1. In our increasingly electrified world better battery technology is always important. I don’t know enough about this subject to know if this will end up being an important breakthrough (llama?) but as we’ve discussed before graphene seems pretty cool in its own right.
2. An improvement by a factor of three in the efficiency of internal combustion engines would also be a big FKing deal, so this got me pretty excited when I saw it last week. Then I realized the story was a couple of years old. Still, sometimes progress takes time, and it’s worth remembering that disruptive changes are possible even in mature technology.
3. Journal editors pay tribute to one of the old masters (and note that both the album and journal covers are based on one of his earlier iconic works).
4. Etc.: Given his anti-stat crankiness (and his Romney endorsement last year) I had an image in my mind of Buzz Bissinger as one of those 70-something dinosaurs like Murray Chass. Not so much.
I’m home sick today. I already listened to Living in the Material World and Concert for George and had a bowl of soup. I can’t believe it’s not even 11 am.
But it is
4: And already I miss Kay’s take.
1. Graphene has a lot of promise, but so did carbon nanotubes and Langmuir-Blodgett films. It’s an avenue worth pursuing, but I’m not so certain that it is worth all the press it is getting. The appeal of it is that is simple to make (by many methods), but it’s difficult to mass produce and difficult to make large devices.
Best bit of graphene snark I ever heard (second hand). Apparently at some carbon nanomaterials conference, there was a discussion on what the fundamental limitations of graphene-based devices were. One theme that emerged was that the 2D sheet had great properties, but the edges were very problematic. An old nanotube guy in the back piped up, “you could always roll it up into a tube.”
Thanks. That gap between “neat stuff we can do in the lab” and economically viable product can be frustratingly vast.
Yeah, but it’s not a reason to discount any particular technology, because lots of things have been scaled up. It can be helpful to have the long view.
And it’s not just “economically viable product” that is the benchmark. Stuff like, “can we even make a device of a useful size” or “will this thing survive in air” are big big questions that don’t require economies of scale as a probe.
Absolutely. Considering the importance of batteries to so many potential future technological advancements, I hope these advances are going somewhere though!
3. I’m reminded of Arthur Ganson’s kinetic sculpture “Wishbone”
Better video
Good call.
I’m partial to this one.
This I get:
But what does this mean?
Inequality?
Yeah…it’s a “greater than” sign. Among my many FB friends who are changing their profile pics, this one stood out. It is a person who is definitely in favor of legalizing gay marriage.
I think this one is my favorite so far:
On the other hand, now I can’t tell who is who on my FB feed.
How did Wells go his whole career without a Volkswagen-themed nickname?
Farfromwörthit?
Exactly!
Albatross contracts just don’t mean what they used to
Great at bat by Cespedes. laid off 2 good pitches with two strikes to walk
I was all “who is that hippy catching”
Fosse?
jaso
Hey don’t you love it when you are in jail and you start banging on the door when you see the pastor because you know she is an A’s fan and you have a minute to talk? Great way to kill time.
Lowrie makes a nice play at short
Nakajima in. Just backed up on a grounder to short
BUT THEY HIT IT REALLY HARD RIGHT AT HIM!
Thanks, and go As.
Freiman wears his hat like he is a marine.
Just made a nice play
Nakajima coming out of game with hamstring issue
walking on his own, but pulled up lame
Not used to running the bases?
Told to make himself available for the DL.
This one and Rosales both have a bit of an aroma, don’t they?
Hooray for face-saving AAA rehab stints!
Now he can go on the DL for hurt feelings.
Barton singles in go ahead run, FWIW
Clevland guys seem to have a handle on the A’s players
“Uh, mom. Where’s dad?”
“In the bathroom.”
“Again?”
“Yeah. He took his beer in there with him. Says he’s having much more fun in there than watching this game.”
So even though I turn Cespedes’ uniform number in age this year I’m a real estate virgin.* I’m inclined to buy on the Nevada side of Tahoe this time around rather than extend my 30+ year streak of renting.
