link friday: World Cup draws, behind the scenes of The Price Is Right
Posted on 2014-06-06 14:20:00
Tags: links
Words: 265

- A Fairer World Cup Draw - it's weird that they admit that the FIFA draw is unfair by design (for geographical reasons) but then sound impressed when pointing out a fairer algorithm. Anyway, the graphs at the bottom are neat because you can see which teams got the luckiest/most unlucky - US is near the unluckiest (although not as bad as Australia), and Mexico is so so so lucky.

- I did this last summer after the World Cup draw, but a reminder: you only need 5 points to be almost assured of making it to the knockout round, and 4 points gives you about a 50% chance.

- Here’s what it looks like behind the scenes of The Price Is Right - I found this compelling, as I love seeing "behind the scenes" type stuff. There's a lot of work that happens back there! Warning: the video's a bit long. (it's the whole one hour show) A few things that surprised me:
- Somehow I didn't realize that the producers actually choose the contestants, instead of being chosen at random.
- There's an insane amount of energy in the room!
- Everything's on a pretty strict timetable, and it's cool to see them adapt to things taking longer than the should.

- Selection bias and bombers - go logic!

- 22 Books You Should Read Now, Based On Your Childhood Favorites - thanks Kay!

- Girlfriend 'Complains A Lot ... Interrupts,' Developer Tells Conference - I understand the joke, but given all the sexism in the industry...yikes. At least we're to the point where people will get called out for this, but there's still a long way to go...

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