Tag: Book Review

What’s the score?

For Scorecasting (by L Jon Wertheim & Tobias Moskowitz), the question is not whether it is a swing or a miss, rather the question is whether it is a called strike on a 0-2 count. If you read the book, you will find out that the odds of a called third strike on an 0-2 count are different than on a 3-0 count. I’m not sure where this metaphor is going, but my short review is that Scorecasting was a very enjoyable read, even for a data nerd like myself.

It should come as a surprise to no one that I would be very interested in a book about the math, statistics, and incentives of sports. At the same time, I feared picking up yet another Freakonomics retread. Continue reading “What’s the score?”

Spider Silk

So, hi, if you happen to be my mom, you might want to stop reading now. As the title indicates, this is a review of a book that is all about spiders. SPIDERS!!!

My mother does not like spiders. She really, really does not like spiders.

But I do[1].

I approached Leslie Brunetta and Catherine L. Craig’s Spider Silk with hope and dread. Hope that I might learn a lot more about spiders. Dread that the authors would mangle evolutionary theory with over-simplification while trying to use spider silk to teach the general public about natural selection.

One of these emotions was unnecessary and wrong. Continue reading “Spider Silk”