Does anybody have any comments to share about their experience with agents, especially something that showed up when you were working with them that made you think you would have been better off working with somebody else? Aside from a friend’s recommendation, how do you choose your agent?
*I worked for a title insurance company but my work didn’t usually involve dealing directly with agents, certainly not from the buyer’s perspective.
My credit union paid me to use an agent through their program the first time, and she was great.
You want to have an agent who will (1) screen stuff for you; and (2) tell you (accurately) where a place’s pricing compares to the market. Other than that, it’s pretty basic contract running stuff that anyone would (probably) do right.
Don’t get a “super” agent who won’t care about your relatively small purchase. If you ever have trouble getting their attention, that’s a huge red flag.
Ah, credit union program = USAA’s real estate program. That’s a good first place to look.
I ended up working with the first agent I met with, and I adore her. What I liked about her immediately is that her first order of business was outlining ALL of the costs with me (price, taxes, insurance, etc.) so that I would not be surprised later. She had a handy-dandy spreadsheet she emailed me where I could plug in various home prices and it would adjust all the numbers for me. She also helped give me perspective right away on what was realistic and un-realistic.
She turned out to be my best asset as on several occasions she warned me that I was over-bidding and said she would do it, but against her advice. So of course I took her advice and she was right. She didn’t just care about making a sale, she wanted to put me in exactly the right house at the best price she could.
If I had it to do over again I would not select an agent from the biggest firm in town. Our guy was only so-so, but a real issue arises if you get interested in a property which is also repped by the same RE company . They have protocols to guard against blatant conflict of interest, but the remedies are of course after the fact and on you to contest. In retrospect, the perceived risk of collusion still feels uncomfortable to me, in a seller’s market where multiple offers are coming in high.
Sure, I was doing a walk-around of one specific place today and was thinking I wouldn’t walk in to the office of the lady whose smiling face is on the sign in front; that said, this isn’t the Bay Area and about 3 firms seem to control most of the listings so that part of it might be unavoidable.
Note that if you do your own legwork and find a place to bid on yourself before getting an agent, you may be able to negotiate the commission downward.
We also went with the first person we met with (referred by a friend who was an agent elsewhere in the bay area). She wasn’t terrible, but we weren’t crazy about her and probably should have been able to tell that from the first meeting. The things I would say specifically:
1) Mostly already covered by nevermoor and batgirl, you might need good advice on how much to bid. We were buying at a crazy time, and her advice basically boiled down to “if you really want it, bid as high as you feel comfortable with.” True as far as it goes, but not terribly helpful. (Part of the problem is incentives: even putting aside the fact that your agent makes (slightly) more on commission the higher you bid, their main goal is to complete a sale at all and as quickly as possible. Finding someone who will work against that and slow things down if need be, as bg did, is valuable and probably rare.)
2) If you have pretty specific idea of exactly where you want to be, find an agent based in and most knowledgeable about that neighborhood. Same for the type of property. Agents tend to steer people toward the properties that they know best, so you should make sure that those are the ones you’re looking for.
3) Agents also tend to have relationships with mortgage brokers, title agents, inspectors, etc. and unless you already have your own lined up you will probably end up working with those people as well.
I guess all of these points come down to the general sense that your agent a) understands what you want and need both in terms of what type of property and in how much help with the process and b) is working for your interests, not just to close a deal. That can be hard to judge, but go with your instincts.
We had a good referral and a bad referral. The bad one was just pushy – basically, “so we’ve seen 6 houses; which one do you want to bid on?” The good one won my trust by suggesting that we bid a lower number than we were thinking (it was a quiet market at the time).
If you find that as time goes, you like the places you’re shown more and more, that’s a good sign; the agent is learning and targeting your style, rather than just acting like the internet and inundating you with everything.
my experience wasn’t bad. I liked ours generally, she was responsive, did a lot of work for/with us. Two things related to her that I wish I would have noticed at the time and explored more were
1) one property that I liked she did not was not pursued more when we had the chance. I did not push it because of her reasoning, but since I pass it every fucking day, I wonder if we would would have been better off with the other place.
