Quantitative and formal analysis of international relations, comparative politics, and American politics.
Michael A. Allen 3 Quarks Daily is hosting its 3rd Annual 3QD Politics & Social Science Prize for "best blog writing in politics & social science:" As usual, this is the way it will work: the nominating period is now open, and will end at 11:59 pm EST on December 3, 2011. There will then be a round of voting by … Read more
I listen to several podcasts each work during my daily commute to and from the office. One podcast, the Skeptics Guide to the Universe (SGU), has several segments each week, with a few discussing scientific findings. My favorite is a game for the panel where three scientific research findings are offered and the panelists guess which … Read more
This post is written by Ben Farrer whose account is currently down. I’m starting to strongly dislike academic titles that take the form: “Metaphor For x: Actual Description Of x”, or similar, and am venting my frustration with a game. As an example of the type I dislike, one of my own undergraduate essays was … Read more
Karl Bowman offers a list of the top 10 worst graphs in the scientific literature. Bowman not only critiques each graph, but also offers suggestions to improve the graph in the future. For this list, the social sciences were not included. I imagine that we have some relatively uninformative displays in our articles, but I have … Read more
If you are not subscribed to these two comics, then this will be new to you. If you already have them on your RSS feed, well, you get to suffer their propagation.* The ever-linkable XKCD offers the rational incentives on leaving reviews for hotels (and other places). Poor reviews may drive demand down, which should … Read more
Estranged academics, individuals in the private sector, and the public at large can rejoice (a bit) as JSTOR has officially announced that it will make American articles and journals published before 1923 publicly available. Journals published prior to 1870 in other countries will also be made available. The official announcement states: I am writing to … Read more
Penny Arcade, a comic that usually discusses video games and the video game industry, weighs in on Jonathan’s Card–apparently, homo economicus can gain utility by not only defecting and receiving the largest share possible, but also gains utility purely by gaming the experiment. Unfortunately, it appears the test has come to an end (Starbucks deactivated … Read more
I have mentioned, in a previous post, all of the books that fill up my summer reading list. As of now, I have at least one book completed and several more have been added to my list. I have recently finished The Future of Political Science: 100 Perspectives, a collection of 100 short articles aimed at discussing what … Read more
This is a partial bleg post. While finishing up some weekly chores in the laundromat I realized that my kindle was quickly running out of content and needed some fresh additions. Summer can be a good time to catch up on reading that we intended to do during the semester or to check off some … Read more
The New York Times (this may cost you one of your monthly alloted articles) reports on a new article by Levitt and Miles that argues that poker is a game of skill and not a game of chance. The policy-relevant implications for the study deals with legalization – several prohibitions against poker are codified with … Read more