cshalizi + books:noted 698
Schlozman, K. and Verba, S., Brady, H.: The Unheavenly Chorus: Unequal Political Voice and the Broken Promise of American Democracy.
18 days ago by cshalizi
"The Unheavenly Chorus is the first book to look at the political participation of individual citizens alongside the political advocacy of thousands of organized interests--membership associations such as unions, professional associations, trade associations, and citizens groups, as well as organizations like corporations, hospitals, and universities. Drawing on numerous in-depth surveys of members of the public as well as the largest database of interest organizations ever created--representing more than thirty-five thousand organizations over a twenty-five-year period--this book conclusively demonstrates that American democracy is marred by deeply ingrained and persistent class-based political inequality. The well educated and affluent are active in many ways to make their voices heard, while the less advantaged are not. This book reveals how the political voices of organized interests are even less representative than those of individuals, how political advantage is handed down across generations, how recruitment to political activity perpetuates and exaggerates existing biases, how political voice on the Internet replicates these inequalities--and more."
to:NB
inequality
democracy
us_politics
political_science
re:democratic_cognition
books:noted
18 days ago by cshalizi
Civilizing the Economy - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press
4 weeks ago by cshalizi
"When a handful of people thrive while whole industries implode and millions suffer, it is clear that something is wrong with our economy. The wealth of the few is disconnected from the misery of the many. In Civilizing the Economy, Marvin Brown traces the origin of this economics of dissociation to early capitalism, showing how this is illustrated in Adam Smith's denial of the central role of slavery in wealth creation. In place of the Smithian economics of property, Brown proposes that we turn to the original meaning of economics as household management. He presents a new framework for the global economy that reframes its purpose as the making of provisions instead of the accumulation of property. This bold new vision establishes the civic sphere as the platform for organizing an inclusive economy and as a way to move toward a more just and sustainable world."
to:NB
books:noted
economics
to_be_shot_after_a_fair_trial
4 weeks ago by cshalizi
Phase Transitions in Machine Learning - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
Should ask C.M. if this is worth bothering with.
"Phase transitions typically occur in combinatorial computational problems and have important consequences, especially with the current spread of statistical relational learning as well as sequence learning methodologies. In Phase Transitions in Machine Learning the authors begin by describing in detail this phenomenon, and the extensive experimental investigation that supports its presence. They then turn their attention to the possible implications and explore appropriate methods for tackling them. Weaving together fundamental aspects of computer science, statistical physics and machine learning, the book provides sufficient mathematics and physics background to make the subject intelligible to researchers in AI and other computer science communities. Open research issues are also discussed, suggesting promising directions for future research."
to:NB
books:noted
machine_learning
computational_complexity
phase_transitions
"Phase transitions typically occur in combinatorial computational problems and have important consequences, especially with the current spread of statistical relational learning as well as sequence learning methodologies. In Phase Transitions in Machine Learning the authors begin by describing in detail this phenomenon, and the extensive experimental investigation that supports its presence. They then turn their attention to the possible implications and explore appropriate methods for tackling them. Weaving together fundamental aspects of computer science, statistical physics and machine learning, the book provides sufficient mathematics and physics background to make the subject intelligible to researchers in AI and other computer science communities. Open research issues are also discussed, suggesting promising directions for future research."
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
Protein Interaction Networks - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
"The analysis of protein-protein interactions is fundamental to the understanding of cellular organization, processes, and functions. Recent large-scale investigations of protein-protein interactions using such techniques as two-hybrid systems, mass spectrometry, and protein microarrays have enriched the available protein interaction data and facilitated the construction of integrated protein-protein interaction networks. The resulting large volume of protein-protein interaction data has posed a challenge to experimental investigation. This book provides a comprehensive understanding of the computational methods available for the analysis of protein-protein interaction networks. It offers an in-depth survey of a range of approaches, including statistical, topological, data-mining, and ontology-based methods. The author discusses the fundamental principles underlying each of these approaches and their respective benefits and drawbacks, and she offers suggestions for future research."
to:NB
books:noted
biochemical_networks
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think by Peter Diamandis - Powell's Books
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
To be clear, I'd like to think (pretty much) all this will come true. But respectful mention of Kurzweil (!) is not exactly a sign of a properly calibrated bullshit meter.
books:noted
to_be_shot_after_a_fair_trial
i_want_to_believe
futurology
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
The Colonial American Origins of Modern Democratic Thought - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
"This first examination in almost 40 years of political ideas in the seventeenth-century American colonies reaches some surprising conclusions about the history of democratic theory more generally. The origins of a distinctively modern kind of thinking about democracy can be located, not in revolutionary America and France in the later eighteenth century, but in the tiny New England colonies in the middle seventeenth. The key feature of this democratic rebirth was honoring not only the principle of popular sovereignty through regular elections but also the principle of accountability through non-electoral procedures for the auditing and impeachment of elected officers. By staking its institutional identity entirely on elections, modern democratic thought has misplaced the sense of robust popular control that originally animated it."
in_NB
books:noted
democracy
american_history
re:democratic_cognition
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
Democracy's Ancient Ancestors: Mari and Early Collective Governance - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
"This volume examines the political landscape of the ancient Near East through the archive of over 3,000 letters found in the royal palace of Mari. These letters display a rich diversity of political actors, encompassing major kingdoms, smaller states and various tribal towns. Mari's unique contribution to the ancient evidence is its view of tribal organization, made possible especially by the fact that its king, Zimri-Lim, was, first of all, a tribal ruler who claimed Mari as an administrative base and source of prestige. These archaic political traditions are not essentially unlike the forms of pre-democratic Greece, and they offer fresh reason to recognize a cultural continuity between the classical world of the Aegean and the older Near East. This book bridges the areas of archaeology, ancient and classical history, early Middle and Near East, and political and social history."
books:noted
in_NB
ancient_history
democracy
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
Zipes, J.: The Irresistible Fairy Tale: The Cultural and Social History of a Genre.
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
"If there is one genre that has captured the imagination of people in all walks of life throughout the world, it is the fairy tale. Yet we still have great difficulty understanding how it originated, evolved, and spread--or why so many people cannot resist its appeal, no matter how it changes or what form it takes. In this book, renowned fairy-tale expert Jack Zipes presents a provocative new theory about why fairy tales were created and retold--and why they became such an indelible and infinitely adaptable part of cultures around the world.
"Drawing on cognitive science, evolutionary theory, anthropology, psychology, literary theory, and other fields, Zipes presents a nuanced argument about how fairy tales originated in ancient oral cultures, how they evolved through the rise of literary culture and print, and how, in our own time, they continue to change through their adaptation in an ever-growing variety of media. In making his case, Zipes considers a wide range of fascinating examples, including fairy tales told, collected, and written by women in the nineteenth century; Catherine Breillat's film adaptation of Perrault's "Bluebeard"; and contemporary fairy-tale drawings, paintings, sculptures, and photographs that critique canonical print versions.
