drengr ᛏᚱᛁᚾᚴᚱ (n., Old Norse)
Rock-standing, sea-ringed,
reckless-nerved, reliant on none.
No borrowed courage. Only his own.
The níðingr is the other name-
coward-soft, craven in bearing.
Two faces of one failure.
Death-easy they took for granted.
The harder ask: self-command.
Fair-minded, honor-bound,
doing right when only the gods watch.
Danger does not break him.
Life and limb are the smaller stakes.
What breaks him is the deed
that cannot stand beside his name.
He does not flinch at death.
He flinches at shame.
a skaldic poem by Dustin Landers
Recent Writing
All posts →I Want to Be Batman. So I Did the Math.
The thing that makes Batman work is not the muscles, the gadgets, or the money. It is fear. I went in skeptical of my own hunch. Here is where it held, and where it broke.
I. Am. Robin Hood.
I decided I was Robin Hood. Now I'm $455 in, with nothing to show for it but a string of encounters I cannot fully explain to my wife.
Why F1 Overtaking Broke
I analyzed nearly 2,000 overtakes across four seasons of F1 data and found the mathematical balance that made wheel-to-wheel racing possible- and the regulation change that shattered it.
Library
All items →How a Turbocharger Works
A simple interactive diagram. Drag the throttle and watch hot exhaust spin the turbine, which spins the compressor, which forces more air into the engine.
HTML/JSThe Batman Zone
An interactive decision map. Drag certainty and the system's ability to act, and watch the inequality tip into the one corner where a masked vigilante is the right tool.
HTML/JSThe Lore Gap: A Star Wars Planet Data Audit
120 planets. 8 data fields each. Which eras of Star Wars actually documented their worlds — and which ones just named them? A completeness audit from original trilogy to Disney+.
About
Dad, data scientist, aspiring race driver, discoverer of truths, builder of things people use, one badass motherfucking writer, and also- Iwould say- talented at making my wife blush. Background in data, tech, math, stats, politics, biology. I used to write stories as a kid. This is my corner of the internet- some of it is serious data journalism with real statistical rigor. Some of it is not serious at all. Editorials, essays, stories. No promises on merit.
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