Academic Fun

BRAINZ!… Zombie Movies and War, An Odd Correlation

by

I have to admit, when I first read the post “War and Social
Upheaval Causes Spikes in Zombie Movie Production” , I was a bit skeptical
about the conclusion that was drawn dealing with the correlation between
war and the number of zombie movies produced in a given year. So I collected
data and ran a model. As it turns out, there is a statistically significant
relationship between the number of zombie movies produced and whether a war was
fought within a two year time period. 

More after the jump…

Read more

Graduate Students do not face Grues

by

…but they do face dissertations.  Orgtheory provides a link to Violet – an award winning text based adventure of a graduate student attempting to finish 1,000 words on his dissertation. Make sure you write! Bonus: MC Frontalot on the dangers of Grues and text based adventures. Edit: The game was quite the procrastination tool and … Read more

Dinosaur Comics and the Ultimatum Game

by

While Dinosaur Comics tends to touch on relevant political and philosophical issues, this intersection between game theory and experimental economics was worth reposting: It also gave me the opportunity to drop a line to Ryan North and recommend the Heller and Sieberg article on the FU Factor. Michael A. AllenMichael A. Allen is an Associate … Read more

As seen on the IR Rumor Mill

by

Something many statisticians fear: Note: the original image showed three pumpkins with “endogeneity” carved across them. This photo seems lost to time, so I found a replacement that works. Michael A. AllenMichael A. Allen is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Boise State University. His research focuses on international conflict, military alliances, and quantitative … Read more

Note to self: the world loves 2×2 tables.

by

It appears that one cannot go wrong with something as simple as a two-by-two table (produced in Excel) in a blog post.  The three biggest traffic generating posts that I have personally done involve the Prisoner’s Dilemma (it is about a 2×2 game!) that received link love from Freakonomics, the Dark Knight Ferry game which … Read more

Bayesian Statistics engages in Pre-9/11 Thinking….

by

Going through Jeff Gill’s Bayesian text book when I came across the line: From the Bayesian perspective, there are two types of quantities: known and unknown. (43) This seems to be from the pre-9/11 school of thought as Rumsfeld* has us living in a more complicated world: I guess technically I should exclude unknown knowns … Read more

Einstein’s 23 Biggest Mistakes

by

Einstein is probably the first image conjured in popular culture when asked to think of famous scientists, especially those that transformed the way in which we understand the world.  It has been popularly acknowledged that he failed math as a child, though this is not true: In 1935, a rabbi in Princeton showed him a … Read more

Pirates, the Dark Knight, and more Game Theory

by

Presh Talwalkar at Mind Your Decisions has posted a decent piece on another game theoretic situation from the opening scene in the Dark Knight (contains mild spoilers): The original plan of equal division is flawed. Each robber has incentive to increase his share by killing a fellow team member. Once a member performs his job, he loses … Read more

Browsing History and Gender Identity

by

The Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science blog posted an interesting tool (direct link) that attempts to discern your gender identity by evaluating your browser history.  Particular websites are weighted based on the known gender ratio of the user base for that particular website and creates a new score.   The site assures users it … Read more

The Dark Knight and Game Theory

by

If you have not already seen The Dark Knight, then you should read this post at a later time as to avoid spoilers after the jump.  Otherwise, follow the jump for a game theoretic discussion derived from the movie that has already broken two box office records for both best midnight opening and top first day revenue.  I personally enjoyed the movie immensely, but that discussion does not follow.

So, officially, consider this a spoiler alert for what follows.

Read more