"While we may never be able to fully explain fairy tales, The Irresistible Fairy Tale provides a powerful theory of how and why they evolved--and why we still use them to make meaning of our lives."
to:NB
books:noted
mythology
fairy_tales
literary_criticism
"Drawing on cognitive science, evolutionary theory, anthropology, psychology, literary theory, and other fields, Zipes presents a nuanced argument about how fairy tales originated in ancient oral cultures, how they evolved through the rise of literary culture and print, and how, in our own time, they continue to change through their adaptation in an ever-growing variety of media. In making his case, Zipes considers a wide range of fascinating examples, including fairy tales told, collected, and written by women in the nineteenth century; Catherine Breillat's film adaptation of Perrault's "Bluebeard"; and contemporary fairy-tale drawings, paintings, sculptures, and photographs that critique canonical print versions.
"While we may never be able to fully explain fairy tales, The Irresistible Fairy Tale provides a powerful theory of how and why they evolved--and why we still use them to make meaning of our lives."
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
Life Behind the Lobby: Indian American Motel Owners and the American Dream - Pawan Dhingra
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
"Indian Americans own about half of all the motels in the United States. Even more remarkable, most of these motel owners come from the same region in India and—although they are not all related—seventy percent of them share the surname of Patel. Most of these motel owners arrived in the United States with few resources and, broadly speaking, they are self-employed, self-sufficient immigrants who have become successful—they live the American dream.
"However, framing this group as embodying the American dream has profound implications. It perpetuates the idea of American exceptionalism—that this nation creates opportunities for newcomers unattainable elsewhere—and also downplays the inequalities of race, gender, culture, and globalization immigrants continue to face. Despite their dominance in the motel industry, Indian American moteliers are concentrated in lower- and mid-budget markets. Life Behind the Lobby explains Indian Americans' simultaneous accomplishments and marginalization and takes a close look at their own role in sustaining that duality."
to:NB
books:noted
ethnography
sociology
something_about_america
india
immigration
"However, framing this group as embodying the American dream has profound implications. It perpetuates the idea of American exceptionalism—that this nation creates opportunities for newcomers unattainable elsewhere—and also downplays the inequalities of race, gender, culture, and globalization immigrants continue to face. Despite their dominance in the motel industry, Indian American moteliers are concentrated in lower- and mid-budget markets. Life Behind the Lobby explains Indian Americans' simultaneous accomplishments and marginalization and takes a close look at their own role in sustaining that duality."
5 weeks ago by cshalizi
The Schwinger Action Principle and Effective Action - Cambridge University Press
6 weeks ago by cshalizi
"This book is an introduction to the Schwinger action principle in quantum mechanics and quantum field theory, with applications to a variety of different models including Bose-Einstein condensation, the Casimir effect, and trapped Fermi gases. The book begins with a brief review of the action principle in classical mechanics and classical field theory. It then moves on to quantum field theory, focusing on the effective action method. This is introduced as simply as possible by using the zero-point energy of the simple harmonic oscillator as the starting point. The book concludes with a more complete definition of the effective action, and demonstrates how the provisional definition used earlier is the first term in the systematic loop expansion. The renormalization of interacting scalar field theory is presented to two-loop order. This book will interest graduate students and researchers in theoretical physics who are familiar with quantum mechanics."
to:NB
books:noted
physics
action_principles
quantum_mechanics
field_theory
6 weeks ago by cshalizi
The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction by Istvan Jr Csicsery Ronay - Powell's Books
6 weeks ago by cshalizi
"As the world undergoes daily transformations through the application of technoscience to every aspect of life, science fiction has become an essential mode of imagining the horizons of possibility. However much science fiction texts vary in artistic quality and intellectual sophistication, they share in a mass social energy and a desire to imagine a collective future for the human species and the world. At this moment, a strikingly high proportion of films, commercial art, popular music, video and computer games, and non-genre fiction have become what Csicsery-Ronay calls science fictional, stimulating science-fictional habits of mind. We no longer treat science fiction as merely a genre-engine producing formulaic effects, but as a mode of awareness, which frames experiences as if they were aspects of science fiction. The Seven Beauties of Science Fiction describes science fiction as a constellation of seven diverse cognitive attractions that are particularly formative of science-fictionality. These are the seven beauties of the title: fictive neology, fictive novums, future history, imaginary science, the science-fictional sublime, the science-fictional grotesque, and the Technologiade, or the epic of technsocience's development into a global regime."
to:NB
books:noted
science_fiction
literary_criticism
cultural_criticism
the_present_before_it_was_widely_distributed
via:joncgoodwin
6 weeks ago by cshalizi
Bonacich, P. and Lu, P.: Introduction to Mathematical Sociology.
6 weeks ago by cshalizi
Judging from the table of contents (which is unfair), a weird mix of reviewing truly elementary concepts and some actually interesting stuff. (And yes, I know who Bonacich is.)
to:NB
books:noted
sociology
networks
modeling
to_be_shot_after_a_fair_trial
network_data_analysis
6 weeks ago by cshalizi
Stark, S., Rubinson, K., Samashev, Z., et al., eds.: Nomads and Networks: The Ancient Art and Culture of Kazakhstan.
6 weeks ago by cshalizi
"Focusing on material from the Altai and Tianshan regions, Nomads and Networks explores the specific conditions of mobile lifeways that resulted from particular ecological conditions in the steppes and high valleys of Inner Eurasia. Highlights of the exhibition are grave goods from the burial mounds at the site of Berel and gold mortuary ornaments from Shilikty, Zhalauli, and Kargaly. Attesting to a sophisticated decorative art flourishing among these nomadic populations, the objects skillfully combine older iconographic traditions of animal style in the steppe with more recent influences from foreign cultures--most notably Persia and China."
to:NB
books:noted
archaeology
central_asia
6 weeks ago by cshalizi
Peter Mundy, Merchant Adventurer, Pritchard
7 weeks ago by cshalizi
"Peter Mundy was an English merchant trader of the seventeenth century who spent most of his life traveling the world, including western Europe, Poland, and Istanbul. Fueled by an insatiable curiosity about the world around him, Mundy kept a detailed account of his travels, illustrated throughout with his own lively drawings of the people and animals he encountered.
"Drawing on the unique manuscript held by the Bodleian Library, Peter Mundy, Merchant Adventurer collects Mundy’s vivid accounts of the Ottoman, Mughal, Chinese, and Russian Empires, as well as his reports of the first, difficult contact between Britain and China, of exhausting journeys through famine-devastated northern India, and of the troubled times in London following the Restoration of Charles II."
books:noted
armchair_travel
early_modern_world_history
to:NB
"Drawing on the unique manuscript held by the Bodleian Library, Peter Mundy, Merchant Adventurer collects Mundy’s vivid accounts of the Ottoman, Mughal, Chinese, and Russian Empires, as well as his reports of the first, difficult contact between Britain and China, of exhausting journeys through famine-devastated northern India, and of the troubled times in London following the Restoration of Charles II."
