nominal bleg

I need some available data that allows a simple model with a nominal outcome.  Ideally, there would be 4 categories (less ideally 5, less still 3), and it would be not quasi-ordinal.  The model will probably need to include a binary explanatory variable, a categorical explanatory variable, and a continuous or quasi-continuous variable.  But the […]

the future of academic freedom!

Inside High Ed has a story on a Florida state university that will not have tenure.  What struck me about the article was not that the university won’t have tenure, but the argument for why this is a good thing: “We don’t want the [professors we hire] to be worrying within the first five or […]

tess

Incidentally, the TESS project that I’ve co-run for nearly five years is currently in another round of funding from NSF, with Jamie Druckman, a political scientist here at Northwestern, as the new co-PI.  (You might note that, as a subtle shout-out to our home institution, the main color on the TESS website is now purple.) […]

interfolio bleg

So, Interfolio: does it work?  Specifically, I mean the part of the service where job candidates sign up for the service, faculty members (or those in their employ) upload the letters, and then the service handles delivering letters of recommendation to the jobs for which the candidates are applying, regardless of whether the job wants […]

just as well

orgtheory has a recent thread on the Regnerus episode.  Sally Hillsman, ASA president, has a letter to the editor in the Washington Post that includes (HT: Phil Cohen): …How well do children turn out when they are raised by gay parents?  The answer is: They turn out just as well as children raised by heterosexual […]

turnaround

I knew that AER compensated their editors, but I didn’t realize they also paid their reviewers.  From the American Economic Review webpage: The AER pays $100.00 for timely reports. Payment is by check only. Checks are issued four times a year, approximately six weeks after the end of each calendar quarter. Of course, I don’t know if […]

jeremy’s favorite books of 2012

I’m still in Australia for a few more days.  A six-word story summary of Brisbane for Americans: Midwestern culture, Miami climate, Alaska prices. Wanted to check in with my usual annual account of the books I most enjoyed reading in the past year.

in appreciation

Summary from the Daily Beast: “I’m the guy who has egg all over his face,” Eric Hartsburg tells Politico. “But instead of egg, it’s a big Romney/Ryan tattoo. It’s there for life.” Hartsburg raised $5,000 on eBay for the 5-by-2-inch tat. Now he claims he has no regrets. “I’m hoping this opens some other doors […]

is nate silver’s win sociology’s loss?

There’s a lot of social science triumphalism about the accuracy of Nate Silver’s predictions in the election.  I’m certainly happy.  But, does sociology as a discipline deserve to be gloating?  From where I’m sitting, Nate Silver contradicts at least a couple things many sociology methods teachers have been telling their students for a long time.

personally, i would classify the zombie apocalypse as an ‘unreal dystopia’

I just noticed the ASA meeting logo. Am I the only one who thinks the font and hand coming out of the ground looks like the opening screen for a zombie movie? Just replace the upside-down globe with a brain and I’m there, with popcorn. (Also, discussion over at orgtheory about the Official ASA 2012 […]

do i look like a mindreader, sir? i don’t know.

Amusingly detailed, but actually pretty interesting, legal analysis and advice regarding the verse in Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” where he gets stopped by the police.

brave, cute, or self-destructive?

After all their hard work last year to call the world’s attention to how evil Scott Walker is, Madison’s teaching assistants have declined to support Scott Walker’s opponent in the recall election. They don’t like the person nominated to run against him. Awhile back, in the primary, they also declined to support the person the […]

are sociologists too nice?

Alan Sica argues that perhaps it is. One quote: Our special and newly formed version of Nice-Nellyism is different, in banishing to the outhouse scholarly criticism that might be interpreted by somebody or other as “harsh” or “unfeeling” or “off the wall” or “unsupportable,” et cetera. If an entire generation of bright young scholars is […]

eight observations on “biology” and social science

By this point, I am a longtime observer/participant in the effort to integrate genetic data into social science. So Andy’s post stirred up various convictions that I have. Not so much directed at Andy, but at lines of argument suggested by his post that are familiar to me by now. So, eight responses:

the once unruly, now sadly sublimated, darlings of public sociology

Brief thread on orgtheory about our decline. We can still wind the hurdy-gurdy, but no longer does our neurotic monkey dance.