THe lesson is when they say something that differs from your opinion, evaluate the difference a few times.
2) I didn’t know anyone in construction at the time. We ended up using one of her people for the inspection. I am not saying he did a bad job or someone else would have picked up on two things (leaks) that are/were a problem, but again, I wonder how hard that guy worked.
2. My current landlord is a contractor and he’s been cashing my checks for a couple years now so when it comes to that point I’ll probably haul him up the hill to take a look around.
Thanks to everyone for these thoughtful responses; I figured this would be a good place to seek these comments.
Things have changed enormously in the last decade, particularly the amount of information that used to be available only to realtors but now is all online.
If I were buying again I’d (i) do my own research on the market, comps, etc and (ii) use a Redfin agent because they refund the buyer’s commission to you.
P.S. In 24 hours I have gotten the referral from USAA, met the agent, toured a couple properties and, uh, made an offer. Soaker doesn’t FK around. Knowing the area as well as I do, and the area I was looking in being so small, I know the place works for me so why screw around, just go for it. I shall now proceed to drink.
Good call to drink *after* making the offer.
indeed.
one of my friends, before heroin and meth took its toll, bid on a house and all the hoarder trinkets in it, made it express in the offer that all the garbage stayed so he could ebay all of it. the family of the deceased hoarder were very happy to let it go that way.
So…did any of that stuff ever sell?
lots of it. Not everything.
Before the heroin and meth took a toll on your friend, or before your heroin and meth took a toll on your having friends.
heh.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/-299850–.html
Nice! Let us know how it goes.
Moving quick! Good luck!
Well, my offer expires at 10 a.m. The agent wanted to make it 10 p.m. tonight but I thought, no, I’ll be around .12 (see Bed’s Crystal Ball thread if you doubt that). I’m willing to add a few thousand but not much more than that.
heh, good move
Color me jealous of your real estate market
I loved living in the immediate Bay Area, did so until age 48 and would encourage you and most of the FKers to do the same, while realizing that your perspective may change when the Social Security years aren’t that far away.
Does this imply that it will be around when Im your age?
I’ll do my best to make sure that does not happen!
The serious response to nm’s comment about the RE market is that I see what’s happening down in the Bay Area, which can’t help but eventually overflow to outer areas and second-home areas, so I think since I feel committed to Tahoe for the next 10 years I’ve let the benefit of the slow market drag on long enough and it’s probably time to pull the trigger.
Heh.
The counter-offer had just a few acceptable tweaks (not to the price, so I guess I overpaid a little) so it looks like we have a deal, pending inspections. It’s a smaller townhouse (1146 sf plus garage and deck space) in a nice development close to where I rented before, about 1.5 miles up 50 from Harrah’s and Harvey’s. If everything goes right we’ll get it closed in a few weeks and I’ll be in there in late April.
wow. Nice
Impressive speed! Does it have a space appropriate for Bill Kinging during the summer months?
Hell yeah, it’s the south-facing half of a two-unit building which brightens the interior a lot and the deck is good-sized and private, although one of the things that pushed the price into my range is that the deck has seen better days and will be #1 on the upgrade list.
Perfect.
decks are fairly straight forward to replace
Unless he plans to replace it with a deck in the shape of the A’s logo.
The apostrophe is always the hardest part.
Nah. It’s just a few wood boards. Do it right and you sit a lawn chair on it. The “S” is the hardest part.
Congrats.
Awesome! Congratulations!!
Nice to be back near the lake again too, I imagine.
It has a garage and the HOA fees which aren’t cheap do include the snow removal so that addresses a huge issue. I’ll have to see how close the plow actually gets to the garage door; may still want a snowblower but in any event there wouldn’t be that much space to clear. The city of South Lake Tahoe is congested and rather run-down in some places, but once you get past the casinos the traffic drops off a lot even in summer and I find the residential areas more like much of the west shore, quiet and better-kept.
