Quantitative and formal analysis of international relations, comparative politics, and American politics.
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
In preparation for the upcoming GOP national security debate tomorrow evening this article from CNN may be an interesting read. It discusses the foreign policy advisory teams of each of the candidates. There is more information on some of the candidates (Romney) than others (Bachmann, Paul), but it's still an interesting read. Some of this … Read more
The President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, has been trying to crack down on drug cartels in Mexico for the last five years. The drug cartels have fiercely fought back and about 40,000 people have been killed. Because of all these deaths, and because of the ever increasing presence of cartels throughout the country, many people … Read more
Just a quick post. I hadn't read anything on this in a while, but this CNN article seems to have a fairly decent detailing of the events surrounding the murders of several Afghan civilians by an Army sergeant and some of his men. Also of interest, this article discussing contact between Saif al-Islam and the … 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
Blogging here had been a bit slow lately. Between sending out job packets and various other side projects, I've been keeping pretty busy since APSA. Naturally, blogging has taken a backseat for the time being. That said, this deserves a quick word. CNN is reporting that this is "unconfirmed," but the BBC seems to indicate that … 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
In spite of the massive flooding in Binghamton, I'm finding some time to focus on something else. So hey, remember the debt deal? Sure you do. Well things are already off to a great start with that bipartisan commission. Apparently Senator John Kyl is threatening to leave the bipartisan commission if defense spending remains … Read more