Posts

April 09, 2013

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#NetworkScience In this Newsblast Dr. Charles Thomas writes about the Hidden Hand of History project that uses network analysis to identify hidden drivers of stability within the Tanzanian People’s Defense Force. He also introduces a new project in which he … Continue reading →

April 08, 2013

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6:36 PM | Come see me speak about benevolent sexism & Kamala Harris TODAY at HuffPostLive!

I am incredibly excited to announce that I will be part of a panel today at HuffPost Live discussing the media uproar over Obama’s recent Kamala Harris compliment. Along the same lines of my last two blog posts, I’ll be explaining what benevolent sexism is, discussing how it might relate to this fiasco, and trying [...]

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2:10 PM | The Supreme Court meets the fallacy of the one-sided bet

Doug Hartmann writes (link from Jay Livingston): Justice Antonin Scalia’s comment in the Supreme Court hearings on the U.S. law defining marriage that “there’s considerable disagreement among sociologists as to what the consequences of raising a child in a single-sex family, whether that is harmful to the child or not.” Hartman argues that Scalia is [...]

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10:11 AM | Networking and Generalship Across the Anglosphere

#NetworkScience From 7-21 March I traveled to Canberra, Australia, and Wellington, New Zealand, to research social and informational networks among senior military officers (both general and flag officers). It was an incredibly fruitful endeavor, and I was able to interview … Continue reading →

April 07, 2013

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4:06 PM | Scatterplot charades!

What are the x and y-axes here?

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1:52 PM | X on JLP

Christian Robert writes on the Jeffreys-Lindley paradox. I have nothing to add to this beyond my recent comments: To me, the Lindley paradox falls apart because of its noninformative prior distribution on the parameter of interest. If you really think there’s a high probability the parameter is nearly exactly zero, I don’t see the point [...]

April 06, 2013

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4:54 PM | Science of Fiction

Science of Fiction A radio recording for the CamFM radio show ‘Science of Fiction’ I did with Andrew Holding. Great fun to do, partly due my intense level of caffeination at the time.

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1:35 PM | Calling Jenny Davidson . . .

Now that you have some free time again, you’ll have to check out these books and tell us if they’re worth reading. Claire Kirch reports: Lizzie Skurnick Books launches in September with the release of Debutante Hill by Lois Duncan. The novel, which was originally published by Dodd, Mead, in 1958, has been out of [...]

April 05, 2013

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7:00 PM | David Brooks writes that technical knowledge—”the statistical knowledge you need to understand what market researchers do, the biological knowledge you need to grasp the basics of what nurses do”—can be “memorized by rote”

The popular New York Times columnist writes: The best part of the rise of online education is that it forces us to ask: What is a university for? . . . My own stab at an answer would be that universities are places where young people acquire two sorts of knowledge, what the philosopher Michael [...]

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5:57 PM | When Telling Others About Your Goals Compromises Them

source As you think ahead about what you want to accomplish in the next few months and years, you probably have several goals that involve you “becoming” something – like a good athlete or a good doctor. These are called “identity goals” because they are goals to achieve a certain identity, and they can be attained by engaging in identity-relevant activities, like training for a marathon or going to medical school. In order to enact these behaviors, we might tell others about […]

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5:30 PM | Thoughts on the New Bird Flu H7N9 & It’s Animal Connection

Much of the United States is mesmerized by the belligerent squawks from North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and the volatile tension straddling the Korean peninsula, but I’m more concerned about what is happening in China right now and the troubling trickle of news on a new bird flu strain H7N9. At least 16 people have been [...]

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5:30 PM | Thoughts on the New Bird Flu H7N9 & Its Animal Connection

Much of the United States is mesmerized by the belligerent squawks from North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and the volatile tension straddling the Korean peninsula, but I’m more concerned about what is happening in China right now and the troubling trickle of news on a new bird flu strain H7N9. At least 16 people have been [...]

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3:08 PM | BMC Cancer, WDDTY and homeopathy: ‘new’ comment

It took (me) a month to get a comment posted on a paper on BMC Cancer’s site. My abbreviated version (which appeared five days after re-submitting it) has now sat there for three weeks alongside Kausik’s, both seemingly being roundly ignored. As is my query concerning the full text of my original blog post. What to do? Does it matter? Well, actually, as a QuackRag deems that the paper in question constitutes subject(ive) matter for (re-)citation, then yes, I think... Read more

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1:13 PM | Elites have alcohol problems too!

Speaking of Tyler Cowen, I’m puzzled by this paragraph of his: Guns, like alcohol, have many legitimate uses, and they are enjoyed by many people in a responsible manner. In both cases, there is an elite which has absolutely no problems handling the institution in question, but still there is the question of whether the [...]

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2:02 AM | Wanna be the next Tyler Cowen? It’s not as easy as you might think!

Someone told me he ran into someone who said his goal was to be Tyler Cowen. OK, fine, it’s a worthy goal, but I don’t think it’s so easy.

April 04, 2013

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1:21 PM | When is there “hidden structure in data” to be discovered?

Michael Collins sent along the following announcement for a talk: Fast learning algorithms for discovering the hidden structure in data Daniel Hsu, Microsoft Research 11am, Wednesday April 10th, Interschool lab, 7th floor CEPSR, Columbia University A major challenge in machine learning is to reliably and automatically discover hidden structure in data with minimal human intervention. [...]

