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Posts Tagged ‘Height’

For N.B.A. Hopefuls, Zip Code Matters

We’ve blogged before about the (relatively small) effect of birth month on athletic excellence.  But how does birth location affect a potential athlete? In The New York TimesSeth Stephens-Davidowitz  calculated the probability of getting to the N.B.A. by Zip codeHe found that players like LeBron James, born to a low-income teenage mom, are the exceptions to the rule:

I recently calculated the probability of reaching the N.B.A., by race, in every county in the United States. I got data on births from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; data on basketball players from basketball-reference.com; and per capita income from the census. The results? Growing up in a wealthier neighborhood is a major, positive predictor of reaching the N.B.A. for both black and white men. Is this driven by sons of N.B.A. players like the Warriors’ brilliant Stephen Curry? Nope. Take them out and the result is similar.





How's the View Up There?: A Q&A With the Author of The Tall Book

In The Tall Book, Arianne Cohen relies on insights from her own life (including a brief stint as one half of the world’s tallest couple), and research from economists and scientists to shed light on the pros and cons of life as a really tall person.



Prediction: David Gregory Will Be a Great Meet the Press Host

It looks like David Gregory has been selected by NBC to replace the late Tim Russert as host of Meet the Press. I predict he will flourish. Why? I don’t know much about his talent, since I’ve rarely seen him on TV. My prediction is based on the fact that he is, by my reckoning, approximately 17 feet tall. He . . .



The Most Surprising Thing I Learned Today

The most surprising thing I learned today comes from the opening paragraph of a paper by Anne Case and Christina Paxson: In late 19th Century Europe, adult height was attained at age 26. This is just one reminder of how radically life has changed in the last 100 years. At least in the developed world, we have moved from a . . .