Thứ Ba, 10 tháng 9, 2013

COOL GRAPHIC: Where NFL Quarterbacks Throw, Visualized

Jamie Condliffe at Gizmodo passes along this way-cool illustration of NFL passes by Kirk Goldsberry:


It’s very rare for an NFL quarterback to complete a pass in which the intended receiver is standing more than 45 yards from the line of scrimmage. In fact, NFL quarterbacks only attempted 175 such throws during the entire regular season last year, and only 48 resulted in completions. Joe Flacco was responsible for six of them.

Until recently, this kind of factoid was hard to uncover, but like every other sport, football’s analytics are evolving quickly. Thanks to new forms of data and emerging kinds of analyses, teams, media, and fans are gaining new insights into on-field performances. I have been exploring one such data set, a giant collection of highly detailed passing data created and maintained by ESPN’s Stats & Information group...

...During the 2012 regular season, NFL quarterbacks attempted more than 19,000 passes and completed more than 11,500; the chart above shows the location of nearly every pass. Dots are placed in spots nearby the receiver or the intended receiver. In the cases of out-of-bounds throwaways, those dots are placed at the sideline near where the ball went out of bounds. The color of the dot corresponds to the league’s overall completion percentage in that zone...

If you're a football fan, check out all the graphs. The level of detail will blow your mind and -- not that you need it -- help you kick butt in Fantasy Football.


Hat tip: BadBlue Tech News.

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE? One Year Later, the Families of the Benghazi Dead and Wounded Want Answers

Guest post by Investors Business Daily


Scandal: As cruise missiles are readied to aid Syria's al-Qaida-linked rebels, the president has yet to keep a promise to avenge the Benghazi dead and bring the killers to justice.

A year has passed since Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Glen Doherty, Sean Smith and Ty Woods were murdered in a Sept. 11 terrorist attack on our diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.

A month later, Obama said of the attack that "my biggest priority now is bringing those folks to justice, and I think the American people have seen that's a commitment I'll always keep."

That depends on what he means by "bringing them to justice." It's not like we don't know who they are or we have failed to finger the suspects. As an Associated Press report detailed in May:

"The U.S. has identified five men who might be responsible for the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year, and has enough evidence to justify seizing them by military force as suspected terrorists, officials say. But there isn't enough proof to try them in a U.S. civilian court as the Obama administration prefers."

So we essentially do nothing while the FBI "continues to investigate." The status of that investigation came up over the weekend as "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace invoked the approaching first anniversary of the attack and asked White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough why the perpetrators hadn't been brought to justice.

Wallace was especially interested in why the U.S. had not brought in Ahmed abu Khattala, who has been charged with the crime but not arrested, despite having given interviews to several news outlets.

"Why is it that reporters seem to be able to find this guy, who the government is charging with involvement in Benghazi, but law enforcement can't find him?" Wallace asked. "It's been a year, sir."

"The United States government does what it says, and we will do what we say in this instance, as we do in every other instance," McDonough said as he tap-danced in response to Wallace's repeated queries as to why the AP can find him, the New York Times can find him, but the U.S. government can't.

At an Aug. 9 press conference, Fox News correspondent Ed Henry reminded the president of his words last year about getting the Benghazi perpetrators. "Eleven months later, where are they, sir?" Henry asked in a question that did not sit well with the commander in chief.

"I also said that we'd get bin Laden, and I didn't get him in 11 months," was Obama's testy response. "So we have informed, I think, the public that there is a sealed indictment. It's sealed for a reason, but we are intent on capturing those who carried out this attack."

By the way, Mr. President, you didn't build that mission. Bin Laden was killed while you were president, not because you were president.

Bin Laden was indicted once, too. But in the end, it was a team of Navy SEALs not intent on reading him his Miranda rights that killed him in a daring raid on his compound in Pakistan. They locked and loaded and left the search warrants behind. It was a mission aided by the very "enhanced interrogation techniques" that President Obama despises.

The president wanted to try Khalid Sheik Muhammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attack on New York City and Washington, D.C., who still enjoys free room and board courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer, in a civil court just blocks from Ground Zero. He wants to try the Benghazi terrorists in civil court as well, instead of just going and grabbing them and bringing them to justice as promised.

Meanwhile, the deaths of Stevens, Doherty, Smith and Woods have not been avenged. Justice has been delayed and therefore denied. Maybe in President Obama's mind he's thinking, "What difference does it make now?"


Read More At Investor's Business Daily

SENDING A MESSAGE: The Comic Strip

Stilton Jarlsberg of Hopenchange Cartoons is as talented an illustrator and writer that we have operating today. This is his latest.

