Archive for the 'social science' Category
MichaelW on Jun 23 2008 | Filed under: Books, Domestic Politics, Election 2008, History, Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, Philosophy, social science
Over the weekend I read with fascination William Saletan’s review of the new offering from George Lakoff, “The Political Mind,” and was struck by the remarkable similarities between it and the revolutionary syndicalism espoused during the prior fin de siècle.
In particular, Saletan summarizes Lakoff’s principal idea as the need for progressives to recapture [...]
Joshua Foust on Mar 15 2008 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Race, social science
Tibet seems to be ill at ease with the Chinese again. With good reason—the last five decades can be called nothing short of cultural rape. Some of this was partially sparked by an ill-timed outburst from Björk, of all people, who called for Tibetan freedom at a concert she performed in Shanghai.
Agitating for Tibetan freedom [...]
Peg on Feb 20 2008 | Filed under: Books, Peg's Page, social science
One of the most depressing, pessimistic, negative and plain old unappealing books I have ever read is Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed. Ms. Ehrenreich goes “undercover” as an entry level worker, and reports how incredibly difficult it is for people at the lower rungs to get by.
While I would never argue that people who [...]
Lance on Feb 18 2008 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, social science
The Bayesian Heresy tipped me to a profile of economist Ben Olken, who has published a couple of papers on the effect of political leaders on economic and political development:
Olken wonders whether economic development and the path to democratization are shaped more by broad historical forces or by the actions of specific leaders—be [...]
MichaelW on Feb 11 2008 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, Philosophy, social science
For your viewing pleasure, watch Ayaan Hirsi Ali effortlessly dismantle the typical leftist tropes thrown at her in an interview with Avi Lewis (Naomi Klein’s husband). The quote serving as the title comes across as venomously pointed when read, but when Ali delivers it towards the end of the interview it sounds perfectly reasonable [...]
Lance on Feb 02 2008 | Filed under: social science
Yes, from the bird’s eye view, there is a “love market” and you are just a love widget. But let’s take the symbolic interactionist perspective. Relationships are highly customizable. Once you bond with a person, you can make the relationship highly unique and hard to substitute. Even if two people are similar, they can form [...]
Peg on Jan 31 2008 | Filed under: Peg's Page, Society, social science
Are you a liberal who foams at the mouth about the immorality of big business? Are you a conservative who rails about giving ten cents to government employees who will waste it or steal it?
Turns out you are all right!
Let’s face it. People are people. Some of us rise to the occasion magnificently. Some [...]
Lance on Jan 23 2008 | Filed under: Blogs, Developmental economics, Economics, Lance's Page, social science
Hat tip: Tyler.
Chris Blattman has a conjecture, possibly high wages in Africa are holding back growth:
One thing that has always struck me in the African countries I have worked is that the real wages (i.e. wages adjusted for the cost of living) of African formal sector workers seem to be incredibly high, at least compared [...]
Lance on Jan 18 2008 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Economics, Lance's Page, Law, Libertarianism, regulation, social science
This is a stunning statistic:
…the annual expansion in China’s trade has been larger than India’s total annual trade during last several years.
Tyler Cowen hones in on this point, amongst a bounty of good points:
The most important factor that still holds back large [Indian] firms from entering these products is a set of draconian labour laws [...]
Lee on Jan 17 2008 | Filed under: Foreign affairs, Lee's Page, Society, social science
(photo: enric/baldiri)
Nigerian magazine editor Madam Adunni Adediran, is appalled by the decline of traditional moral conduct in her country. In particular she’s concerned about rampant promiscuity and abortions among young women. To combat the trends she’s helped organize a ceremonial celebration called “Nigerian Virgin Girls” this month in Lagos. Prizes for participation include certificates of [...]
MichaelW on Jan 11 2008 | Filed under: Economics, Education, Foreign affairs, MichaelW's Page, social science
Megan McArdle comments on a piece in The Economist regarding the appalling state of economics education in France and Germany:
When the 35 hour work week was proposed, I was talking to someone in the French consulate who did economics and trade. “Aren’t you worried that this will raise employer’s costs and lead to business failures [...]
