Signifying NothingSerious (and not-so-serious) commentary from Chris Lawrence.Accentuating the negative- May 31, 2008 Harry Brighouse reports secondhand that a British survey (of Radio Times readers) found that Hugh Laurie on House has the fourth-worst American accent by a British actor. Commenter Matt McIrvin thinks things generally have improved: There used to be a lot of British actors doing terrible American accents. You can hear them if you watch old sitcoms and Doctor Who serials from the sixties and seventies (the rocket pilot in Tomb of the Cybermen is a particularly choice example). Most of them...http://blog.lordsutch.com/archives/4093 Good luck getting IRB approval for this- May 31, 2008 If you tried something like this as a social scientific experiment, Im pretty sure youd go to jail.http://blog.lordsutch.com/archives/4092 Policy can be fun- May 31, 2008 My review copy of Mungers policy book finally arrived today; good thing Id already decided to adopt it sight-unseen for the fallId already used a book from the same series before, Stewarts Analyzing Congress, and liked but hadnt had an opportunity to really use Mortons Analyzing Elections, so I figured the series editor knew what he or she was doing. Im still not convinced Im the best person to be teaching this coursemy back-of-the-envelope math suggests that there are sufficient PA folks in...http://blog.lordsutch.com/archives/4091 The universe is a jihadi- May 30, 2008 Thats the only thing I can conclude after learning that the universe may be donut-shaped and Dunkin Donuts is the tool of the PLO. We are all doomed!http://blog.lordsutch.com/archives/4090 Nothing is ever simple- May 30, 2008 Reading CRANberries this morning I remembered that Id never gotten around to packaging Amelia for Debian. So I dutifully filed my ITP and got to work on adapting the package to build with Debian, which thanks to Dirks hackery on R support in cdbs was pretty easycopy over the debian directory from my Zelig package, update the copyright file, fix up the control file, update the Debian changelog, fix a lintian warning or two (FSF address in the copyright file), and its basically done. Then I...http://blog.lordsutch.com/archives/4089 Paging Dr. Occam- May 30, 2008 Ezra Klein sees sinister relationships everywhere: Mark Schmitt wonders why John McCain has had such an interest in America Wests runway operations throughout his career. The answer, it turns out, is predictable enough. America West was a major financial backer of McCain, and one of his top aides, John W. Timmons, became America Wests lobbyist. America West donated a charter plane to Cindy McCains charity, American Voluntary Medical Team, for a trip to Kuwait, and this story in TheStreet.com...http://blog.lordsutch.com/archives/4088 The use and abuse of technology in the classroom- May 26, 2008 Michelles post today on laptops in the classroom (in a similar vein to this article I read last month on the suggestion of Glenn Reynolds) reminded me that I had a few items from the past few weeks still in my Google Reader queue of things to blog about related to Margaret Soltans continuing crusade against the use of PowerPoint and its ilk, and specifically Timothy Burkes partial rebuttal: Whats the difference between bad usage of PowerPoint in lectures and bad lectures that involve hand-outs,.http://blog.lordsutch.com/archives/4087 Having a gay old time in the Times-Picayune- May 26, 2008 The tempest in a very tiny teapot over the APSAs meeting siting policy has hit the Times-Picayune. Mind you, there are there are thousands of very good reasons to boycott APSA meetings alreadyI believe theyre called political scientists. In a city the size of Chicago you can escape from the teeming hordes of them, even at APSA, but theres likely to be no such luck in New Orleans. In my mind, the fewer folks who show up the better, at least in terms of improving the experience for those who do...http://blog.lordsutch.com/archives/4086 Veeping with the Enemy- May 26, 2008 The Libertarian ticket for 08: Barr and Root. With a name like that, youd think they have a no-bid contract in Iraq or something. Meanwhile, John McCain is allegedly talking with potential running mates at his ranch, including Bobby Jindal, Mitt Romney, and Charlie Crist, and the Obama veep spin cycle is ramping up too. I have no real substance here, I just wanted to use this post title before I forgot ithttp://blog.lordsutch.com/archives/4085 A very narrow definition of "policy"- May 25, 2008 Wired blogger Alexis Madrigal posts a map of gasoline prices nationwide and comments: Note how similar gas prices are within individual states and how much they vary between states. Using just gas price data, you could practically draw the state lines, if they werent already inked in for you. Look at that Illinois-Missouri border! This county-by-county highlights the importance of energy policy at the state level in driving prices, at least at the relatively small variations in price they are...http://blog.lordsutch.com/archives/4084 |