RPI 2020 Off-season Overtime: In Memory of Turk181

[Ralph Baer]

Dr D,

I was a math TA when I was a grad student. In the summer of 1973, I taught an undergrad course in statistics because none of the profs wanted to teach it, and it was a way for me to earn some extra money over the summer and teach something different from the Freshman-Sophomore, Calc-DiffE sequence. Most of the students were in the BioMed program with Albany Med who had just completed their first year at RPI. They would receive their MDs in 1978. Although most of those students were quite intelligent, I would be concerned if some of them were involved in statistical inference. :-D


Edit: Part of my concern is that they learned statistics from me. ;-)

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 6 December 2020. In honor of Coach Vines and his staff, there are 300 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 2 October 2021 for the start of next season.

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 7 December 2020. There are 299 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 2 October 2021 for the start of next season.

[Ralph Baer]

In case I forget, the halfway point from our last game to a 7 PM start on 10/2/21 is at 8:45:30 AM on 12/16/20. We're almost there. ;-)

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 8 December 2020. There are 298 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 2 October 2021 for the start of next season.

[engineerhockeyfan]

Hockey East had eleven games scheduled last weekend. Only one of those games was played.
I just posted this for informational purposes only.

[Ralph Baer]

Hockey East had eleven games scheduled last weekend. Only one of those games was played.
I just posted this for informational purposes only.

Also for informational purposes :-D, Todd Burgess scored a goal for Mankato.

[Wicked Slappaahs]

JMH: Sorry for the delay in response - There is now a growing number of people in medicine who are slowing coming around to actually looking at the facts - much as you have. They are now beginning to believe that there are lies, D@mn lies and statistics. The numbers being provided and harped on just mean less as we dissect them. For example, what exactly does the growing number of positive tests being reported indicate? Are these all new cases, are they indeed new individuals with positive tests, or are they simply positive tests, many of which are repeat testing being done on already known positive cases to see if they have returned to a negative state? Who knows. Interesting that in some US states and some individual counties there are more positive tests reported than there are people living as residents of these areas. Just points out that we have to take each number with a little bit of suspicion.
Even the figures given for deaths due to COVID. Just how many are deaths actually caused by the virus versus those cases of deaths in people who died from whatever cause but had at the time of death a positive blood test? After all John Glenn's widow died at an age over 100, at which time I think she is entitled to die from whatever cause you which to list. But she allegedly had a positive blood test for COVID and so it was publicized that was the cause of her demise. I have personal knowledge of reports of people dying in car accidents, gunshot wounds, and suicide attempts that have been included in the tally of COVID deaths. And yes, i am also sure that there are other deaths listed that were not included but should have been.
As to the vaccines. When the statistics are given of their effectiveness, what does that number mean? if it means what percentage achieve a positive response in getting the appearance of antibodies, that is one thing. But what exactly does that indicate? Do the antibodies offer 100% effectiveness of preventing catching the virus? Does that mean the recipient cannot catch it at all, or does it mean they can catch it, not suffer any sequellae from it, but can still be able to pass it on to others and be contagious to them? We have been giving influenza vaccines in this country for more than 50 years. We get almost all eligible adults to take it. We get immune responses in virtually 100% of those who take the shot. Yet we only get about a 50% ability to prevent the virus from infecting that individual. And this, after 50 years of fine tuning and tinkering with the vaccines (we now give seniors like myself an HD dose containing 4 separate viruses and 4 times the concentration that those under 65 get). Bear in mind, that we still register over 50,000 deaths in this country alone from the flu in spite of all these vaccinations. Add to that that most deaths from influenza are never reported as such since the final event i often simply reported a pneumonia instead.
So what i am merely saying is that all these so called opinionated experts, especially those presented by the media, either are basing their opinions on flawed data, or simply do not know what they are talking about when they are being so ****ed predictive. We simply do not know and that is often the hardest thing for scientists and medical professionals to say. This is why i strongly suspect that the future for college hockey being played will be based more on what the powers that are in control of the decision want and plan than about any true scientific (medical data). Personally, with over 50 years of extensive medical experience, I can safely say, I DON"T KNOW and cannot even venture a guess. But my opinion is that we only needed to be locked down in some sort of quarantine until we had a better understanding of what we were dealing with and that period of time probably was in the range of 45-60 days. By then we knew that we needed to protect the elderly, the nursing homes, the already infirm, those with sever underlying co-morbidities. Would love for the lock down proponents to provide us all with the total number of deaths actually from COVID in otherwise healthy individuals under the age of 25-30. Then we could have had colleges open and dropped the puck a long time ago.
Just my opinion of course and end of rant!!

Great, great post Doc. In any profession, the willingness to admit what one doesn't know is skill that many lack...bravo! The "opioniated experts" as you so aptly described them aren't willing to discuss the method by which the padded infection and death rates that are publicly reported ARE ARRIVED AT. There are political and financial motivations to classify deaths as Covid-related, despite what the actual cause of death might be.

[rpi82]

Interesting that in some US states and some individual counties there are more positive tests reported than there are people living as residents of these areas.

Can someone point me to a reliable source that supports this claim? To be brutally honest, it sounds like the "more votes than residents" claim we heard about the election that proved to be 100% false. Certainly I don't know of any state with anywhere near as many positive cases as residents. Primarily we know two things about this disease: (1) It isn't as bad as the worst case scenarios that were painted (millions dead); and (2) It's far worse than the best case (no worse than the flu) scenarios. We have seen that it has an ability to fill ICU beds and tie up our medical system in a manner that hasn't been recorded in my lifetime. Given the fiasco that has been this college hockey season (at least here in the East) so far, I have no problem with cancelling our season. I still have a problem with preventing our team from the basics such as small group skills training, strength training, etc.

[Ralph Baer]

The 1963-64 season was the year before I arrived at RPI. It was the only year that Rube Bjorkman coached the team, and they finished #3 in the NCAA tourney. The roster at the Elite Prospects website https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/...1964?tab=stats shows forward Robert (Bob) Leaf and goalie Alan McNally, neither played in a game and neither is listed on Kurt Stutt's website. Both were on Cornell's roster the following year, and they played. https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/...1965?tab=stats. I recall both players at Cornell although I think Leaf played defense.

Does anyone know if they were indeed at RPI? Were they Harkness recruits who followed him to Cornell?

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 9 December 2020. There are 297 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 2 October 2021 for the start of next season.

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 10 December 2020. There are 296 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 2 October 2021 for the start of next season.

[Ralph Baer]

New episode of Takin' Neers https://open.spotify.com/episode/2cH...TIyumWK4J0aXcA

It was recorded quite a while ago.

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 11 December 2020. There are 295 days until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 2 October 2021 for the start of next season.

[Ralph Baer]

Today is 12 December 2020. There are 294 days (42 weeks) until RPI's next game.


This is based upon 2 October 2021 for the start of next season.