7 weeks ago by cshalizi
Plant Physics, Niklas, Spatz
7 weeks ago by cshalizi
"The result of a long-term collaboration between plant evolutionary biologist Karl J. Niklas and physicist Hanns-Christof Spatz, Plant Physics presents a detailed account of the principles of classical physics, evolutionary theory, and plant biology in order to explain the complex interrelationships among plant form, function, environment, and evolutionary history. Covering a wide range of topics—from the development and evolution of the basic plant body and the ecology of aquatic unicellular plants to mathematical treatments of light attenuation through tree canopies and the movement of water through plants’ roots, stems, and leaves—Plant Physics is destined to inspire students and professionals alike to traverse disciplinary membranes."
to:NB
books:noted
biology
botany
physics
7 weeks ago by cshalizi
The Roots of Radicalism: Tradition, the Public Sphere, and Early Nineteenth-Century Social Movements, Calhoun
7 weeks ago by cshalizi
"The story of the rise of radicalism in the early nineteenth century has often been simplified into a fable about progressive social change. The diverse social movements of the era—religious, political, regional, national, antislavery, and protemperance—are presented as mere strands in a unified tapestry of labor and democratic mobilization. Taking aim at this flawed view of radicalism as simply the extreme end of a single dimension of progress, Craig Calhoun emphasizes the coexistence of different kinds of radicalism, their tensions, and their implications."
to:NB
books:noted
american_history
us_politics
progressive_forces
7 weeks ago by cshalizi
Fossier, R. and Fossier, R. and Cochrane, L.G., trans.: The Axe and the Oath: Ordinary Life in the Middle Ages.
7 weeks ago by cshalizi
"In The Axe and the Oath, one of the world's leading medieval historians presents a compelling picture of daily life in the Middle Ages as it was experienced by ordinary people. Writing for general readers, Robert Fossier vividly describes how these vulnerable people confronted life, from birth to death, including childhood, marriage, work, sex, food, illness, religion, and the natural world. While most histories of the period focus on the ideas and actions of the few who wielded power and stress how different medieval people were from us, Fossier concentrates on the other nine-tenths of humanity in the period and concludes that "medieval man is us."
"Drawing on a broad range of evidence, Fossier describes how medieval men and women encountered, coped with, and understood the basic material facts of their lives. We learn how people related to agriculture, animals, the weather, the forest, and the sea; how they used alcohol and drugs; and how they buried their dead. But The Axe and the Oath is about much more than simply the material demands of life. We also learn how ordinary people experienced the social, cultural, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of medieval life, from memory and imagination to writing and the Church. The result is a sweeping new vision of the Middle Ages that will entertain and enlighten readers."
to:NB
books:noted
medieval_european_history
"Drawing on a broad range of evidence, Fossier describes how medieval men and women encountered, coped with, and understood the basic material facts of their lives. We learn how people related to agriculture, animals, the weather, the forest, and the sea; how they used alcohol and drugs; and how they buried their dead. But The Axe and the Oath is about much more than simply the material demands of life. We also learn how ordinary people experienced the social, cultural, intellectual, and spiritual aspects of medieval life, from memory and imagination to writing and the Church. The result is a sweeping new vision of the Middle Ages that will entertain and enlighten readers."
7 weeks ago by cshalizi
Cognitive Variations: Reflections on the Unity and Diversity of the Human Mind by Geoffrey E R Lloyd - Powell's Books
8 weeks ago by cshalizi
"Sir Geoffrey Lloyd presents a cross-disciplinary study of the problems posed by the unity and diversity of the human mind. On the one hand, as humans we all share broadly the same anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and certain psychological capabilities--the capacity to learn a language, for instance. On the other, different individuals and groups have very different talents, tastes, and beliefs, for instance about how they see themselves, other humans and the world around them. These issues are highly charged, for any denial of psychic unity savors of racism, while many assertions of psychic diversity raise the specters of arbitrary relativism, the incommensurability of beliefs systems and their mutual unintelligibility.
"Lloyd surveys a fascinating range of subjects, examining where different types of arguments, scientific, philosophical, anthropological and historical can take us. He discusses color perception, spatial cognition, animal and plant taxonomy, the emotions, ideas of health and well-being, concepts of the self, agency and causation, varying perceptions of the distinction between nature and culture, and reasoning itself. To avoid the pitfalls of misleading dichotomies (especially between cross-cultural universalism and cultural relativism) he pays due attention to the multidimensionality of the phenomena to be apprehended and to the diversity of manners, or styles, of apprehending them. The weight to be given to different factors, physical, biological, psychological, cultural, ideological, varies as between different subject-areas and sometimes even within a single area. He uses recent work in social anthropology, linguistics, cognitive science, neurophysiology, and the history of ideas to redefine the problems and clarify how our evident psychic diversity can be reconciled with our shared humanity."
to:NB
books:noted
cultural_differences
cultural_transmission_of_cognitive_tools
evolutionary_psychology
diversity
anthropology
history_of_ideas
"Lloyd surveys a fascinating range of subjects, examining where different types of arguments, scientific, philosophical, anthropological and historical can take us. He discusses color perception, spatial cognition, animal and plant taxonomy, the emotions, ideas of health and well-being, concepts of the self, agency and causation, varying perceptions of the distinction between nature and culture, and reasoning itself. To avoid the pitfalls of misleading dichotomies (especially between cross-cultural universalism and cultural relativism) he pays due attention to the multidimensionality of the phenomena to be apprehended and to the diversity of manners, or styles, of apprehending them. The weight to be given to different factors, physical, biological, psychological, cultural, ideological, varies as between different subject-areas and sometimes even within a single area. He uses recent work in social anthropology, linguistics, cognitive science, neurophysiology, and the history of ideas to redefine the problems and clarify how our evident psychic diversity can be reconciled with our shared humanity."
8 weeks ago by cshalizi
The Sugar Frosted Nutsack by Mark Leyner - Powell's Books
8 weeks ago by cshalizi
Oh, wow, there's a name from the past. I haven't read a Leyner book since (greps) 1995, but I used to find him quite amusing...
books:noted
8 weeks ago by cshalizi
Shiller, R.: Finance and the Good Society.
11 weeks ago by cshalizi
Based on his previous (pre-crash) _New Financial Order_, this will be Utopian in the worst sense.
to:NB
books:noted
to_be_shot_after_a_fair_trial
finance
social_engineering
shiller.robert
11 weeks ago by cshalizi
Magic and the Mind: Mechanisms, Functions, and Development of Magical Thinking and Behavior by Eugene Subbotsky - Powell's Books
11 weeks ago by cshalizi
"In Magic and the Mind, Eugene Subbotsky provides an overview of the mechanisms and development of magical thinking and beliefs throughout the life span while arguing that the role of this type of thought in human development should be reconsidered. Rather than an impediment to scientific reasoning or a byproduct of cognitive development, in children magical thinking is an important and necessary complement to these processes, enhancing creativity at problem-solving and reinforcing coping strategies, among other benefits. In adults, magical thinking and beliefs perform important functions both for individuals (coping with unsolvable problems and stressful situations) and for society (enabling mass influence and promoting social harmony). Operating in realms not bound by physical causality, such as emotion, relationships, and suggestion, magical thinking is an ongoing, developing psychological mechanism that, Subbotsky argues, is integral in the contexts of politics, commercial advertising, and psychotherapy, and undergirds our construction and understanding of meaning in both mental and physical worlds. Magic and the Mind represents a unique contribution to our understanding of the importance of magical thinking, offering experimental evidence and conclusions never before collected in one source. It will be of interest to students and scholars of developmental psychology, as well as sociologists, anthropologists, and educators."
to:NB
books:noted
psychology
magical_thinking
cognitive_development
11 weeks ago by cshalizi
Hochschild, J.L., Weaver, V., Burch, T.: Creating a New Racial Order: How Immigration, Multiracialism, Genomics, and the Young Can Remake Race in America.