Keith_Indy on Jan 04 2008 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Election 2008, Keith's Page, social science
Michael Barone notices a pattern which may be in play this election season. I think he’s a little off in his characterization of the median-age voter, as I am one of them. But then maybe my remembering the tail-end of Vietnam, Watergate, the oil-embargoes, stagflation, and the Carter presidency, isn’t usual for those [...]
Keith_Indy on Jan 03 2008 | Filed under: Keith's Page, Society, social science
An interesting TED talk on how to many choices are making us miserable. I’ve been seeing more and more people referring to these talks. Everyone I’ve sat through has been interesting in some way.
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addthis_title = ‘The+paradox+of+choice’;
addthis_pub = ”;
Sphere: [...]
MichaelW on Jan 02 2008 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Economics, Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, Milton Friedman Memorial Page, social science
Happy New Year! To start off the year right, let’s have a look at a mock-up of a debate between Naomi Klein, reporter-activist extraordinaire, and Milton Friedman, king of economic liberty (via Instapundit).
This video was put together by Devil’s Advocate at Copious Dissent, where you can find the others in this series.
This [...]
Joshua Foust on Nov 15 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Notes on the war, Technology, social science
Cross-posted to The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War
What, they’re accused of only murdered 14 people? Let’s see if the White Rabbit can break his weeks-long silence to defend them this time.
Well, at least they’ve finally joined the war.
Oh great. With friends like these… who says we’ll ever fix Iraq?
Max Boot has a problem, and the only [...]
Lance on Nov 12 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Health Care, Lance's Page, Society, social science
The New York Times has a nice piece on the latest health research on the impact of weight on health. Of course, like most nutrition and weight related research we should approach it with some caution as John Tierney has discussed at great length (or breadth?)
I actually enjoy the social history in it the best. [...]
Lance on Nov 02 2007 | Filed under: Lance's Page, social science
Have you ever noticed that it often seems as of you are moving slower than the cars in the next lane? Feel as if you would be better off changing lanes? Here is why you feel that way, you are moving slower! Really, the other cars are moving faster than you. You should change lanes. [...]
Joshua Foust on Oct 11 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, social science
Seen first on The Conjecturer
Defense & The War
Mountain Runner has an excellent post up on how Congress is shirking its duties to rein in the private military corporations the administration will not. But since when has duty or public interest motivated either branch? Indeed, while it’s great there are laws on paper that handle contractor [...]
Lance on Oct 10 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Economics, Lance's Page, Society, Urban planning and development, regulation, social science
Virginia Postrel makes a point I will be exploring in more detail over the next few months in her latest essay at The Atlantic, the reasons behind the vast disparities in housing prices in our country. More interestingly she notices something I hadn’t really considered, at least not in the way she does. The cultural [...]
Joshua Foust on Oct 08 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, History, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Technology, social science
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense & The War
Finally, after years of occupying their country, we’ve liberated Iraq from the burden of living in fear for collaborating with us.
P.W. Singer (again) on the devil’s bargain of PMCs. I like how he wonders how a force can be cost effective when it’s more expensive and so detrimental to [...]
Lance on Sep 16 2007 | Filed under: Books, Culture, Lance's Page, Society, Urban planning and development, regulation, social science
I have not touched on the subject of the often hostile turn our culture has taken towards men, especially when it comes to their relationships with children. It is not that I don’t agree that that is a concern, in fact quite the opposite. I have in deeply personal ways been effected by this cultural [...]
Keith_Indy on Aug 29 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Keith's Page, Media, Notes on the war, social science
I’m at a loss for explaining these vastly different views. Is it mere political partisanship? Or is it something more fundamental, like having hope and optimism, or dare I say it, faith? How are these views biasing the coverage in the media?
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1352
A majority of Americans - 54% - believe the United States [...]
Keith_Indy on Aug 29 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Keith's Page, social science
Thanks Michael for putting that up for me. This site (along with many of my other favorite blogs,) was on the banned list here at work for a while, and we don’t have the internet hooked up at home, having just moved.
The money quote for me is:
“We believe that when you rely on someone [...]
