Roadkill_Bingo

Roadkill_Bingo OP t1_jcyyfdb wrote

Reply to The men's Sweet 16 field since 2000 visualized as the sum of total seeds [OC] by Roadkill_Bingo

There are 16 teams left in the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament. This chart is a proxy for frequency and/or magnitude of upsets (higher seed beating a lower seed) that have occurred at this stage since 2000.

The lowest possible aggregate seed total is 40 (each 1, 2, 3, and 4 seeds advance to sweet 16). The average since 2000 is 72. The year 2021 saw a record high total of 94. This year the total is 78.

Data: NCAA.com

Tool: Excel

90

Roadkill_Bingo t1_j84lfpb wrote

Reply to comment by Coloradostoneman in [OC] Sugarcane was first introduced to Brazil in 1532. Half a millennium later, the country produces over 700M tonnes yearly (roughly the same amount as all of Asia, and 7x the amount produced by Africa) by latinometrics

The point you raise is an important one. There’s no one way to do globalized trade without collateral damage. Specialized production has huge weaknesses in practice - just look at juggernaut oil producer Russia - it’s risky. The solution is not relying on Brazil for world ethanol production either.

My original critique was just pointing out the false narrative we’re given about ethanol production in the US. It’s marginally carbon negative and there are more productive ways to use the land in terms of climate change and/or human well-being. Food or grassland restoration, for instance.

2

Roadkill_Bingo t1_j82xdgd wrote

Reply to comment by Coloradostoneman in [OC] Sugarcane was first introduced to Brazil in 1532. Half a millennium later, the country produces over 700M tonnes yearly (roughly the same amount as all of Asia, and 7x the amount produced by Africa) by latinometrics

But think about what ethanol production is. It’s distillation. Turn sugar into alcohol, easy. Well grains are seeds, so by their nature they’re starchy, so you have to convert them into simpler sugars first before you ferment. Not even considering the differences in yield (of which corn is inferior to sugarcane), the production costs are much lower for sugarcane ethanol. Thinking globally, it just doesn’t make sense using that valuable Midwest US land to grow corn for ethanol knowing you can import it from the tropics.

But indeed, no arguments here. Corn is an amazing plant with an absurd number of uses.

4

Roadkill_Bingo t1_j8145pm wrote

Reply to [OC] Sugarcane was first introduced to Brazil in 1532. Half a millennium later, the country produces over 700M tonnes yearly (roughly the same amount as all of Asia, and 7x the amount produced by Africa) by latinometrics

Off topic but if the implementation of ethanol in the US was really about climate change, we’d import sugar cane from Brazil instead of subsidizing corn. Way more efficient in terms of caloric yields.

76