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10:03 AM | West Point Researcher Quoted in The Economist

#NetworkScience West Point NSC’s own MAJ Paulo Shakraian, Ph.D. was recently quoted in The Economist on the relationship between Chinese cyber warfare R&D and the exploit market. You can read the full article here.

April 03, 2013

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3:30 PM | Benevolent Sexism: An Addendum.

When you’re a woman who writes an article online about sexism, it’s incredibly easy for people who want to dismiss your argument to write you off as some kind of bitter, angry, screeching man-hater. I’ve naturally received a lot of comments on this piece, as I absolutely knew going into this that I would. The [...]

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1:07 PM | Hierarchical array priors for ANOVA decompositions

Alexander Volfovsky and Peter Hoff write: ANOVA decompositions are a standard method for describing and estimating heterogeneity among the means of a response variable across levels of multiple categorical factors. In such a decomposition, the complete set of main effects and interaction terms can be viewed as a collection of vectors, matrices and arrays that [...]

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12:30 PM | SIOP 2013: Schedule Planning

As in 2010 and 2011 and 2012, I’ll be live-blogging the SIOP conference, which begins Thursday, April 11 and runs through Saturday, April 13. This post contains a list of all the sessions that I interested in attending, which are generally focused on technology, training, and assessment. Barring any unexpected battery problems, my live blogging will [...] Related articles from NeoAcademic: SIOP 2011: Schedule Planning SIOP 2010: Planning My Schedule SIOP 2012: Scheduling […]

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10:34 AM | French visiting professor to collaborate on tactical mobile cloud research

#NetworkScience Submitted by COL Kevin Huggins Dr. Cyril Cassagnes is a newly arrived EECS visiting professor from the Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique – LaBRI (The Bordeaux Computer Science Research Laboratory) in France. During his yearlong stay he will … Continue reading →

April 02, 2013

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1:58 PM | The Problem When Sexism Just Sounds So Darn Friendly…

Something can’t actually be sexist if it’s really, really nice, right? I mean, if someone compliments me on my looks or my cooking, that’s not sexist. That’s awesome! I should be thrilled that I’m being noticed for something positive! Yet there are many comments that, while seemingly complimentary, somehow still feel wrong. These comments may [...]

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1:10 PM | So much artistic talent

I saw this excellent art show the other day, and it reminded me how much artistic talent is out there. I really have no idea whassup with those all-black canvases and the other stuff you see at modern art museums, given that there’s so much interesting new stuff being created every year. I see a [...]

April 01, 2013

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1:28 PM | Wolfram on Mandelbrot

The most perfect pairing of author and subject since Nicholson Baker and John Updike. Here’s Wolfram on the great researcher of fractals: In his way, Mandelbrot paid me some great compliments. When I was in my 20s, and he in his 60s, he would ask about my scientific work: “How can so many people take [...]

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11:46 AM | Realignment in the NHL, MLB, NFL and NBA

#Network Science Bill Pulleyblank and I (Brian Macdonald) recently finished a project titled “Realignment in the NHL, MLB, the NFL, and the NBA“. Our goal was to find realignment solutions that minimize travel for each of those leagues. Below is … Continue reading →

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3:55 AM | The Global Connection at the Heart of Baseball

Baseball season is officially underway! And what better way to celebrate than by looking at the ball that drives the game? A few years ago, I talked S into helping me take apart a baseball. I wanted to understand the properties that Johan Santana can hold in his hand and with the flick of his [...]

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2:53 AM | Just the Essentials: A Look at the Things We Carry

Question: What do you need to get you through the day? Take a second and look through your bag or pockets and take an inventory of the things you carry with you every day. A quick survey of my handbag revealed the following (in no particular order): House keys Cell phone Wallet Notebook Kindle Magazine [...]

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2:37 AM | SWAG: Video Games and Violence

wikipedia.org Every Wednesday afternoon, I gather with a bunch of faculty and graduate students at the University of Illinois to discuss a journal article about social psychology, and to eat a snack. This blog post reflects the discussion we had during this week's seminar affectionately called Social Wednesdays and Grub (SWAG). This week, SWAG was led by Jesse Preston, Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois. Her summary of the SWAG discussion follows below: Can […]

Ferguson, C. (2013). Violent video games and the Supreme Court: Lessons for the scientific community in the wake of Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association., American Psychologist, 68 (2) 57-74. DOI: 10.1037/a0030597

Citation

March 31, 2013

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5:51 PM | Beyond Ishtar: The Tradition of Eggs at Easter

Eggs occupy a special status during Easter observances. They’re symbols of rebirth and renewal—life bursts forth from this otherwise plain, inanimate object that gives no hint as to what it contains. In this regard it is a handy symbol for the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but it is is a symbol that has held this [...]

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1:59 PM | He’s getting ready to write a book

Eric Novik does some open-source planning: My co-author, Jacki Buros, and I [Novik] have just signed a contract with Apress to write a book tentatively entitled “Predictive Analytics with R”, which will cover programming best practices, data munging, data exploration, and single and multi-level models with case studies in social media, healthcare, politics, marketing, and [...]