[Regarding] today's cartoon, all we'll say is that if you want to send a message to someone, then you should send them the message - not send it to a random neighbor.

But sadly, we think that Iran has already received Barack Obama's "message" loud and clear: he will not prevent either their acquistion or use of nukes.

Because this president believes that Middle East "peace" will only be achieved when the entire Middle East is under the dictatorial control of radical Islam. And he seems to be doing everything possible to make it happen.

[And t]o make absolutely certain that the "message to Iran" will be unmistakably clear, John Kerry has just announced that any military action taken against Syria for using prohibited weapons will be "unbelievably small."  No doubt to match a foreign policy which is unbelievably stupid.

Bookmark Stilton's site. This guy's the real deal.


Hat tip: R.F.

Hey, Old Media Clowns: If We're Really In a "Recovery", Why Is One-Sixth of the U.S. on Food Stamps?

You can't browse a vintage media newspaper or website without seeing the assertion that the U.S. is in "a recovery".

Really? How so?

The Labor Force Participation Rate just hit a 34-year low.

And food stamp usage continues to explode, the product of rampant fraud, Obamacare's destruction of full-time employment, and the fact that welfare pays better than work.

Food-stamp use grew 2.3% in June from a year earlier, with nearly one-sixth of the U.S. population receiving benefits.

Illinois showed the largest enrollment increase from last year with a 14.7% gain, according to Agriculture Department data released Friday. Wyoming was in second place, with rolls up 11.1% since the same time last year. Utah experienced the largest annual decline in food-stamp use, dropping 11.2%, among a dozen states to post a decrease. (Enrollment also decreased in Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington.)

One of the largest social safety net programs in the United States, food stamps – formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP – expanded substantially during and after the recession, with enrollment rising about 70% from 2007 to 2011. At the same time, the government also temporarily increased benefits and allowed users in the hardest-hit areas to receive aid for longer-than-usual periods of time. The average monthly benefit was $133 last year.

Critics clamor against what they see as a disturbing rise in government dependency. But new economic research suggests the program’s expansion isn’t alarming and can, in fact, be explained by business cycles.


Yo, antique media clowns: it's called The Cloward-Piven Strategy. Look it up. That is, if you want to stop retyping press releases from the White House and doing actual reporting for a change.

I know, I'm a dreamer.


Hat tip: BadBlue News.

Warning - Obamacare May Be Hazardous to Your Health: Heritage Unveils Massive Times Square Billboard

Founded in 1973, The Heritage Foundation is the single most important legislative research and educational institution in the world. And it is doing yeoman's work educating Americans on the unfolding catastrophe called "Obamacare".

We’ve talked a lot about Obamacare’s costs—how it will hurt the economy, kill jobs, and cost you and your family more when you pay for health care.

But there’s an even more important cost: your health.

Obamacare will affect the quality of care in this country. It will limit the choices we have in doctors, hospitals, and treatments. People are already learning that their trusted doctors aren’t going to be available to them in the new insurance plans Obamacare is forcing them into.

And disrupting your relationship with your doctor is not how health care reform should be.

...Our new billboard in the heart of New York City will be installed this week to get people thinking and to raise awareness about the need to stop Obamacare.

Why? Because we don’t want to see people lose their health coverage—and the doctors they trust.

We don’t want to see access to treatments and procedures determined by government boards, putting bureaucrats between doctors and patients.

We don’t want to see seniors’ care suffer because of Obamacare’s cuts to Medicare.

We don’t want to see millions of Americans dumped into Medicaid—because it is not quality health care... We can’t stand by and watch these threats to our health and our families’ health go unchallenged. We must stop Obamacare.

We need to defund Obamacare so that we can start over on health care reform, with a blank slate, with solutions that leave health care decisions firmly in the hands of individuals and their doctors.


Contract your House Representative now and demand they de-fund Obamacare. The Framers gave the House the power of the purse for a reason: to check and balance an out-of-control Executive Branch.

And that's precisely what we have today. Call your representative now. The clock is ticking on our health care system and lives hang -- quite literally -- in the balance.


Related: HEALTH CARE INSIDER: Obamacare Has Two Fatal Flaws Designed to Kill Health Insurers, Bring About Single-Payer.

Kickstarter: World War III

Incredibly funny because it's so incredibly true.


Because Obama, betch.

With every donation over $100, you get a piece of rubble kissed by Lindsey Graham.


Hat tip: iOwnTheWorld

Larwyn's Linx: House GOP Leaders Think You're as Dumb as They Are

Send us tips! Bloggers: install a Larwyn's Linx widget. Get real-time news, 24/7, at BadBlue.