MichaelW on Aug 23 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Economics, History, MichaelW's Page, social science
Is it possible that a proclivity for capitalism is genetic, and therefore hereditary? At first blush the idea seems preposterous. How can an idea be hereditary? And how can capitalism, which rewards innovation, risk-taking, and creativity, no matter who you are or where you come from be an inherited trait? Well [...]
Joshua Foust on Aug 21 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, social science
Would much rather be back at The Original Conjecturer.
Defense
How to make an EFP.
The difficulty of sea mines.
These two takes on the SCO exercises (covered in sometimes much greater depth here, at Registan.net, and Bonnie Boyd’s Central Asia blog) have some interesting tidbits: the PLA has never performed a distance deployment before, and it’s a [...]
MichaelW on Aug 09 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, social science
“Is government the answer?”
That’s probably not a question unfamiliar to most readers of ASHC, and it’s not the “wrong question” referred to in the title. In fact, I routinely present my arguments with that question as the implied premise. Unfortunately, it’s not the question asked, either explicitly or implicitly, by those who set [...]
Lance on Aug 09 2007 | Filed under: Culture, Domestic Politics, Lance's Page, social science
See, I am too with the new progressive era!
You Are 90% Feminist
You are a total feminist. This doesn’t mean you’re a man hater (in fact, you may be a man).
You just think that men and women should be treated equally. It’s a simple idea but somehow complicated for the world to put into action.
Are You [...]
Joshua Foust on Jun 27 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Libertarianism, Military Matters, Notes on the war, social science
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
Defense
A look at the operations in Baquba, with entire blocks of booby-trapped houses wired to explode for the troops. These kinds of delays are just what happen in warfare. But it speaks to how the insurgents are once again switching tactics: is this a new scorched earth-type policy?
Related to this is David [...]
Joshua Foust on Jun 08 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, social science
Defense
Did you know we have to confirm Czars? The Russians would be a bit taken back. Anyway, Bush’s new redundant War Czar says Iraq is a big mess, so clearly the way to fix it is to distort the chain of command and add another layer of bureaucracy.
Did the Air Force really just give up [...]
Joshua Foust on Jun 04 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Media, Military Matters, Notes on the war, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
Defense
Is al-Hurra, the Arabic-language Voice of America satellite channel, nothing more than an al-Jazeera clone? Hardly. One of the reasons Voice of America is as respected as it is was its willingness to broadcast news damaging to the U.S. (same with the “Radio Free” stations). It was this self-criticism that generated sympathy [...]
Joshua Foust on May 22 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer. I am not posting the rest of the week, as I will be traveling.
Defense
I really like thinking the best of our guys in uniform. But the demon spawn of our rightwing radio hosts seem determined to make that incredibly difficult. Best line: “Dr. Laura has been curiously silent about her [...]
Joshua Foust on May 18 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, social science
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer
Defense
Are we losing the info war? I think we are, and attacks on al-Hurra for not being propagandistic enough when the channel already faces criticism for exactly that certainly don’t help. We could maybe start by renouncing torture, given that we lecture other countries on their use of it.
The constant back-and-forth over [...]
Joshua Foust on May 14 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, social science
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
Ellen Tauscher wants to create a commission to assess the strategic posture of the U.S. This is a good thing, as I’m not really sure why we need thousands of warheads—the Pentagon’s scare mongering rings hollow considering our success in conventional battle, and I’m not sure how ICBMs would deter suicide [...]
Lance on May 14 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Lance's Page, Libertarianism, social science
Bryan Caplan makes an argument which in addition to his explicit points, also goes to part of my rationale for opposing most campaign finance reforms and many other “good government” initiatives. They don’t attack the real problem. The Hat tip goes to Alex Tabarrok, who also begins his post with Mencken. I’ll take that suggestion:
Democracy [...]
Joshua Foust on May 11 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
It’s funny, these kinds of scare stories about personnel shortages at the country’s spy agencies used to frustrate me. I tried for a long time to get into the CIA, but twice was I unceremoniously declined. The DIA didn’t even have the courtesy to tell me no. But I’ve adopted a [...]
Lance on May 09 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Education, Lance's Page, social science
Gary Becker and Kevin Murphy:
Income inequality in China substantially widÂened, particularly between households in the city and the countryside, after China began its rapid rate of economic development around 1980. The averÂage urban resident now makes 3.2 times as much as the average rural resident, and among city dwellers alone, the top 10 percent makes [...]
