The Weekend File - February 13, 2021
/
The Annual Argument Against Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day is upon us again. Despite the promulgation of sappy romance movies and the sudden explosion of red and pink romantic decor in early January, many people happily go with the flow, welcoming Valentine's Day as an affirmation of true love.
And of course, many people don't. Just as predictable and inevitable as the sappy movies are the V-day haters. The Atlantic has a roundup of all the arguments. Some are better than others.
Personally, I think it is another holiday that like most, should be used as a gentle reminder and a good excuse to let someone you care about know just how much while leaving out as much of the crass commercialism as you can.
What do you think, find the post of this newsletter on my Facebook page and let me know in the comments.
Legal & Business Reads
What are the most important statistical ideas of the past 50 years?
"We argue that the most important statistical ideas of the past half century are: counterfactual causal inference, bootstrapping and simulation-based inference, overparameterized models and regularization, multilevel models, generic computation algorithms, adaptive decision analysis, robust inference, and exploratory data analysis. We discuss common features of these ideas, how they relate to modern computing and big data, and how they might be developed and extended in future decades. The goal of this article is to provoke thought and discussion regarding the larger themes of research in statistics and data science."
Target Sued For Firing Employee Who Sought Leave For Personal Mental Health
A former team lead employee for a Philadelphia-area Target store has sued the company, claiming that his he was unlawfully fired while he was on job-protected medical leave for his personal mental health.
Biden Gets Two Vacancies To Fill On Influential D.C. Circuit Court
Judicial musical chairs are playing out well for President Biden on the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
Weekend Reads
Lawyers + Zoom Video Conferencing = Hilarious
Watch: Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself
Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself is a new kind of lyric poem. It is part magic performance, part mentalism, part performance art, and part poetry. It tells the story of a man fighting to see through the illusion of his own identity, only to discover that identity itself is an illusion. An intimate and powerful exploration of what it means to be and be seen, the film chronicles Derek DelGaudio’s attempt to answer one deceptively simple question, “Who am I?” His personal journey expands to a collective experience that forces us to confront the boundaries of our own identities. (Requires Hulu subscription)
Once Upon a Time in Central Florida Downside to Life in a Supertall Tower: Leaks, Creaks, Breaks”
The world’s most magical place is not somewhere you would ever hope to go. Admittance is sacred, special, and limited to the very few who are lucky enough to receive an all-expenses-paid trip to central Florida to be fêted as guests of honor, though some might say it is a very lack of luck or felicity that brought them here: a damning of atoms, a genetic wild card. To be lucky enough to visit this place, you will be unlucky enough to be a child with a critical illness, or someone in their constellation. But here, at Give Kids the World Village, these illnesses seem to matter a little less, if only for a week. Here you fly. Here, you are in most excellent company.
We’ve mapped Mars, the Moon, the solar system, even our own galaxy. Which means there is only one thing left to understand in this symbolic way and that is the entirety of the cosmos. Also, what is "dark matter" anyway?
