Quantitative and formal analysis of international relations, comparative politics, and American politics.
A new study by the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan suggests that individuals who studied social sciences in college were the least religious compared to their classmates six years after graduation. This conclusion is not surprising. Social scientists study the development of man made institutions and organizations. This probably makes religious organizations … Read more
Tonight, a few of us are going to gather to participate in a movie and game night. The goal of which is to be entertained by both while also having it relate to what we study in political science. Tonight's Agenda: The movie for tonight is the classic The Princess Bride. The inspiration for having … Read more
Two extremely useful posts went up while I was at MWPSA and are worth re-blogging. While I am not sure if my readership is radically different than either site, it is still useful to spread the word. First, the Monkey Cage posted an update to their blogroll that I will soon copy. It now includes … Read more
I will be flying for Chicago early Wednesday morning for the Midwest Political Science Association Conference. This is my first co-authored paper with Julie (another contributor to his blog) and we will present the following paper Thursday morning: The contemporary rise to infamy of Blackwater Worldwide and the private corporation's misdeeds in the Iraq War … Read more
Who would have thought? When Reagan visited the Soviet Union in 1988, he would end up meeting the future President of Russia, Putin, and the world would have a picture to remember the occasion! Unfortunately we do not know what they were saying or thinking at the time. But we can pretend we do. What do you … Read more
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 Simple Math Problem. I may have to save this example (or another in a similar form) as a general probability calculation question. I imagine a certain class of statisticians would find this easier than a second type.
March this year hosted two mathematics-related holidays that now have passed us and March will not contain both of these days for a century (2109 will be the next lucky March, set your calendars!). The first holiday in March was Square Root Day celebrated on March 3rd. For those of you who have missed an … Read more
Just got out of a bayesian stats workshop and saw this: I am sure I will see it a few more times as I go down my blogroll for the day… Edit: Looks like one blog on the list beat me to it.
My teaching style, as well as my presentation style, is marked by a relatively rapid delivery. I had favored such a style quite awhile ago for many public speaking formats as the general perception of the speaker by the audience is favorable (generally heighten perceptions of intelligence and mastery of the material). However, now I … Read more