11 weeks ago by cshalizi
"
The American racial order--the beliefs, institutions, and practices that organize relationships among the nation's races and ethnicities--is undergoing its greatest transformation since the 1960s. Creating a New Racial Order takes a groundbreaking look at the reasons behind this dramatic change, and considers how different groups of Americans are being affected. Through revealing narrative and striking research, the authors show that the personal and political choices of Americans will be critical to how, and how much, racial hierarchy is redefined in decades to come.
"The authors outline the components that make up a racial order and examine the specific mechanisms influencing group dynamics in the United States: immigration, multiracialism, genomic science, and generational change. Cumulatively, these mechanisms increase heterogeneity within each racial or ethnic group, and decrease the distance separating groups from each other. The authors show that individuals are moving across group boundaries, that genomic science is challenging the whole concept of race, and that economic variation within groups is increasing. Above all, young adults understand and practice race differently from their elders: their formative memories are 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and Obama's election--not civil rights marches, riots, or the early stages of immigration. Blockages could stymie or distort these changes, however, so the authors point to essential policy and political choices."
in_NB
books:noted
race
sociology
the_american_dilemma
The American racial order--the beliefs, institutions, and practices that organize relationships among the nation's races and ethnicities--is undergoing its greatest transformation since the 1960s. Creating a New Racial Order takes a groundbreaking look at the reasons behind this dramatic change, and considers how different groups of Americans are being affected. Through revealing narrative and striking research, the authors show that the personal and political choices of Americans will be critical to how, and how much, racial hierarchy is redefined in decades to come.
"The authors outline the components that make up a racial order and examine the specific mechanisms influencing group dynamics in the United States: immigration, multiracialism, genomic science, and generational change. Cumulatively, these mechanisms increase heterogeneity within each racial or ethnic group, and decrease the distance separating groups from each other. The authors show that individuals are moving across group boundaries, that genomic science is challenging the whole concept of race, and that economic variation within groups is increasing. Above all, young adults understand and practice race differently from their elders: their formative memories are 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and Obama's election--not civil rights marches, riots, or the early stages of immigration. Blockages could stymie or distort these changes, however, so the authors point to essential policy and political choices."
11 weeks ago by cshalizi
What Did the Romans Know?: An Inquiry into Science and Worldmaking, Lehoux
11 weeks ago by cshalizi
"What did the Romans know about their world? Quite a lot, as Daryn Lehoux makes clear in this fascinating and much-needed contribution to the history and philosophy of ancient science. Lehoux contends that even though many of the Romans’ views about the natural world have no place in modern science—the umbrella-footed monsters and dog-headed people that roamed the earth and the stars that foretold human destinies—their claims turn out not to be so radically different from our own."
to:NB
books:noted
ancient_history
history_of_science
history_of_ideas
roman_empire
11 weeks ago by cshalizi
Statistics and Scientific Method: An Introduction for Students and Researchers by Peter J. Diggle and Amanda Chetwynd - Powell's Books
11 weeks ago by cshalizi
"Most introductory statistics text-books are written either in a highly mathematical style for an intended readership of mathematics undergraduate students, or in a recipe-book style for an intended audience of non-mathematically inclined undergraduate or postgraduate students, typically in a single discipline; hence, "statistics for biologists", "statistics for psychologists", and so on.
An antidote to technique-oriented service courses, Statistics and Scientific Method is different. It studiously avoids the recipe-book style and keeps algebraic details of specific statistical methods to the minimum extent necessary to understand the underlying concepts. Instead, the text aims to give the reader a clear understanding of how core statistical ideas of experimental design, modelling and data analysis are integral to the scientific method.
Aimed primarily at beginning postgraduate students across a range of scientific disciplines (albeit with a bias towards the biological, environmental and health sciences), it therefore assumes some maturity of understanding of scientific method, but does not require any prior knowledge of statistics, or any mathematical knowledge beyond basic algebra and a willingness to come to terms with mathematical notation.
Any statistical analysis of a realistically sized data-set requires the use of specially written computer software. An Appendix introduces the reader to our open-source software of choice, R, whilst the book's web-page includes downloadable data and R code that enables the reader to reproduce all of the analyses in the book and, with easy modifications, to adapt the code to analyse their own data if they wish. However, the book is not intended to be a textbook on statistical computing, and all of the material in the book can be understood without using either R or any other computer software."
to:NB
books:noted
statistics
philosophy_of_science
An antidote to technique-oriented service courses, Statistics and Scientific Method is different. It studiously avoids the recipe-book style and keeps algebraic details of specific statistical methods to the minimum extent necessary to understand the underlying concepts. Instead, the text aims to give the reader a clear understanding of how core statistical ideas of experimental design, modelling and data analysis are integral to the scientific method.
Aimed primarily at beginning postgraduate students across a range of scientific disciplines (albeit with a bias towards the biological, environmental and health sciences), it therefore assumes some maturity of understanding of scientific method, but does not require any prior knowledge of statistics, or any mathematical knowledge beyond basic algebra and a willingness to come to terms with mathematical notation.
Any statistical analysis of a realistically sized data-set requires the use of specially written computer software. An Appendix introduces the reader to our open-source software of choice, R, whilst the book's web-page includes downloadable data and R code that enables the reader to reproduce all of the analyses in the book and, with easy modifications, to adapt the code to analyse their own data if they wish. However, the book is not intended to be a textbook on statistical computing, and all of the material in the book can be understood without using either R or any other computer software."
11 weeks ago by cshalizi
Graphical Models with R
12 weeks ago by cshalizi
"Graphical models in their modern form have been around since the late 1970s and appear today in many areas of the sciences. Along with the ongoing developments of graphical models, a number of different graphical modeling software programs have been written over the years. In recent years many of these software developments have taken place within the R community, either in the form of new packages or by providing an R interface to existing software. This book attempts to give the reader a gentle introduction to graphical modeling using R and the main features of some of these packages. In addition, the book provides examples of how more advanced aspects of graphical modeling can be represented and handled within R. Topics covered in the seven chapters include graphical models for contingency tables, Gaussian and mixed graphical models, Bayesian networks and modeling high dimensional data."
to:NB
books:noted
R
statistics
graphical_models
lauritzen.steffen
computational_statistics
12 weeks ago by cshalizi
Lena, J.C.: Banding Together: How Communities Create Genres in Popular Music.
february 2012 by cshalizi
"Why do some music styles gain mass popularity while others thrive in small niches? Banding Together explores this question and reveals the attributes that together explain the growth of twentieth-century American popular music. Drawing on a vast array of examples from sixty musical styles--ranging from rap and bluegrass to death metal and South Texas polka, and including several created outside the United States--Jennifer Lena uncovers the shared grammar that allows us to understand the cultural language and evolution of popular music.
