NBA Finals Charts

The NBA is getting a rematch for the finals.  The Warriors will seek to defend their title against Lebron James and the rest of the currently red hot Cavaliers.  Last year the Warriors won by playing a suffocating defense that held Cleveland to far under their season average ORTg, twice under a rating of under 100.  This year it looks like it will be a bit different, after the Warriors have beaten all comers with an offensive barrage all season.  The Cavs are well rested though, and have Kevin Love has been playing great ball, shooting 55.6% TS%. 

I think this series goes the distance,as the Cavs do pose a length issue that the Warriors have struggled with against the Thunder.  The faster pace that the Warriors play at wont really hurt the Cavs so much, since theyve been shooting lights out from distance so far.  With Curry being injured and Draymond Green not playing great ball (and the Cavs have plenty of instigators to possibly get him T'd up and suspended), I think the Cavs avenge last season's defeat. 

The Super Bug

Recently making the rounds across my Facebook has been the headline about a form of E Coli that has been found to be resistant to one of the so called last resort drugs.  The article is full of doom and gloom about, which, while severe is not as dire as the article makes it sound.  THis Arstechnica article does an excellent job of following up with some facts about the specific strain of E Coli, and helps bring a rationale view of the hysteria.

I'd like to instead talk a little bit about the reaction I've seen.  It has fallen in line typically with the hysteria that we're all about to be wiped out by super bugs, and that the drug companies are all just greedily making sure we're ill to sell more drugs.  To the first point, here in the US we are very unlikely to fall victim to death by super bug.  There are actually quite a few antibiotics of last resort, which will still be effective going forward.

The other issue of Drug Companies just being greedy to keep folks just well enough to go on makes very little sense.  The development of a new drug is very complicated.  Not only do the companies need to find solutions that don't utilize past cures, since bacteria will already have an immunity to that.  They also must be precisely calibrated to make sure that it also does not just wipe out all of the good bacteria you have that helps with every day life.  It also does not compute that a company would suddenly stop profiting if it found a new resistant antibiotic.  If a company was able to find a prescription that would be impervious to bacteria learning to cope, it would make them the sole remaining company with all the profit of people continuing to buy only that drug when they got sick. 

Of course, this all goes without addressing the real issue of over prescription, which falls upon us, the consumer.  Doctors respond to incentives, and for most folks that means that they must get something in return for having paid the bill and taken the time to go to the doctor's office.  We demand a prescription since we could not accept that  all of that effort was just for the physician to say we needed to wait a week to get better.  This is truly what will help with these super bugs, not hysteria and pointing fingers at someone else.

Los Links May 26th

A flexible solar battery 
This article describes this as the next step for wearables, which solar would be a pretty great idea for.  However, these seem pretty fragile for the wearable market as it is currently oriented for folks doing athletic feats

Fastest data transfer ever, 
This is pretty exciting news.  Being able to send data wirelessly at these speeds could possibly mean big things for emergency areas or data transfer in space

 A shocking way to save money, 
I'm not sold that this nudge will work particularly well.  If you were consistently over spending, you would just remove the wearable.  I prefer something that wagers your cash against you spending it, since that has a quick direct impact.

 Smelly socks and washers
Not exactly certain the real purpose of this study.  Basically it just says that yes, washing your clothes willmake them smell less.  I guess not all research can be great right?

Los Links: 5/21/2016

Coming soon to us hopefully,
Always is interesting where the real improvements come from.  Obviously we won't get supercharged racing engines, but it would be nice to get some of the improvements.

  3D map confirms Einstein was smart,
This one should have been obvious.

  The auto translating earpiece,
This likely will be a bit of a mess at first.  But its the right first step to a universal translator.

  8 Minutes of Steph Curry
Yeah, this is pretty impressive to watch.

Imperial Assault: RGC List

One of the games that my group has picked up recently has been Star Wars: Imperial Assault Game by Fantasyflight Games.  Its a Star Wars skinned version of their previously good Dungeon Crawl game Descent.  The skirmish version allows you to build a small squad sized army to fight out a battle defined by some specific objectives. 

This past weekend I broke out my favorite list currently that features a Royal Guard Champion, 2 Elite Stormtrooper squads, 2 Regular Imperial Officers and an Elite Probe Droid (like what Han Solo shoots on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back).  The RGC hits like a truck, and is able to move in and out fire with the help of the Officers using their Order ability to give him extra movements.  The real star this past weekends game though was the Probe Droid.  Previously I had discounted this little unit, mostly because the regular version is so flimsy.  The Elite version though, with its two Yellow attack dice and recover 2 damage surges can prove to be a real thorn int he side for a lot of players trying to kill it. 