Nation

House GOP Leaders Think You're as Dumb as They Are: Erick Erickson
Fundamentally Transforming the United States of America: Roger Kimball
Unmistakable Fear of Liberty Amendments Begins to Infect the Left: Kuznicki

Washington, D.C. denial of 2-million bikers backfires!: NoisyRm
BWAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!: Vulgar Curmudgeon
What Happens When Citizens Get Fed Up With Speed Cameras: Blaze

Pete Sessions Latest Texan to Run Scared From De-Funding: Erick Erickson
The Implications of Fundamental Change: David Limbaugh
Syria and Obama: Thomas Sowell

Economy

Now Time Warner Dumping Retirees Into Obamacare Exchanges: LoneCon
Just How Distorted is the U.S. Unemployment Rate Number?: Mish
Once Again, the Private Sector Delivers More Help for the Poor: Elephant

Scandal Central

Holder, former IRS chief taught black churches how to skirt tax code: Joe Saunders, BPR
13 Leftists With Ties to Obama and Jeremiah Wright Tied to Massive Grant Fraud: Eric Odom
Impeach Attorney General Holder - for Justice's Sake: Clarice Feldman

Climate & Energy

Lengthy Senate report details EPA FOIA abuses: Exam
Bundle Up: Global Warming Is Over: MB
Former EPA chief Lisa Jackson returns to familiar hot seat: Andrew Restuccia

Media

Surrender in the Culture Wars: Fred On Everything
Coulter: Putin Making a Monkey Out of Obama; Left in Full Race Card Meltdown: FAM
RFK, Jr. Secret Sex Diary Revealed: Kept Scorecard of Conquests: Tammy Bruce

An Invitation to Our Friends on the Left: Scoop
An Answer For Barbra Streisand's Stupid Question: Jean Paul Zodeaux, Downtrend
Paul Krugman is Blithering Idiot: Jean Paul Zodeaux

Sarah Palin: Forget Syria — It’s time to bomb Obamacare: Twitchy
Confounded on the Rehm Show: CAMERA
Alina Cho Departs CNN: A Recap of Her Worst Bias at the Network: Matt Hadro

World

Australia Demonstrates How Conservatives Can Win Against the Marxist Left: Blasted Fools
Barack and Malik Obama, Muslim Brotherhood, US Consulates and Billions of Your Money: MagNote
Israel's Defense minister ridicules notion of democracy in Mideast: Times of Israel

Obama Inc. Spends $1 Billion on Syrian Aid, Cuts Pay for US Soldiers: Daniel Greenfield
“Unbelievably small” describes a number of things about Sec. of State John Kerry: Sister Toldjah
The Biggest Mega-Mosque in Scandinavia: Soeren Kern, Gatestone

Bashar al-Assad Coldly Asks: 'What Red Line?': Brian Resnick
The Myth of the Moderate Syrian Rebels: Daniel Greenfield
Gold treasure trove unearthed at base of Temple Mount: Times of Israel

Sci-Tech

4 Trends Pushing Startup Changes: Jeff Carter
Supposed iPhone 5S User Guide brands fingerprint sensor as ‘Touch ID’: Benjamin Mayo, 9to5Mac
You Can Now Stream Video From Android to Roku: Jamie Condliffe, Gizmodo

Cornucopia

"Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus have a sword fight.": 27bslash6
Bikers Rolling On DC To Save America #2MillionBikersToDC: Zilla
To punish Syria, Obama urged to send his economic advisers, not missiles: Andrew Malcolm

Image: Gold treasure trove unearthed at base of Temple Mount
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Sign the Petition - Don't Fund Obamacare!

QOTD: "S&P's answer [to the Holder Department of Justice's] prosecution isn't really about 2008, or the years preceding it. It's about 2011, when S&P was the one major credit-rater that dared to downgrade the U.S. Treasury, stripping the government of the triple-A rating it had held for 70 years.

...now we know that Moody's has not been charged in the Justice suit. Coincidentally, Moody's counts among its owners Berkshire Hathaway, run by Obama pal Warren Buffett[, y]et Moody's had a rating identical to S&P's on nearly every tranche of every security mentioned in the lawsuit. All of which raises the question posed by federal Judge David Carter of the Central District of California in a recent court hearing: "Where's Moody's?"

...[T]his case has the aroma of political payback. So it's welcome news that Judge Carter is giving S&P the opportunity to conduct discovery to determine what government officials were saying to each other about this case before and after the 2011 downgrade. A deposition of Attorney General Eric Holder would be a good start." --WSJ