An Introduction to This Blog

Everyday, all of us think of questions we want the answers to. From serious policy considerations, to trivial pop culture curiosities, from comparing sports teams to dissecting demographics, plenty of thought and energy are expended seeking answers to these questions.

In my work as a engineer in the defense and automotive industries, I’ve had a variety of questions that need answers. How the best way to develop a project? What might be the cause of a defect in a product? Is there an inefficiency in a manufacturing process? How can it be fixed?

And, in answer these questions, I have been also been required to “Speak With Data.” Tell the answer I have found using data that can be seen plainly, and speak for themselves. I have always asked myself what would happen if I applied that philosophy to more of society’s questions. So that is what this blog is. Or, an attempt at. Using data to create a voice to answer the questions we all have, in topics from major policy to history to sports to pop culture. So, hopefully this goes well. And I remember to actually post things.

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Brohm and Calhoun: Purdue's New Top Two Choices Analyzed

Earlier in the silly season coaching search, the top two coaching candidates floated by Purdue's fan base were Western Michigan's P.J. Fleck and former LSU head coach Les Miles. In recent days, it has appeared neither may end up in West Lafayette. Yesterday, news-ish broke-ish that a deal was done-ish with Purdue and current Western Kentucky head coach Jeff Brohm. Western Kentucky was revealed to be beginning its own coach search, while coach without an agent Jeff Brohm stated no deal existed and he would not think about future plans until after the C-USA championship game today. Another name floated was current Air Force Academy head coach Troy Calhoun. Which are two odd choices when considered together; at Air Force Calhoun ran a run-heavy option offense (although he has experience coaching quarterbacks in the NFL under Gary Kubiak) and Brohm's offense at WKU was a pass-oriented spread offense. Using the same methods I used to look at Purdue's last few coaches , I...

Disney Princesses Are Not All, In Fact, Princesses

This past weekend, I went to see Disney's new (and very good) animated film Moana . There was a (genre aware) exchange between the title character and the demigod Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Maui regarding whether or not the title character was a princess. Maui's evidence is as follows: she a) is "daughter of a chief," b) "wears a dress," and c) has "an animal sidekick." Of course, the definition of princess is typically understood as a woman who fit one of the two descriptions: is daughter of a monarch, or the wife or widow of a prince (in turn defined as the son of a monarch, a monarch in his own right, or the wife of a princess). Disney markets 11 individuals as "Disney Princesses": Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Mulan, Tiana, Rapunzel and Merida. They also market the two female protogonists (and daughters of monarchs) of Frozen, Anna and Elsa (who is in fact a monarch), in a similar man...

Fiction v. Engineering: Part 1, The Wall, a Structural Analysis (From Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire)

This is going to be the first in a number of posts that look at a number of structures, vehicles, weapons, and other of technologies from fiction in terms of whether they could exist in our real, not fictional world. First up: the Wall, from the book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, and its TV adaption Game of Thrones (cue the epic music). For those who have been living under a rock for the past few years not read the books or watched the show, here is an attempt to describe the Wall without too many plot specific details: it is a giant wall of ice and magic that protects the people living in the Seven Kingdoms, which are south of the wall, from the people (refereed to as Wildlings or Freefolk) and/or ice zombies (White Walkers or Others) living north of the Wall. The closest real world examples would be Hadrian's Wall (which protected Roman-occupied England and Wales from the Scottish) and the Great Wall of China (which protected th...

Speak With Data

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