"What are the common economic, organizational, ideological, and aesthetic traits among contemporary genres? Do genres follow patterns in their development? Lena discovers four dominant forms--Avant-garde, Scene-based, Industry-based, and Traditionalist--and two dominant trajectories that describe how American pop music genres develop. Outside the United States there exists a fifth form: the Government-purposed genre, which she examines in the music of China, Serbia, Nigeria, and Chile. Offering a rare analysis of how music communities operate, she looks at the shared obstacles and opportunities creative people face and reveals the ways in which people collaborate around ideas, artworks, individuals, and organizations that support their work."
to:NB
books:noted
sociology
cultural_evolution
social_life_of_the_mind
music
social_networks
genres
"What are the common economic, organizational, ideological, and aesthetic traits among contemporary genres? Do genres follow patterns in their development? Lena discovers four dominant forms--Avant-garde, Scene-based, Industry-based, and Traditionalist--and two dominant trajectories that describe how American pop music genres develop. Outside the United States there exists a fifth form: the Government-purposed genre, which she examines in the music of China, Serbia, Nigeria, and Chile. Offering a rare analysis of how music communities operate, she looks at the shared obstacles and opportunities creative people face and reveals the ways in which people collaborate around ideas, artworks, individuals, and organizations that support their work."
february 2012 by cshalizi
The Evolution of Cultural Diversity: A Phylogenetic Approach by Ruth Mace - Powell's Books
february 2012 by cshalizi
"Virtually all aspects of human behavior show enormous variation both within and between cultural groups, including material culture, social organization and language. Thousands of distinct cultural groups exist: about 6,000 languages are spoken today, and it is thought that a far greater number of languages existed in the past but became extinct. Using a Darwinian approach, this book seeks to explain this rich cultural variation. There are a number of theoretical reasons to believe that cultural diversification might be tree-like, that is phylogenetic: material and non-material culture is clearly inherited by descendants, there is descent with modification, and languages appear to be hierarchically related. There are also a number of theoretical reasons to believe that cultural evolution is not tree-like: cultural inheritance is not Mendelian and can indeed be vertical, horizontal or oblique, evidence of borrowing abounds, cultures are not necessarily biological populations and can be transient and complex. Here, for the first time, this title tackles these questions of cultural evolution empirically and quantitatively, using a range of case studies from Africa, the Pacific, Europe, Asia and America. A range of powerful theoretical tools developed in evolutionary biology is used to test detailed hypotheses about historical patterns and adaptive functions in cultural evolution. Evidence is amassed from archaeological, linguist and cultural datasets, from both recent and historical or pre-historical time periods. A unifying theme is that the phylogenetic approach is a useful and powerful framework, both for describing the evolutionary history of these traits, and also for testing adaptive hypotheses about their evolution and co-evolution. Contributors include archaeologists, anthropologists, evolutionary biologists and linguists, and this book will be of great interest to all those involved in these areas."
in_NB
books:noted
phylogenetics
evolutionary_biology
human_evolution
cultural_evolution
cultural_transmission
cultural_differences
february 2012 by cshalizi
Phylogenetic Networks - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press
february 2012 by cshalizi
"The evolutionary history of species is traditionally represented using a rooted phylogenetic tree. However, when reticulate events such as hybridization, horizontal gene transfer or recombination are believed to be involved, phylogenetic networks that can accommodate non-treelike evolution have an important role to play. This book provides the first interdisciplinary overview of phylogenetic networks. Beginning with a concise introduction to both phylogenetic trees and phylogenetic networks, the fundamental concepts and results are then presented for both rooted and unrooted phylogenetic networks. Current approaches and algorithms available for computing phylogenetic networks from different types of datasets are then discussed, accompanied by examples of their application to real biological datasets. The book also summarises the algorithms used for drawing phylogenetic networks, along with the existing software for their computation and evaluation. All datasets, examples and other additional information and links are available from the book's companion website at www.phylogenetic-networks.org."
in_NB
phylogenetics
network_data_analysis
evolutionary_biology
cultural_evolution
books:noted
february 2012 by cshalizi
The Sounding of the Whale: Science and Cetaceans in the Twentieth Century, Burnett
february 2012 by cshalizi
" tells the fascinating story of the transformation of cetaceans from grotesque monsters, useful only as wallowing kegs of fat and fertilizer, to playful friends of humanity, bellwethers of environmental devastation, and, finally, totems of the counterculture in the Age of Aquarius. "
to:NB
books:noted
cetaceans
history_of_science
history_of_ideas
february 2012 by cshalizi
UI Press | Stephen Ramsay | Reading Machines: Toward an Algorithmic Criticism
january 2012 by cshalizi
"Besides familiar and now-commonplace tasks that computers do all the time, what else are they capable of? Stephen Ramsay's intriguing study of computational text analysis examines how computers can be used as "reading machines" to open up entirely new possibilities for literary critics. Computer-based text analysis has been employed for the past several decades as a way of searching, collating, and indexing texts. Despite this, the digital revolution has not penetrated the core activity of literary studies: interpretive analysis of written texts."
in_NB
books:noted
literary_criticism
text_mining
via:timothy-burke
january 2012 by cshalizi
Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives - The MIT Press
january 2012 by cshalizi
"The ever-expanding capacities of computing offer new narrative possibilities for virtual worlds. Yet vast narratives—featuring an ongoing and intricately developed storyline, many characters, and multiple settings—did not originate with, and are not limited to, Massively Multiplayer Online Games. Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Marvel's Spiderman, and the complex stories of such television shows as Dr. Who, The Sopranos, and Lost all present vast fictional worlds.
Third Person explores strategies of vast narrative across a variety of media, including video games, television, literature, comic books, tabletop games, and digital art. The contributors—media and television scholars, novelists, comic creators, game designers, and others—investigate such issues as continuity, canonicity, interactivity, fan fiction, technological innovation, and cross-media phenomena.
Chapters examine a range of topics, including storytelling in a multiplayer environment; narrative techniques for a 3,000,000-page novel; continuity (or the impossibility of it) in Doctor Who; managing multiple intertwined narratives in superhero comics; the spatial experience of the Final Fantasy role-playing games; World of Warcraft adventure texts created by designers and fans; and the serial storytelling of The Wire."
in_NB
books:noted
narrative
literary_criticism
via:?
Third Person explores strategies of vast narrative across a variety of media, including video games, television, literature, comic books, tabletop games, and digital art. The contributors—media and television scholars, novelists, comic creators, game designers, and others—investigate such issues as continuity, canonicity, interactivity, fan fiction, technological innovation, and cross-media phenomena.
Chapters examine a range of topics, including storytelling in a multiplayer environment; narrative techniques for a 3,000,000-page novel; continuity (or the impossibility of it) in Doctor Who; managing multiple intertwined narratives in superhero comics; the spatial experience of the Final Fantasy role-playing games; World of Warcraft adventure texts created by designers and fans; and the serial storytelling of The Wire."
january 2012 by cshalizi
Mike Cooper: Clawback
january 2012 by cshalizi
"As Clawback opens, an assassin has begun shooting the country’s worst-performing financiers. A bottom-ranked investment manager; a hedge fund partner down ninety percent; a rotten banker. Someone’s slogan seems to be, “Don’t bail them out, take them out!”