How bad are the HOA fees?
About $250/month. Water around
$100$70/month, property tax is similar to California so it will be something like $300/month. Add expected maintenance and higher utility costs and you can see I’m well beyond my present $750 rent, though hopefully still in the ballpark of the $1100 rent I was paying in Rockridge 10 years ago.As far as HOA fees goes that’s actually a little below average. They can get upwards of $500 in some places and in more fancy places over a grand.
They’re specific, but I’m guessing/”hoping” they’re covering everything exterior based (painting which they included along with roofing things as well).
I have no doubt that after winters of 60 feet of snow there are ginormous “special assessments” and I’m building that into my long-term budget.
Smart. The big advantage is the work in bulk. You’re able to get discounted prices on these things. The bad thing is, unless you’re on the HOA counsel, you don’t have much of a say when things get done and whether you can afford it. But most HOAs will take on a small surplus just for those sorts of cases to reduce the need for that stuff and keep the special assessment costs down.
One pro-tip. Always write a letter to the management company in addition to any calls you make about any issues that come up. It’s been a while, so maybe email gets treated the same these days, but it used to be that they really couldn’t take action on things they get called over the phone for.
This might be my first ownership experience but at the title company I heard endless stories about the finances of HOAs and some of the assholes who get elected to the boards. I swore I would never buy in a common-interest development. So much for that; it’s what I can afford, and also in a wet winter the snow removal part is just enormous. But yes, I do have some trepidation about that aspect of it. Just to replace the existing worn-out deck, I see I’m going to have to go through an approval process.
Fortunately, we know who can help with an ugly, worn-out deck.
I’ve spent my entire life living in one and I used to work at a Property Management company. There’s some good ones and there’s some bad ones. You’ll get a pretty good sense of which you’re in pretty quickly.
Congrats!! It took me 9 months to get my place, including 3 failed offers and house touring EVERY. SINGLE. SUNDAY. Saw a lot of interesting things but was sooooooo glad when it was over.
Congrats! It’s nice when you know what you want and don’t run into unnecessary obstacles
well done
5. My thoroughly stompin’ compilation of Temptations funk material, with apologies to Norman Whitfield for my (admittedly stupendous) edit of “Stop the War Now” of which I am pretty proud.
Temptations (in Funk) 1969-1974
Looking forward to checking this out. Thanks!
Jed Lowrie. You know whose name sounds similar? Jedi Leroy. Yeah. You know who’s tall like Jedi Leroy? James V. And you know who likes photos like James V? Jed Lowrie. Yup. We’re through the looking glass here, people.
Heh.
.heH
Oh yeah, the Bay Bridge sounds real safe.
I think you need a higher bar than that.
Seriously.
“I mean, I think the design was good,” they continued. “Like, I kicked the bridge after it was built and it didn’t even budge.”
“I blew on it and it didn’t fall over. What’s there to worry about?”
JESA BAIT!!!!!
Thanks, and go As.
Sacramento city council endorses the arena project.
Rather conflicted on this one. I hate public money for projects like this, but I do like their support for their team and I hope they can keep it.
Never too young or too distant to start the right way.
Awesome. This is the Australian grandson?
Granddaughter, but yes.
get her autographed by Luke Hughes, er, travis and grant
How quickly we forget … that other pitcher we had briefly.
Well done.
Recently bought a 3-pack of 12 month onesies from MLB.com for $14. So we’ll be stylin’ all season long.
Nice.
She’s so cute!
I am now on day 2 of working through my iPod in alphabetical order.
Almost made it to H!
hmm… ordered list not rendering very well here
Yeah, the stylesheet isn’t ideal that way. It’s overriding the default behavior.
I eventually got sick of this after:
Love the Handsome Family
It was a pretty weird contrast, coming right after Half Japanese.
