Beane Counters – Grantland
“The team has been remarkably successful since, winning six division titles and making seven playoff appearances in the past 17 years. The A’s have managed that sustained excellence despite consistently fielding one of the game’s smallest payrolls, and they’ve done so by constantly staying ahead of the curve when it comes to talent evaluation and roster building. That success, coupled with the popularity of Michael Lewis’s Moneyball, has elevated Beane’s status from successful MLB GM to statistical rock star in both the sports and business worlds.”
Who Had Richer Parents, Doctors or Artists? – NPR
“A few weeks ago, we were sitting around the office arguing over this simple question: Who had richer parents, journalists or people working in finance? Doctors or artists? More generally: What’s the link between household income during childhood and job choice during adulthood?”
Gears of War: When Mechanical Analogue Computers Ruled the Waves – Ars Technica
“Those projectiles use GPS and inertial guidance to improve the gun’s accuracy to a 50 meter (164 feet) circle of probable error—meaning that half of its GPS-guided shells will fall within that distance from the target. But take away the fancy GPS shells, and the AGS and its digital fire control system are no more accurate than mechanical analog technology that is nearly a century old.”
With Friends Like Harper: How Nigel Wright Went From Golden Boy to Fall Guy – Toronto Life
“On Bay Street, Wright’s friends are legion. The list includes some of the biggest names in Canadian business—Gerald Schwartz, Peter and Anthony Munk, the Jackmans—as well as many lesser-known but no less influential corporate leaders and political organizers. Harper’s treatment of Wright—and his inept handling of the entire ordeal—has forced many of them to re-evaluate the prime minister. Not only has the crisis challenged their perception of his political infallibility, but it has made them question his judgment. As one senior Conservative said to me, “If this is going to be a contest in terms of who Bay Street values more, I don’t like Harper’s odds.””
The Drugging of the American Boy – Esquire
“Imagine you have a six-year-old son. A little boy for whom you are responsible. A little boy you would take a bullet for, a little boy in whom you search for glimpses of yourself, and hope every day that he will turn out just like you, only better. A little boy who would do anything to make you happy. Now imagine that little boy—your little boy—alone in his bed in the night, eyes wide with fear, afraid to move, a frightening and unfamiliar voice echoing in his head, afraid to call for you. Imagine him shivering because he hasn’t eaten all day because he isn’t hungry. His head is pounding. He doesn’t know why any of this is happening. Now imagine that he is suffering like this because of a mistake. Because a doctor examined him for twelve minutes, looked at a questionnaire on which you had checked some boxes, listened to your brief and vague report that he seemed to have trouble sitting still in kindergarten, made a diagnosis for a disorder the boy doesn’t have, and wrote a prescription for a powerful drug he doesn’t need.”
Beer Money and Babe Ruth: Why the Yankees Triumphed During Prohibition – Collectors Monthly
“One of the best beer-and-baseball stories, though, comes from the dry years of Prohibition, 1920-1933, when the New York Yankees made it to seven World Series and won four. Their rise began in 1915, when the team was purchased for $1.25 million. The new owners were Tillinghast Huston—a civil engineer, who served in the Spanish-American War and World War I and left with the rank of Lt. Colonel—and Jacob Ruppert, Jr.—a wealthy New York City brewer, who served a couple of terms in Congress and enjoyed being addressed by his honorary title, also Colonel. The Yankees had never won a pennant until the Colonels, as they were known, got a hold of them. Their masterstroke was to add a Boston Red Sox pitcher to the roster in 1920. That player’s name was Babe Ruth.”
Revision Quest – The Walrus
“The Orenda has been in my head all my life,” Boyden says about his reimagining of the Huron-Iroquois wars and the fateful Jesuit intervention. “I’ve always been fascinated by the story.” Now forty-seven, the soft-spoken novelist is still movie star handsome, with warm brown eyes and a quick, roguish smile. He is also still football fit: he works out regularly and takes canoe trips and hikes in the bush whenever he can get to Northern Ontario to paddle, hunt, trap, or fish.”
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Photo courtesy of Arek Olek.