"A coalition of banksters hires a fixer, the sort of contractor whose job description opens with “total deniability” and ends with “unlicensed machine guns.” As bodies fall and markets plunge, he ranges the Greenwich-Midtown axis with an equalizer and an attitude – only to realize he’s become a target himself."
books:noted
financial_crisis_of_2007--
via:?
satire
"A coalition of banksters hires a fixer, the sort of contractor whose job description opens with “total deniability” and ends with “unlicensed machine guns.” As bodies fall and markets plunge, he ranges the Greenwich-Midtown axis with an equalizer and an attitude – only to realize he’s become a target himself."
january 2012 by cshalizi
Mining of Massive Datasets - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press
january 2012 by cshalizi
"The popularity of the Web and Internet commerce provides many extremely large datasets from which information can be gleaned by data mining. This book focuses on practical algorithms that have been used to solve key problems in data mining and which can be used on even the largest datasets. It begins with a discussion of the map-reduce framework, an important tool for parallelizing algorithms automatically. The authors explain the tricks of locality-sensitive hashing and stream processing algorithms for mining data that arrives too fast for exhaustive processing. The PageRank idea and related tricks for organizing the Web are covered next. Other chapters cover the problems of finding frequent itemsets and clustering. The final chapters cover two applications: recommendation systems and Web advertising, each vital in e-commerce. Written by two authorities in database and Web technologies, this book is essential reading for students and practitioners alike."
--- What a remarkably hideous cover!
to:NB
books:noted
data_mining
to_teach:data-mining
machine_learning
computational_statistics
--- What a remarkably hideous cover!
january 2012 by cshalizi
The Institutional Revolution: Measurement and the Economic Emergence of the Modern World, Allen
january 2012 by cshalizi
"Few events in the history of humanity rival the Industrial Revolution. Following its onset in eighteenth-century Britain, sweeping changes in agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, and technology began to gain unstoppable momentum throughout Europe, North America, and eventually much of the world—with profound effects on socioeconomic and cultural conditions.
"In The Institutional Revolution, Douglas W. Allen offers a thought-provoking account of another, quieter revolution that took place at the end of the eighteenth century and allowed for the full exploitation of the many new technological innovations. Fundamental to this shift were dramatic changes in institutions, or the rules that govern society, which reflected significant improvements in the ability to measure performance—whether of government officials, laborers, or naval officers—thereby reducing the role of nature and the hazards of variance in daily affairs. Along the way, Allen provides readers with a fascinating explanation of the critical roles played by seemingly bizarre institutions, from dueling to the purchase of one’s rank in the British Army.
"Engagingly written, The Institutional Revolutiontraces the dramatic shift from premodern institutions based on patronage, purchase, and personal ties toward modern institutions based on standardization, merit, and wage labor—a shift which was crucial to the explosive economic growth of the Industrial Revolution."
to:NB
books:noted
industrial_revolution
institutions
organizations
great_transformation
re:do-institutions-evolve
"In The Institutional Revolution, Douglas W. Allen offers a thought-provoking account of another, quieter revolution that took place at the end of the eighteenth century and allowed for the full exploitation of the many new technological innovations. Fundamental to this shift were dramatic changes in institutions, or the rules that govern society, which reflected significant improvements in the ability to measure performance—whether of government officials, laborers, or naval officers—thereby reducing the role of nature and the hazards of variance in daily affairs. Along the way, Allen provides readers with a fascinating explanation of the critical roles played by seemingly bizarre institutions, from dueling to the purchase of one’s rank in the British Army.
"Engagingly written, The Institutional Revolutiontraces the dramatic shift from premodern institutions based on patronage, purchase, and personal ties toward modern institutions based on standardization, merit, and wage labor—a shift which was crucial to the explosive economic growth of the Industrial Revolution."
january 2012 by cshalizi
Ladd, J.M.: Why Americans Hate the Media and How It Matters.
january 2012 by cshalizi
"As recently as the early 1970s, the news media was one of the most respected institutions in the United States. Yet by the 1990s, this trust had all but evaporated. Why has confidence in the press declined so dramatically over the past 40 years? And has this change shaped the public's political behavior? This book examines waning public trust in the institutional news media within the context of the American political system and looks at how this lack of confidence has altered the ways people acquire political information and form electoral preferences.
Jonathan Ladd argues that in the 1950s, '60s, and early '70s, competition in American party politics and the media industry reached historic lows. When competition later intensified in both of these realms, the public's distrust of the institutional media grew, leading the public to resist the mainstream press's information about policy outcomes and turn toward alternative partisan media outlets. As a result, public beliefs and voting behavior are now increasingly shaped by partisan predispositions. Ladd contends that it is not realistic or desirable to suppress party and media competition to the levels of the mid-twentieth century; rather, in the contemporary media environment, new ways to augment the public's knowledgeability and responsiveness must be explored.
Drawing on historical evidence, experiments, and public opinion surveys, this book shows that in a world of endless news sources, citizens' trust in institutional media is more important than ever before."
to:NB
books:noted
why_oh_why_cant_we_have_a_better_press_corps
our_decrepit_institutions
newspapers
journalism
us_politics
Jonathan Ladd argues that in the 1950s, '60s, and early '70s, competition in American party politics and the media industry reached historic lows. When competition later intensified in both of these realms, the public's distrust of the institutional media grew, leading the public to resist the mainstream press's information about policy outcomes and turn toward alternative partisan media outlets. As a result, public beliefs and voting behavior are now increasingly shaped by partisan predispositions. Ladd contends that it is not realistic or desirable to suppress party and media competition to the levels of the mid-twentieth century; rather, in the contemporary media environment, new ways to augment the public's knowledgeability and responsiveness must be explored.
Drawing on historical evidence, experiments, and public opinion surveys, this book shows that in a world of endless news sources, citizens' trust in institutional media is more important than ever before."
january 2012 by cshalizi
Wiley: Mathematical Statistics with Resampling and R
december 2011 by cshalizi
"Resampling helps students understand the meaning of sampling distributions, sampling variability, P-values, hypothesis tests, and confidence intervals. This groundbreaking book shows how to apply modern resampling techniques to mathematical statistics. Extensively class-tested to ensure an accessible presentation, Mathematical Statistics with Resampling and R utilizes the powerful and flexible computer language R to underscore the significance and benefits of modern resampling techniques."
