Category Archives: social science

News Brief, I Want to Be Your Sledgehammer Edition

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? … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Hugo Chavez, Libertarianism, Military Matters, social science, Technology | 13 Comments

News Brief, Harrowdown Hill Edition

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, … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Economics, Foreign affairs, Investing, Military Matters, social science | Leave a comment

The Gun Control Battle (UPDATED)

In the wake of the Va. Tech massacre, the long-standing debate on gun control and America’s perceived “gun culture” renews itself, and will most likely end in Congress “doing something” about the issue such as passing more useless laws to … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Libertarianism, Media, MichaelW's Page, social science | 2 Comments

“The Ultimate Resource” Debut’s Tonight

For more on this television event at 10PM EST on HDNet you can go here and also see another excerpt on video here. This clip introduces you to James Tooley, Hernando De Soto and Muhammad Yunus whose work this show … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Economics, Education, Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, Libertarianism, Milton Friedman Memorial Page, social science | 3 Comments

News Brief, Under Pressure Edition

Cross-posted at The Conjecturer. The Pentagon All the protests from the DoD about the “surprise” test of China’s ASAT missile were completely invented. They knew it was happening, and chose to use it for P.R. Even so, they’re starting to … Continue reading

Posted in Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Media, Military Matters, social science, Technology | Leave a comment

Don’t Forget The Ultimate Resource

I posted on the upcoming documentary, “The Ultimate Resource” a few days ago. For more read the post: This coming Tuesday, April 24th, Free to Choose Media is continuing the work of its inspiration, Milton Friedman, of bringing the benefits … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Economics, Lance's Page, Libertarianism, Milton Friedman Memorial Page, social science | Leave a comment

News Brief, This Is An Alarm Call Edition

Cross-posted at The Conjecturer. The Pentagon One of the funnier stories out of the initial invasion of Iraq was the use of dolphins to clear mines from Um-Qasr harbor. It was a miserable failure. Still, the desire to use so-called … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Foreign affairs, Military Matters, Religion and theology, social science | Leave a comment

News Brief, Karma Police Edition

(Cross-posted at The Conjecturer) The Pentagon Inside the Army reports that the Pentagon has created a council for improving counterintelligence training. The aptly-named Counterintelligence Training Council just might maybe stop the data bleeds to China and Russia we’ve seen over … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Foreign affairs, History, Media, Military Matters, Notes on the war, social science | 5 Comments

The Ultimate Resource

This coming Tuesday, April 24th, Free to Choose Media is continuing the work of its inspiration, Milton Friedman, of bringing the benefits of freedom to the people of this world, including its most remote corners. A new documentary, “The Ultimate … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Economics, Libertarianism, Milton Friedman Memorial Page, social science | 6 Comments

News Brief, Mission of Burma Edition

Cross-posted on The Conjecturer. The Pentagon This account of an NSA Recruiting drive wasn’t all that remarkable, except for one bit I had never heard before. “It was mentioned that people who had done a lot of illegal file sharing … Continue reading

Posted in Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Foreign affairs, Libertarianism, Media, Military Matters, Race, Religion and theology, social science | 19 Comments

Shift Happens: No more boring statistics

(Via: Pajamas) Please watch this. In understanding the world our ignorance is a problem, but greater still are the things which we believe we know about the world that we do not. Luckily for you, this is entertaining. Within minutes … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Developmental economics, Economics, Education, Race, social science, Technology | 2 Comments

The other point of view

(Via Tyler Cowen) Here we have a list of history’s 100 most influential people from the viewpoint of the Japanese. The rest are below the fold, but here are the top 25. Videos and other commentary at the link. Sakamoto … Continue reading

Posted in History, Lance's Page, social science | 12 Comments

See, I Told You So

I think that this story and the conclusions it references can be filed under the category of, “see, I told you so.” Or perhaps, “tell me something else that I already knew.” Let’s look at what took the APA such … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Religion and theology, social science, The Poet Omar's Page | 23 Comments

Amanda Marcotte has found the evidence

Evidence of how men, especially conservative men, really think. [youtube SjxY9rZwNGU] I am calling Eleanor Smeal NOW! [tags] NOW, women, sexism, Harry Einfeld [/tags]

Posted in Humor, Lance's Page, social science | 6 Comments

Shift Happens

We live in a fast changing world. I consider that a good thing: glumbert.com – Shift Happens [tags] China, India, technology, economics, politics, US, jobs, education [/tags]

Posted in Developmental economics, Domestic Politics, Economics, Foreign affairs, History, Lance's Page, social science, Technology | Leave a comment

Schools & Social Engineering

Podcast Follow-Up: One of the articles that I mentioned in the podcast (which, looking back on it, was only tangentially related to the topic at hand, and only in the kindest sense of the term “tangential”) involved the Hilltop Children’s … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Economics, Education, Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, social science | 3 Comments

Now this is Cool

Hat tip Tyler Cowen. We have here a 3-D world map based on Economic activity. It requires Flash Player. Technorati Tags: Economics, Map, economic activity, cool powered by performancing firefox

Posted in Economics, Lance's Page, social science, Technology, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Virtual reality keeps becoming more real

The expansion of the influence of virtual worlds continues. From Blake Hounshell, formerly known on the internet as Praktike: Reuters will conduct a series of interviews with artists, politicians and executives at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland next … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Foreign affairs, Lance's Page, social science, Technology | 2 Comments

Religion in Academia

From Robin Hanson’s fascinating blog, Overcoming Bias, I found this: Last November we learned that the US public believes in God more than college professors, who believe more than professors at elite schools: Almost a third answered “none” when asked … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Education, Lance's Page, Religion and theology, social science | Leave a comment

Got Free Will?

According to Dennis Overbye you don’t: Having just lived through another New Year’s Eve, many of you have just resolved to be better, wiser, stronger and richer in the coming months and years. After all, we’re free humans, not slaves, … Continue reading

Posted in Libertarianism, MichaelW's Page, Religion and theology, social science | 3 Comments

Following up on Virtual Reality

As a brief follow up on my longer speculative piece on the economic and political consequences of the rise of virtual economies I suggest this review (via Coyote Blog) from PC Magazine of Second Life. Then there’s the virtual charity … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Economics, Lance's Page, Law, Libertarianism, social science, Technology | 3 Comments

The Virtues of Economics in a Virtual World

I must admit I find this article on virtual property rights from the Washington Post fascinating. Questions about online property rights, the legal status of those rights, currency exchanges to convert online currency into our own rather insubstantial fiat money, … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Domestic Politics, Economics, Lance's Page, Law, Libertarianism, Media, social science, Technology | 4 Comments

The Holiday Season kicks off with a bang!

It is a rare happenstance that my weekday mornings start of as well as mine did this morning. Two busy people rushing to get ready for work. Most of our readers can surely empathize. Of course I have now discovered … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, Humor, Lance's Page, social science, Technology | Leave a comment

Redistributionism and Racism/Elitism

Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, Jim Lindgren posts about a statistical analysis he’s done regarding the correlation between pro-redistributionist and traditionally racist views. According to Prof. Lindgren, while the opposite correlation is accepted “fact” in the social science cannons, facts … Continue reading

Posted in Culture, MichaelW's Page, social science | 54 Comments