I saw Handsome Family live as part of an all out blitz of concerts in the first month or so after I moved to Chicago in 2002. There was a bunch of stuff in those lists above that reminded me of Chicago years. Groodies and Headache City were both Chicago based garage acts. Grimble Grumble are shoegazers and I think they had some whpk connection.
did’ja ever see the half japanes or Jad fair documentary?
I loved it at the time but have no memory of it
Nope. And the album listed above (appropriately titled compilation of Loud LP and Horrible EP) is pretty much the only Half Japanese I’ve listened to. It’s fun though. I played Thing With A Hook at least once on my radio show.
“Miner at the Dial-A-View” is my new favorite song.
Sigh. These special caps just keep getting worse.
Barf. Also, that pixelated camouflage pattern was a huge fiasco.
Double barf. Both for awful aesthetics and for mixing the fucking camouflage pattern into sports.
I’m okay with the Padres doing it because of the military presence in the area and them honoring it, but this takes it too far.
IF (and this is a huge IF) you’re going to do camo with a team that’s green and gold… use fking green-based camo. Same kind of goes for all teams, using a team color-based camo. It won’t necessary look good, but it won’t look absolutely hideous.
That would require putting some sort of effort into this
Well sure.
No. This is just………………….No.
make it stop
I FKing hate marketing.
I’d celebrate the departure of Tim McCarver if I weren’t sure that Fox will replace him with Rex Hudler or something.
Wooooo HOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
The names I’ve seen mentioned most are Ripken, Smoltz, Brenly, Darling and Karros.
That’s not a terrible list. Karros is pretty bad, and Brenly’s sort of annoying, but not bad overall.
Darling would be my first choice.
When in doubt, go with the Yale man.
That has not worked out so well in presidential elections.
This one I’ll grant you. No way to compare Adams and Team Roosevelt to Team Bush and Taft. And if you give Harvard points for Quincy Adams and JFK, it’s a blowout.
Until recently we got some tilt-back by including grad schools (Clinton / Ford v. the immortal Rutherford B. Hayes) but that durn Obama is a strong equalizer.
ASVD
Also one name that (thank goodness) apparently is NOT on the list.
Yet.
Youre a real man Dion.
I DON’T CARE NO MORE MCCARVER AFTER 2013 FUCK YEAH!
Too bad Eric Chavez was not Mexican enough back then. Or American enough. Or Japanese enough
And he didn’t get injured in a game. What a load of BS.
It’s bad news for the A’s. because the Yankees bought Wells with that money, so the Angels are off the hook for $14MM
Does put that move in context.
Also, the Yankees are rumored to structure the contract so that they pay for the most of Wells salary in 2013 and Angels pick up the tab in 2014. Angels agreed to pay $29MM. If the Yankees structure it in the way that Angels, say, pay $8MM in 2013 and $21MM in 2014, then not only would Wells salary not count against the Luxury Tax threshold in 2014, it would actually be a deduction.
The reason is that MLB counts AAV for luxury tax purposes, and Wells’s is $18MM. So, in 2014 — the year that Yankees want to be under the threshold — they would actually be $3MM better off for having Wells on the roster.
Does that change if they shitcan him? Then they’d get the $3M free AND the roster spot.
I see no reason why it should
I really hope the radar gun in Detroit ST stadium is way off.
What does it have Verlander throwing?
217
86-90 on the FB. But now I saw Hamels is in 82-86 range, so I am relieved
Two days later both have Tommy John.
I’m pretty sure frandsen is not concerned with any loss of velocity on Verlander’s part
Heh
took me a bit.
What about Macedonia v Northern Ireland?
Dammit. I just looked it up and realized that Northern Ireland is part of the UK, but not GB.
Nice!
is this really the only day after qualifiers chatter today? but there were so many thrilling ties to talk about! and a ghost penalty… and that stupid puto thing at azteca… and my poor guys, drowning in air… and i’m getting a little bored of spain… and i really do want to do a statistical analysis of the team that has historically affected the outcome of their games most from minute 89 onward (it’s brazil, right?)… and how did messi miss that??