--- This might be a good book for a baby stats. class; but even if it's a _great_ book, how on Earth am I supposed to justify asking students to spend $130 for it?
books:noted
statistics
bootstrap
R
--- This might be a good book for a baby stats. class; but even if it's a _great_ book, how on Earth am I supposed to justify asking students to spend $130 for it?
december 2011 by cshalizi
Graph-based Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval - Mihaclea and Radev
december 2011 by cshalizi
"Graph theory and the fields of natural language processing and information retrieval are well-studied disciplines. Traditionally, these areas have been perceived as distinct, with different algorithms, different applications, and different potential end-users. However, recent research has shown that these disciplines are intimately connected, with a large variety of natural language processing and information retrieval applications finding efficient solutions within graph-theoretical frameworks. This book extensively covers the use of graph-based algorithms for natural language processing and information retrieval. It brings together topics as diverse as lexical semantics, text summarization, text mining, ontology construction, text classification, and information retrieval, which are connected by the common underlying theme of the use of graph-theoretical methods for text and information processing tasks. Readers will come away with a firm understanding of the major methods and applications in natural language processing and information retrieval that rely on graph-based representations and algorithms."
in_NB
books:noted
natural_language_processing
graph_theory
data_mining
text_mining
radev.dragomir
december 2011 by cshalizi
The Toaster Project
december 2011 by cshalizi
Making a toaster, at home, from scratch.
books:noted
coveted
history_of_technology
funny:geeky
metalworking
via:unfogged
how_things_work
craft
december 2011 by cshalizi
Patterns of Protest: Trajectories of Participation in Social Movements - Catherine Corrigall-Brown
december 2011 by cshalizi
"Asked to name an activist, many people think of someone like Cesar Chavez or Rosa Parks—someone uniquely and passionately devoted to a cause. Yet, two-thirds of Americans report having belonged to a social movement, attended a protest, or engaged in some form of contentious political activity. Activism, in other words, is something that the vast majority of people engage in. This book examines these more common experiences to ask how and when people choose to engage with political causes.
Corrigall-Brown reveals how individual characteristics and life experiences impact the pathway of participation, illustrating that the context and period in which a person engages are critical. This is the real picture of activism, one in which many people engage, in a multitude of ways and with varying degrees of continuity. This book challenges the current conceptualization of activism and pushes us to more systematically examine the varying ways that individuals participate in contentious politics over their lifetimes."
to:NB
books:noted
social_movements
sociology
political_science
re:democratic_cognition
Corrigall-Brown reveals how individual characteristics and life experiences impact the pathway of participation, illustrating that the context and period in which a person engages are critical. This is the real picture of activism, one in which many people engage, in a multitude of ways and with varying degrees of continuity. This book challenges the current conceptualization of activism and pushes us to more systematically examine the varying ways that individuals participate in contentious politics over their lifetimes."
december 2011 by cshalizi
The Explanation of Social Action by John Levi Martin - Powell's Books
december 2011 by cshalizi
"The Explanation of Social Action is a sustained critique of the conventional understanding of what it means to "explain" something in the social sciences. It makes the strong argument that the traditional understanding involves asking questions that have no clear foundation and provoke an unnecessary tension between lay and expert vocabularies. Drawing on the history and philosophy of the social sciences, John Levi Martin exposes the root of the problem as an attempt to counterpose two radically different types of answers to the question of why someone did a certain thing: first person and third person responses. The tendency is epitomized by attempts to explain human action in "causal" terms. This "causality" has little to do with reality and instead involves the creation and validation of abstract statements that almost no social scientist would defend literally.
This substitution of analysts' imaginations over actors' realities results from an intellectual history wherein social scientists began to distrust the self-understanding of actors in favor of fundamentally anti-democratic epistemologies. These were rooted most defensibly in a general understanding of an epistemic hiatus in social knowledge and least defensibly in the importation of practices of truth production from the hierarchical setting of institutions for the insane. Martin, instead of assuming that there is something fundamentally arbitrary about the cognitive schemes of actors, focuses on the nature of judgment. This implies the need for a social aesthetics, an understanding of the process whereby actors intuit intersubjectively valid qualities of complex social objects. In this thought-provoking and ambitious book, John Levi Martin argues that the most promising way forward to such a science of social aesthetics will involve a rigorous field theory."
books:noted
in_NB
social_science_methodology
philosophy_of_science
explanation
martin.john_levi
barely-comprehensible_metaphysics
causality
This substitution of analysts' imaginations over actors' realities results from an intellectual history wherein social scientists began to distrust the self-understanding of actors in favor of fundamentally anti-democratic epistemologies. These were rooted most defensibly in a general understanding of an epistemic hiatus in social knowledge and least defensibly in the importation of practices of truth production from the hierarchical setting of institutions for the insane. Martin, instead of assuming that there is something fundamentally arbitrary about the cognitive schemes of actors, focuses on the nature of judgment. This implies the need for a social aesthetics, an understanding of the process whereby actors intuit intersubjectively valid qualities of complex social objects. In this thought-provoking and ambitious book, John Levi Martin argues that the most promising way forward to such a science of social aesthetics will involve a rigorous field theory."
december 2011 by cshalizi
State and Society in the Early Middle Ages - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press
december 2011 by cshalizi
State and Society in the Early Middle Ages
to:NB
books:noted
medieval_european_history
state-building
institutions
december 2011 by cshalizi
Science art and gifts for nerd babies
december 2011 by cshalizi
"Can you find the complete circuit? Can you identify different types of cellular life? Or help Darwin's finches choose their next meal? Of course you can! This silly collection of coloring pages includes more than 60 pages featuring classic Nerdy Baby line drawings. All of the letters of the alphabet are included with fun definitions. Kids can also color famous scientists, count subatomic particles, and imagine what will grow in their petri dishes. Equal parts nerdy and ridiculous, this book will challenge and delight the most precocious of young scientific minds."
books:noted
funny:geeky
education
science
december 2011 by cshalizi
The Diffusion of Social Movements - Academic and Professional Books - Cambridge University Press
december 2011 by cshalizi
"It is widely recognized that social movements may spread – or "diffuse" – from one site to another. Such diffusion, however, is a complex and multidimensional process that involves different actors, networks, and mechanisms. This complexity has spawned a large body of literature on different aspects of the diffusion process, yet a comprehensive framework remains an elusive target. This book is a response to that need, and its framework focuses on three basic analytical questions. First, what is being diffused? This question directs attention to both the protest repertoires and interpretive frames that actors construct to define issues and mobilize political claims. Second, how does diffusion occur? This book focuses attention on the activist networks and communication channels that facilitate diffusion, including dialogue, rumors, the mass media, the internet, NGOs, and organizational brokers. Finally, what is the impact of diffusion on organizational development and shifts in the scale of contentious politics? This volume suggests that diffusion is not a simple matter of political contagion or imitation; rather, it is a creative and strategic process marked by political learning, adaptation, and innovation."
to:NB
books:noted
social_movements
diffusion_of_innovations
re:critique_of_diffusion
contagion
sociology
december 2011 by cshalizi
The Small Worlds of Corporate Governance - The MIT Press
december 2011 by cshalizi
"The financial crisis of 2008 laid bare the hidden network of relationships in corporate governance: who owes what to whom, who will stand by whom in times of crisis, what governs the provision of credit when no one seems to have credit. This book maps the influence of these types of economic and social networks--communities of agents (people or firms) and the ties among them--on corporate behavior and governance. The empirically rich studies in the book are largely concerned with mechanisms for the emergence of governance networks rather than with what determines the best outcomes. The chapters identify “structural breaks”--privatization, for example, or globalization--and assess why powerful actors across countries behaved similarly or differently in terms of network properties and corporate governance.
