they're up)
Harvick 100%
Gordon 100%
Stewart 100%
Johnson 100%
Hamlin 100%
Kurt Busch 100%
Kyle Busch 100%
Edwards 100%
Burton 100%
Kenseth 100%
Biffle 89%
Martin 49%
Bowyer 30%
Newman 19%
Kahne 8%
Reutimann 2%
McMurray 2%
Montoya 1%
Earnhardt 1%
Montoya's win today managed to keep in the running, albeit his chances remain slim. Ten drivers are now guaranteed to make the Chase, with Biffle very likely to be the 11th driver, and Martin increasingly likely to get the 12th spot.
The biggest gainer this week was Burton, who has now secured a spot in the Chase. The biggest loser was Bowyer (46% to 30%). So even though Martin didn't do that well this week, his position improved as his biggest competitor is falling behind.
(red means they're down from last week, green means they're up)
Harvick 100%
Gordon 100%
Stewart 100%
Johnson 100%
Hamlin 100%
Kurt Busch 100%
Kyle Busch 100%
Edwards 100%
Burton 100%
Kenseth 100%
Biffle 89%
Martin 49%
Bowyer 30%
Newman 19%
Kahne 8%
Reutimann 2%
McMurray 2%
Montoya 1%
Earnhardt 1%
Montoya's win today managed to keep in the running, albeit his chances remain slim. Ten drivers are now guaranteed to make the Chase, with Biffle very likely to be the 11th driver, and Martin increasingly likely to get the 12th spot.
The biggest gainer this week was Burton, who has now secured a spot in the Chase. The biggest loser was Bowyer (46% to 30%). So even though Martin didn't do that well this week, his position improved as his biggest competitor is falling behind.
Friday, August 06, 2010
NASCAR week 21
Top 19 Chase Contenders:
(red means they're down from last week, green means they're up)
Gordon 100%
Harvick 100%
Hamlin 100%
Johnson 100%
Stewart 100%
Kurt Busch 100%
Kyle Busch 100%
Edwards 95%
Kenseth 92%
Burton 90%
Biffle 88%
Martin 50%
Bowyer 46%
Newman 19%
Kahne 13%
Reutimann 3%
Earnhardt 3%
McMurray 1%
Montoya 0.1%
The top 20 has become the top 19 as Logano now has no chance of making the Chase at this point, but Montoya is still hanging in there. This race just served to reaffirm what I noticed last week. The top 11 spots are pretty well secure and it's going to be a fight between Bowyer and Martin to get that 12th spot.
For once, the biggest gainer was the race winner, Biffle (67% to 88%). He's been running well all season, so it's good to see him win. The biggest loser was Kahne (26% to 13%). I don't think he finished all that poorly, it's just that his rather lackluster season is finally catching up with him.
(red means they're down from last week, green means they're up)
Gordon 100%
Harvick 100%
Hamlin 100%
Johnson 100%
Stewart 100%
Kurt Busch 100%
Kyle Busch 100%
Edwards 95%
Kenseth 92%
Burton 90%
Biffle 88%
Martin 50%
Bowyer 46%
Newman 19%
Kahne 13%
Reutimann 3%
Earnhardt 3%
McMurray 1%
Montoya 0.1%
The top 20 has become the top 19 as Logano now has no chance of making the Chase at this point, but Montoya is still hanging in there. This race just served to reaffirm what I noticed last week. The top 11 spots are pretty well secure and it's going to be a fight between Bowyer and Martin to get that 12th spot.
For once, the biggest gainer was the race winner, Biffle (67% to 88%). He's been running well all season, so it's good to see him win. The biggest loser was Kahne (26% to 13%). I don't think he finished all that poorly, it's just that his rather lackluster season is finally catching up with him.
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