Facts of the day (9/9/24)

1. Brazilian rubber tapper Chico Mendes (1944–1988), known for his labor activism and advocacy for rainforest conservation and for the human rights of peasants and indigenous peoples, was assassinated in 1988 by a conspiracy of ranchers. He is the namesake of the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation of the Brazilian Ministry of Environment and Climate Change and of the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve, the largest extractive reserve in the Amazon.

Raul Julia won a posthumous Emmy for his role in The fire season (1994).

2. Anscombe’s quartet is a collection of four data sets that have identical or nearly identical descriptive statistics (e.g., sample mean, sample variance, first-order correlation, linear regression line) and yet look completely different when plotted. Frank Anscombe (1918-2001) created it, of course, to prove a point.

The Anscombe Quartet

The Datasaurus Dozen Further Proves Anscombe’s Point

3. Jerald terHorst (1922-2010), Gerald Ford’s first press secretary, resigned in protest of Ford’s decision to pardon Richard Nixon for all Watergate-related crimes. As a result, he was the first recipient of ASJA’s Conscience-in-Media Award.

terHorst was succeeded by Ron Nessen (1934- ), who is perhaps best remembered today as the presenter of the April 17, 1976 episode of Saturday Night Live.

Nessen was succeeded by Jimmy Carter’s controversial “Georgia Mafia” buddy Jody Powell (1943-2009) — responsible for leaking the Jimmy Carter rabbit incident — who once responded to a Danger! fan critic of Carter’s position on busing with,

One of the many burdens a governor must bear is having to read barely legible letters from idiots. I respectfully suggest that you take two running jumps and go straight to hell.

Powell was recruited by Ken Burns to provide the voice of Stonewall Jackson and other Confederate figures in The Civil War (1990).