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2020-11-28 Links

FEMA Natural Disaster Hazard Index

The National Risk Index is a new, online mapping application from FEMA that identifies communities most at risk to 18 natural hazards. This application visualizes natural hazard risk metrics and includes data about expected annual losses, social vulnerabilities and community resilience.

The National Risk Index’s interactive web maps are at the county and census tract level and made available via geographic information system (GIS) feature services for custom analyses. With this data, you can discover a holistic view of community risk to natural hazards via online maps and data.

Awoken Giants

In theory, liberalism could have mothballed its mytho-symbolic arsenal once equal rights had been achieved for disenfranchised groups. It could have remained agnostic about the merits of majority and minority culture. But the liberal army was a living, breathing force, inspiring loyalty, meaning, and identity among its followers. The liberal conscience collective became a distinct entity from liberal principles, complete with its myth of the avant-garde and memories of struggle. The liberal community became willing to violate liberal principles to maintain solidarity and meaning.

Programming Pearls

10 Pieces of Engineering Advice

  1. Work on the right problem.
  2. Explore the design space of solutions.
  3. Look at the data.
  4. Use the back of the envelope.
  5. Exploit symmetry.
  6. Design with components.
  7. Build prototypes.
  8. Make trade-offs when you have to.
  9. Keep it simple.
  10. Strive for elegance

Bayesian NFL Modeling

I’m trying to answer what I think should be a simple question. A friend shared the Eagles expected draft position, and I noticed that despite have only 3 wins, they have only the 8th worst record. There are a lot of NFL teams with bad records this year! Is this amount unusual?