Joshua Foust on May 08 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Foreign affairs, Media, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Technology, social science
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
Remember that time the DoD freaked out over secret Canadian radio tracking coins? Turns out some contractors were spooked by the image of a flower, and their concerns were sent without review or criticism to the entire defense industry. How embarrassing.
Iraq and Afghanistan are wearing down the airfleet. This could maybe [...]
Joshua Foust on May 08 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Media, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Technology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
Unintended consequences: up-armored Humvees can trap soldiers inside during attacks.
Already the cost of the war has ballooned far beyond the original $50 billion price tag President Bush suggested in 2002. Where does it end? At what point does the cost become simply too much, as we spend my generation into a [...]
Joshua Foust on May 05 2007 | Filed under: Books, Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Technology, social science
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
Tony Snow declared the milblogging scandal overreported, but then admitted he didn’t know what he was talking about. See for yourself if such a major change in OPSEC rules was over-done.
Lockheed Martin builds a so-called sniper targeting pod, a device that can be attached to fixed-wing aircraft and used from even [...]
Joshua Foust on May 03 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Media, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Technology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer, where you’ll find an explanation for the edition name. I’m sorry.
The Pentagon
I think Lance should have highlighted Blackfive’s major point about the stupid restrictions on war blogs: the Pentagon has already lost the information war in the public arena. The supreme importance of competing narratives was chillingly highlighted in the [...]
Lance on May 03 2007 | Filed under: Lance's Page, Media, Race, Sports, social science
I haven’t read the paper, just the article, the executive summary, the discussion on the radio, at Matthew Yglesias’ and at Marginal Revolution. So maybe these points have been covered in the full paper in a satisfactory manner.
I also do not mean to imply I doubt that there are disparities in how referees call games, [...]
Joshua Foust on May 02 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Environment, Foreign affairs, Law, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Technology, social science
Cross-posted on The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
The Post today slams Bush for his “rush to failure” in deploying missile defense to Europe—rightfully so, as the system is far from useable, and needlessly expensive and provocative. Here’s the best part, though: A Democrat, Ellen Tauscher, wants to give the Pentagon, not the White House, control of when and [...]
Joshua Foust on Apr 30 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
I’ve reread Lt. Col. Yingling’s essay on the failures of the generalship several times at this point. This morning, while I was pondering the flag announcements, which are the lists of people being submitted to have stars attached to their rank (i.e. generals and admirals), it hit me: we have more [...]
Joshua Foust on Apr 27 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Notes on the war, Religion and theology, Technology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
When START stops, what happens to Prompt Global Strike? Let’s think of this question in the context of Volodiya scrapping arms control accords with Europe.
Rumors that the 15-month extension was a bad joke, and that soldiers are now being told to expect deployments of 16-18 months—for reducing stress, remember.
Secrets=fun. [...]
Joshua Foust on Apr 26 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Environment, Foreign affairs, History, Military Matters, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.Â
The Pentagon
DARPA wants American snipers to have fool proof sniper scopes that are accurate out to 2000 meters. It also wants to expand its Boomerang sniper-detection system from simple location (which is itself a big achievement) to preemption. That’s cool, and both promise to dramatically improve the 4GW battlespace.
The Air Force [...]
Joshua Foust on Apr 25 2007 | Filed under: Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Libertarianism, Military Matters, Technology, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer. I’m going go try to shorten these and better group them thematically at some point, but I just find too much during the day to really limit things. Should I give up the pretense of exhaustiveness? I might.
The Pentagon
More on the brave testimony of Jessica Lynch and Kevin Tillman, brother of [...]
Joshua Foust on Apr 24 2007 | Filed under: Domestic Politics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Investing, Military Matters, social science
Cross-posted at The Conjecturer.
The Pentagon
James Clapper, the UnderSecDef for Intel, wants the TALON database scrapped. This is because it recorded not just legitimate threats to U.S. bases, but information on civilian protests and anti-war marches. In other words, it had morphed into a tool for the abuse of power, and Clapper is right to want [...]