Posts from the ‘Arts & Culture’ Category

NBA Analytics article from Men’s Journal

The following is an excerpt from an article published by Men’s Journal in June 2015, called “The 4 Fallacies of NBA Analytics,” based on an interview with economist David Berri:

In recent years, basketball fans and writers have shed heavy pixels and ink on the ascendancy of geeks over jocks in pro sports. Heavy number crunching – complete with new stats and endless logarithms – have taken over the games we love.

And yet, according to one of the thinkers who sparked the statistical revolution, most NBA teams still don’t know squat about how to win with numbers. David Berri co-authored his now-classic Wages of Wins: Taking Measure of the Many Myths in Modern Sport nearly a decade ago. His work has focused on understanding which statistics most impact the desired outcome: winning.

“Wins in the NBA are determined by Read more

Chris Benjamin’s Favourite 2014 Reads

As has become an annual tradition, here are the books I most enjoyed reading in 2014 [Click on the image to visit the book’s goodreads page]:

Driven: How the Bathurst Tragedy Ignited a Crusade for Change by Richard Foot – A magazine assigned me this book to review. I’d never have read it otherwise. To my surprise it was really well written, touching and informative. It had many insights about the nature of social change and how different people respond to tragedy. If I weren’t a parent I might not have found it so powerful.

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Great Wall

“Great Wall” is a short story commissioned by Halifax playwright and actor Michael McPhee as part of the Doppler Effect’s Cadimus Protocol, a trans-media art project that imagines a world where “environmental cataclysm forces vigorous regulation of humanity’s procreation rate in order to balance our ecosystem.” So far it includes works of theatre, visual art, music and more.

Read “Great Wall” at http://cadimusprotocol.com/great-wall-story/.

Room with a view

This story first appeared in Atlantic Books Today in Fall 2013:

Author and publisher Lesley Choyce’s workspace offers an escape from the real world—but a window that frames the ocean view is essential.
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Bookmark’s for sale

This story first appeared in The Coast on Jan 17, 2014:

Atlantic Canada’s oldest indie bookstore seeks new ownership

Halifax’s only independent adult bookstore is for sale, along with its Charlottetown counterpart. Bookmark is the longest running independent bookstore in Atlantic Canada. Read more

True Crime

This story first appeared in The Coast on Nov 13, 2008:

A Halifax film crew is trailed while shooting a cybercrime doc. It’s no surprise to hacker mafiaboy. Read more