In which we look at basketball analytics, complaints about ancient Rome, the latest dispatch from the imminent death of publishing, and the optics of spy satellites.
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- Where the Heat and the Thunder Hit Their Shots – Interactive Feature – NYTimes.com
The shooting patterns for the players on the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder reveal where they are most dangerous on the court. Below, compare each player’s strengths using court maps and analysis by Kirk Goldsberry, a geography professor at Michigan State.
- The Seven Plagues of the Ancient Roman City Dweller | The Getty Iris
Roman poetry is filled with entertaining rants against urban evils, which I revisited with glee while preparing for a gallery class I taught at the Getty Villa last month. Some of the most illuminating diatribes come to us from D. Iunius Iuvenalis (Juvenal), an embittered poet of the late first and early second centuries A.D. As translated by Peter Green, his verses showcase many of the irritants still encountered in city life today, from traffic jams to fashion requirements.
- eBooks Top Hardcover Revenues in Q1 of 2012 – GalleyCat
Your regular update from the publishing apocalypse. Which turns out not to be all that apocalyptic just yet…
- How well can the government spy on us via satellite? | Skulls in the Stars
if they had actually been used as spy satellites, what would these super telescopes have been able to see on the ground? It’s a fascinating question, and leads into a nice basic discussion of the optical resolution of imaging systems. In other words, what is the smallest detail that could be picked up by one of these telescopes in orbit?