I never knew the Atteca fans were saying “puto” on goal kicks. I thought maybe it was something nice like “vamos.” Should have known better.
literally the worst thing in soccer. even worse than germans doing the wave.
i had every intention of rooting for mexico yesterday. the fans made me reconsider very quickly. good tie. well earned.
Anyway, I felt kind of dirty about that draw, but a road point is a road point and I enjoy turmoil in the FMF.
The bigger news in Concacaf is that Panama is top of the Hex! Four of their remaining seven matches are against the USA and Mexico, so they’re probably still screwed, but their first World Cup finals is a realistic possibility.
i didn’t even realize that about panama. funny. i don’t think they’ll make it, but still. maybe they and montenegro should make a beer date for may 2014 and talk about how close they were.
I wouldn’t have given them a chance if they hadn’t smoked Honduras yesterday. They’ve got a lot of work to do, but it’s not impossible that they edge out the Catrachos for a couple of dates with New Zealand in November.
it’s a tough table to predict. still can’t tell who’s a shark floundering about or who’s an actual flounder. next date could very well turn out 2 ties and jamaica beating honduras. that would leave everybody with either 5 or 4 points nearly half way through. that’s pretty fun to think about. much funner than the dutch and their stupid win streak.
oh wait. panama would have 6.
Next round has:
Panama x Mexico
Jamaica x USA
Costa Rica x Honduras
But a few days before that, Jamaica will host Mexico in a match that was moved up to allow Mexico more time to prep for the Confed Cup.
Anything could happen in any of those matches.
oops. i jumped a week.
so 3 quick ones for mexico? that’ll probably help them gel actually.
Everyone gets three matches in a week and a half. Mexico and Jamaica just start their run of games three days earlier.
I’ll add this – if my calculations are correct, we will be neighbors come April 11th. Argentina should retain their #3 in FIFA Rankings, while Croatia should jump to #4
Forbes franchise valuations
So in eight years of ownership the value of Wolffish’s asset has increased about 400%. Plus they’ve made annual profits each and every year along the way. Pretty sweet return on investment.
the first billion is always the hardest
Probably why as long as he’s getting that check he’s more than willing to STFU and not push MLB over the stadium front. If they dropped that I’m sure he’d be quite loud and antsy about it.
They seem to be including Japan in the attendance numbers.
Trying to watch the Angels game with no sound. NNOTB uniforms have to stop. The rangers have their names on the back and I can follow them fine.
I wish the A;s would do it too. (Donaldson not withstanding)
I got back to my computer and it says “Pinch runnre: Luke Montz replaces Yonenis Cespedes”
No further info from new vince
OK, now Freiman replaces moss as a pinch runner.
I am thinking we are being careful on the final AZ gameday
Yeah, looks like all the starters are getting 1 AB.
What is a D’arby Myers
Can’t get enough of that bat flip. He might have thrown it over the backstop!
jeremy barfield HR
Read the thread, Ed.
yeah.
Adorable. I hope he makes it up for a cup of coffee this September.
He indicated it looks like he’s going back to Midland to start the season, so it’s probably a longshot.
Oh, really? That sucks. He was so excited to be getting the hell out of there.
Can’t assume too much. But this said enough for me:
Though today was good:
You gotta love a guy who describes himself as “currently stalled out in AA” and as having the “longest swing west of the Mississippi.”
And now:
Yeah, methinks he received some news today.
He seems to take things in good spirits at least.
He’s become one of my favorite A’s ‘personalities’, he’s good at twitter.
But yeah, he’s a great personality. I hope he comes to match that on the field.
I just hope he ends up good enough to hold down a 5th outfielder spot for a few years. Seems like a fun guy.
Looks like I get to meet Bob Melvin on Friday.
When he comes out his front door at 4 a.m. in his bathrobe to find out what the FK is going on?
are you going to the game? I am. (free ticket)
No, I’ll meet him earlier here.