This weekend I was able to also use it to good effect with the RGC.  I was playing a friend of mine who was running a rebel trooper list with Leia, Gideon, C3-P0, and some troopers.  After a few turns, the probe droid and the RGC were able to maneuver into point blank range of Leia and the last two troopers of the unit.  The probe was left with just a single health, so I decided to activate self destruct with it.  I rolled two damage onto Leia, the troopers and the RGC.  However, this defeat allowed the RGC to interrupt and move up to attack Leia.  I swung well, and his blank defense die allowed her to die.  Having initiative this next turn allowed me to finish off the trooper group and win the match. 

This next week I'll try to get a more in depth battle report, along with pictures. 

NBA Conference Finals Charts

So, I slacked a bit on getting these charts done at each stage.  Its because I've been playing around with some javascript libraries to be able to make them much more interactive.  I'm hoping I'll have a chance to get something put together for the finals, but we'll see if the regular work schedule will allow it.

 

In the East, the Raptors finally got of the schneid and won a playoff series.  They then followed it up with a tough and physical series with the Heat, where they were able to grind out a lot of tough points on a very slow pace of just 87.  They'll go in as underdogs against the Cavs, who despite being tested a bit by the Hawks were able to sweep the series and get a good amount of rest.  Both teams play at a similar pace, and the Raptors make up a bit of the less efficient shooting by getting to the line at a better rate.  The Cavs are still the team to beat in the East, but Toronto should be able to push them to at least 6 games.

 

The Warriors have laid waste to everyone in front of them this year.  Including the Thunder, three times already  Has anyone forgotten Curry's WTF!?!? three to kill them?

It still doesnt seem like it should have gone in.  The Thunder do have a big advantage on the offensive glass, so if they can continue to play defense like they did against the Spurs, this could be a series.  Still the Warriors have all the weapons, and are just such an adept shooting team that they should win in 6.

Los Links: 5/12/2016

So many places to visit
The Kepler probe found a whole bunch of new planets, with at least a few in a nice habitable zone around their stars.


More NASA items enter the public domain,
I do always love seeing the things NASA ends up adding to the public domain.  A lot of it is of course things that commercial companies already have, but some of the thruster technology might be interesting to see if serious amateurs could put together.

  One can only hope this comes to pass,
I loved BattleBots as a kid (and a British version that I remember watching on PBS late at night with my Dad.  I cant remember its name though).  This of course is just the next evolution of it.

  With friends like these....
 This study saddened me a bit, just because I'd like to think the friends I've made are a bit more friendly.  But maybe I'm overestimating it all?

Denver Broncos rookie Predictions

The dust has settled from the NFL draft a few weeks ago, and overall I was fairly just 'meh' about the Broncos' draft.  I think the move up for Lynch was a good tactical one if JE thinks he's the man for the future.  I am intrigued by Gostis, since he's pretty raw but looks to have a higher ceiling than his draft grade might have been without his ACL injury.  Not very big on taking a FB though.  Its a positon that to maximize you really begin to limit yourself in the mdoern game (especially the passing game, where if you bring in a TE as well you really will fail to pressure a team on the back end).  So I was not so stoked as the draft went along.  But, I wanted to toss out a few  predictions that may or may not come to pass

1. Paxton Lynch will have a start by Week 10, but will have no more than 3 starts this season.  I think Lynch is extremely raw, and would greatly benefit from having a season holding the clipboard.  However, I think the pull to start a rookie first rounder will have such a strong appeal for Kubes, and Mark Sanchez might not be able to play up to keeping him on the bench.

2. Riley Dixon will win the punting job, but will post numbers similar to Colquit last season.  Rookie punters tend to average about 43 yards a punt, and they tend to struggle overall.

3. Will Parks leads the team in Special Teams tackles with 12.  He's a super athletic player that will likely replace David Bruton's production as a special teams ace, and I think he'll beat out the new FB who played well at Nebraska in that role. 

4. Devontae Booker will get only 45 carries or fewer this season.  Most Broncos fans are very down on Ronnie Hillman.  I think he ends up leading the team in rushing this year, and he and CJ form a fantastic tandem. This will lead to only a few touches for the very talented former Utah Ute, who I think could use a season of little wear and tear after a ton of touches in college.