QP Blogging

CRACK

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I found this link via Andrew Gelman's blog the other day: CRACK Mapmaking software for Mac I haven't had much of a chance to play with it, but it looks like it could be useful.  I've had a few instances in class this semester where I've wanted to make some maps of the US to … Read more

A few technical updates

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I've changed a few features on the blog to make access and moderation easier. 1) The RSS feed now features the entirety of posts as opposed to just the first sentence.  I have been told this will increase the amount of material that is actually read, but will decrease what we know about our readers.  … Read more

Wikileaks’ Latest and Greatest

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Yesterday, Wikileaks released a bunch of new information on the war in Iraq.  While I haven't had a chance to dig through much of it yet, I'm curious to see which narrative is going to win out in the short term.  Rather, of the several dimensions of the war effort that these reports cover, which one will the press focus on?  Which one will come to be most closely associated with this leak in 20 years?  More speculation after the jump.

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Attack of the spam bots

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Apparently, linking to an Annual Review article/abstract brings out the spambots and their comments: 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 methods in international relations and comparative politics. www.ma-allen.com

And You’ll Be Helping How?

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Another piece on the China-North Korea relationship.

Just a quick thought on this and on the broader question.  There are some pretty clear reasons for wanting to do something about the current regime in North Korea.  But when people discuss what should happen, the common refrain seems to be treating China like a teenager that wants oh so badly to drive mom and dad's car, but just hasn't proven himself yet.  I'm fairly certain this article explicitly mentions the notion that the US has tried to get China to feel like it has some "responsibility" for taking care of this issue, and I think this is part of the problem. 

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Data and Blogging

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Ah Friday, a great day to do final edits on my and Julie's paper for Midwest – also a good time for a quick blog post with a somewhat misleading title as the two subjects refer to two seperate links. First, via Freakonomics, is a competition for the Fraser Institute to have them collect data.  … Read more

A Draft is Just a Draft (as in writing, not the “Oh No, I am going to war” type)

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Writing for Social Scientists by Howard Becker is a book I would strongly recommend to any graduate student who is about to begin the prospectus and/or dissertation process. This book is not solely about “how to write” in the sense of making outlines and editing. Instead, it is about how to overcome the obstacles people … Read more

Comments

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All comments are read by the authors of the blog; they try to respond to comments when both appropriate and time permits.   Please comment and do so often as we appreciate feedback, critique, and discussion. However, do not be discouraged if your comment does not receive an immediate response. To maintain a balance of civility … Read more