The A’s just announced opening night is sold out. Naturally, there are still tickets being sold on the A’s website, including in the value deck.
No, if you click through past the opening screen they won’t sell you tix in Value Deck. The only sections available appear to be $50 Plaza Club (single seats only) and $75 MVP Infield. Deeming an event “sold out” when scattered single tickets still remain is pretty common practice for all teams.
There definitely was at least one value deck ticket available when I posted. It gave me the row and seat number when I clicked through. Gone now though.
Makes sense. It’s probably as legitimate a sellout as the A’s ever get, except for playoff Game 5s (where I paid more for a crappy SRO ticket via Stubhub than I did MVP Infield seats on the nevermoor plan).
Yeah, you should have just bought the full strip in the bleachers like I did. I ended up paying < $100 for the games I went to.
I don’t like sitting in the bleachers; I prefer to be able to see the whole field. But yes, in retrospect a full strip was the way I should have gone.
You could have left your socks on, but that would have just looked weird.
Interesting. The story doesn’t give us any context, but I wonder how involved the aggrieved agent to whom Cespedes owes money was with his exodus from Cuba and subsequent moves.
Talk about context free. But it is interesting
Two ends of the spectrum.
I spent part of today providing input for a piece to go to the White House chief of staff on inter-agency cooperation on Planck.
I also saw my favorite tabloid quote on the subject:
(And now I want a lab coat with “Advanced Boffin” written across the back)
“stars, galaxies etc” is pretty good too.
it sure is
Very cool!
I just got a mail from FIFA where they gave me the data for the last 3913 matches played among national teams worldwide (last four years). I will use it to devise a better national team ranking system, as the one FIFA uses is full of flaws
Among them:
1. Linear opponent value list
In current version each match value is multiplied with opponent strength factor. #1 is worth 200, everybody below 150 is worth 50 and the teams in between are worth 200-ranking
So, if you beat Spain(#1) and Syria(#150), you get the same points as beating Gabon(#75) twice
2. Opponent strength doesn’t play a factor if you lose
A loss always gives you 0 points for the match, regardless of whether you lost to Brazil or Trinidad & Tobago. Also it is not really 0, as FIFA Ranking is a rate stat
3. Home field and the score don’t play a factor in match value
Winning 5:0 away will give a team exactly the same value as winning 1:0 at home
4. Weighting is done wrong
Friendlies are weighted with 1, qualifiers with 2.5, continental cups with 3 and world cups with 4. Which, in itself, is nothing to loudly complain about. However, they are not weighted with that factor, but rather straight multiplied, meaning that it doesn’t really pay off to play friendlies. Case in point – Croatia could travel to Madrid for a friendly tomorrow, whip Spanish asses 10:0 and as a reward, they would actually drop in the rankings.
I hope to have the articles up after Easter (Croatian media) and am contemplating how to promote it for international market. I think it could generate some interest.
Any other ideas what to change?
Sounds awesome. SIFR-metrics?
Have you looked at Elo ratings? Seems like there are a lot of heuristics there, so possible room for improvement, but the framework is pretty widely used for this sort of thing.
damn, there goes my enthusiasm
Sorry.
No, thanks actually. It is a very good system. There are some things that I would change though. Put more weight on recent results as player fluctuation is rather frequent. Take field of play into account in their winning expectancy matrix. I’ll go through with it anyway
OK, they do take home field advantage into consideration, albeit by what seems to be an arbitrary number
Found through UniWatch:
http://oakland.athletics.mlb.com/oak/ticketing/throwback_thursday.jsp?affiliateId=E1H141P41H-108G
More soccer stuff for AV and another sign pointing towards Luis Suárez being a genuine
hijo de putaputo de hijo (what does his poor mother have to with him being an asshole, actually)” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen>
yeah, i saw that one live. and that ball went in btw. you guys have ope’d mine eyes to luis “el sucio” suarez. didn’t enjoy it when he scored against paraguay after spending all game being a personal nuisance to anyone around him.