Political Science

When War and Academia Collide

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Academics in all subfields of political science often lament that policy and military failures arise from the lack of communication between policy-makers and the academic community.  The recent tragic death of Michael Bhatia highlights some of the issues involved with the tenuous collaboration between those who analyze data and those who generate them, and the sometimes unfortunate consequences.  Bhatia was killed on May 7 in an explosion that targeted the American soldiers with whom he had been embedded in Afghanistan.

Bhatia had been teaching at Brown University’s Watson Institute for
International Studies as well as working on a doctoral degree from
Oxford University when he decided to enroll with the military’s Human
Terrain System. The program, run by the U.S. Army’s Training and
Doctrine Command, hires social scientists to collect and share
information abut Afghani culture with U.S. troops. Bhatia is the first
civilian in the program to die.

More after the jump. . .

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Stealing Restaurant Grease for a Living

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The increased prevalence of do-it-yourself energy kits for individuals to convert diesel engines to a bio-diesel source has been hailed by advocates as a clean, cheap, and green-friendly alternative to gasoline.  Conversion Kits, how-to guides, and promotion videos can be found all over youtube.com and similar sites.  One of the promoted benefits is that the consumer can either get used grease oil free from restaurants or even get paid to haul away what was considered a waste product. 

The New York Times is reporting a new trend in which individuals are stealing this former waste product from restaurants:

Outside Seattle, cooking oil rustling has become such a problem that the owners of the Olympia Pizza and Pasta Restaurant in Arlington, Wash., are considering using a surveillance camera to keep watch on its 50-gallon grease barrel. Nick Damianidis, an owner, said the barrel had been hit seven or eight times since last summer by siphoners who strike in the night.

“Fryer grease has become gold,” Mr. Damianidis said. “And just over a year ago, I had to pay someone to take it away.”

…More after the jump.

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ISA and Peace Science Conference Deadlines

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A quick reminder for those who push deadlines.  The International Studies Association deadline (5/30/08) for proposals is today and the Peace Science deadline will be on Sunday (6/1/08). 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 … Read more

The Monkey Cage comes through with Music

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Given that I am sucker for field-related music and any nerd inspired music in general, the newest post at The Monkey Cage amuses me with a musical critique of what we do after the jump:

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I am Easily Distracted by Databases

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Jonathan Dingel on Friday stumbled upon a Preferential Trade Agreements Database hosted by the McGill University Faculty of Law which contains the text, or link to the text, of multiple PTAs. Given the abundance of studies that use trade activity as a direct (or proxy) measure for openness, this is an incredible collection that makes … Read more

Interpreting Logged Independent Variables in OLS

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Logging data is almost as dangerous as logging trees; if you don’t do either the right way, the consequences could be undesirable.  Below I will explain why we log data in OLS. Then I will discuss how to interpret the coefficient of a logged independent variable in an OLS model. The interpretation is not as straight forward as it normally is in a linear OLS model. If it is not done carefully, the results of the model may be difficult to understand.

More following the jump….

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