The chapters examine, among other topics, the surprisingly heterogeneous network structures that contradict the common belief in a single Anglo-Saxon model; the variation in network trajectories among the formerly communist countries including China; signs of convergence in response to the common structural breaks in Europe; the growing structural power of women due to gains in gender diversity on corporate governance in Scandinavia; the “small world” of merger and acquisition activity in Germany and the United States; the properties of a global and transnational governance network; and application of agent-based models to understanding the emergence of governance."
in_NB
books:noted
social_networks
interlocking_directorates
corporations
economics
sociology
The chapters examine, among other topics, the surprisingly heterogeneous network structures that contradict the common belief in a single Anglo-Saxon model; the variation in network trajectories among the formerly communist countries including China; signs of convergence in response to the common structural breaks in Europe; the growing structural power of women due to gains in gender diversity on corporate governance in Scandinavia; the “small world” of merger and acquisition activity in Germany and the United States; the properties of a global and transnational governance network; and application of agent-based models to understanding the emergence of governance."
december 2011 by cshalizi
Guardians of Finance: Making Regulators Work for Us - The MIT Press
december 2011 by cshalizi
"The recent financial crisis was an accident, a “perfect storm” fueled by an unforeseeable confluence of events that unfortunately combined to bring down the global financial systems. And policy makers? They did everything they could, given their limited authority. It was all a terrible, unavoidable accident. Or at least this is the story told and retold by a chorus of luminaries that includes Timothy Geithner, Henry Paulson, Robert Rubin, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan.
In Guardians of Finance, economists James Barth, Gerard Caprio, and Ross Levine argue that the financial meltdown of 2007 to 2009 was no accident; it was negligent homicide. They show that senior regulatory officials around the world knew or should have known that their policies were destabilizing the global financial system, had years to process the evidence that risks were rising, had the authority to change their policies--and yet chose not to act until the crisis had fully emerged.
The current system, the authors write, is simply not designed to make policy choices on behalf of the public. It is virtually impossible for the public and its elected officials to obtain informed and impartial assessment of financial regulation and to hold regulators accountable. Barth, Caprio, and Levine propose a reform to counter this systemic failure: the establishment of a “Sentinel” to provide an informed, expert, and independent assessment of financial regulation. Its sole power would be to demand information and to evaluate it from the perspective of the public--rather than that of the financial industry, the regulators, or politicians."
--- I quite fail to see how this would solve the problem.
to:NB
books:noted
financial_speculation
regulation
to_be_shot_after_a_fair_trial
In Guardians of Finance, economists James Barth, Gerard Caprio, and Ross Levine argue that the financial meltdown of 2007 to 2009 was no accident; it was negligent homicide. They show that senior regulatory officials around the world knew or should have known that their policies were destabilizing the global financial system, had years to process the evidence that risks were rising, had the authority to change their policies--and yet chose not to act until the crisis had fully emerged.
The current system, the authors write, is simply not designed to make policy choices on behalf of the public. It is virtually impossible for the public and its elected officials to obtain informed and impartial assessment of financial regulation and to hold regulators accountable. Barth, Caprio, and Levine propose a reform to counter this systemic failure: the establishment of a “Sentinel” to provide an informed, expert, and independent assessment of financial regulation. Its sole power would be to demand information and to evaluate it from the perspective of the public--rather than that of the financial industry, the regulators, or politicians."
--- I quite fail to see how this would solve the problem.
december 2011 by cshalizi
Brain Storm - Rebecca M. Jordan-Young | Harvard University Press
december 2011 by cshalizi
"Female and male brains are different, thanks to hormones coursing through the brain before birth. That’s taught as fact in psychology textbooks, academic journals, and bestselling books. And these hardwired differences explain everything from sexual orientation to gender identity, to why there aren’t more women physicists or more stay-at-home dads.
In this compelling book, Rebecca Jordan-Young takes on the evidence that sex differences are hardwired into the brain. Analyzing virtually all published research that supports the claims of “human brain organization theory,” Jordan-Young reveals how often these studies fail the standards of science. Even if careful researchers point out the limits of their own studies, other researchers and journalists can easily ignore them because brain organization theory just sounds so right. But if a series of methodological weaknesses, questionable assumptions, inconsistent definitions, and enormous gaps between ambiguous findings and grand conclusions have accumulated through the years, then science isn’t scientific at all.
Elegantly written, this book argues passionately that the analysis of gender differences deserves far more rigorous, biologically sophisticated science. “The evidence for hormonal sex differentiation of the human brain better resembles a hodge-podge pile than a solid structure…Once we have cleared the rubble, we can begin to build newer, more scientific stories about human development.” "
to:NB
books:noted
neuroscience
debunking
sex_differences
In this compelling book, Rebecca Jordan-Young takes on the evidence that sex differences are hardwired into the brain. Analyzing virtually all published research that supports the claims of “human brain organization theory,” Jordan-Young reveals how often these studies fail the standards of science. Even if careful researchers point out the limits of their own studies, other researchers and journalists can easily ignore them because brain organization theory just sounds so right. But if a series of methodological weaknesses, questionable assumptions, inconsistent definitions, and enormous gaps between ambiguous findings and grand conclusions have accumulated through the years, then science isn’t scientific at all.
Elegantly written, this book argues passionately that the analysis of gender differences deserves far more rigorous, biologically sophisticated science. “The evidence for hormonal sex differentiation of the human brain better resembles a hodge-podge pile than a solid structure…Once we have cleared the rubble, we can begin to build newer, more scientific stories about human development.” "
december 2011 by cshalizi
Blurring the Color Line - Richard Alba | Harvard University Press
december 2011 by cshalizi
"Richard Alba argues that the social cleavages that separate Americans into distinct, unequal ethno-racial groups could narrow dramatically in the coming decades. During the mid-twentieth century, the dominant position of the United States in the postwar world economy led to a rapid expansion of education and labor opportunities. As a result of their newfound access to training and jobs, many ethnic and religious outsiders, among them Jews and Italians, finally gained full acceptance as members of the mainstream. Alba proposes that this large-scale assimilation of white ethnics was a result of “non–zero-sum mobility,” which he defines as the social ascent of members of disadvantaged groups that can take place without affecting the life chances of those who are already members of the established majority.
Alba shows that non–zero-sum mobility could play out positively in the future as the baby-boom generation retires, opening up the higher rungs of the labor market. Because of the changing demography of the country, many fewer whites will be coming of age than will be retiring. Hence, the opportunity exists for members of other groups to move up. However, Alba cautions, this demographic shift will only benefit disadvantaged American minorities if they are provided with access to education and training. In Blurring the Color Line, Alba explores a future in which socially mobile minorities could blur stark boundaries and gain much more control over the social expression of racial differences."
--- Surely the low-risk prediction is that Asians and Latinos will become "white", but that African Americans will remain s.o.l.?
to:NB
books:noted
the_american_dilemma
racism
economics
demography
sociology
social_mobility
Alba shows that non–zero-sum mobility could play out positively in the future as the baby-boom generation retires, opening up the higher rungs of the labor market. Because of the changing demography of the country, many fewer whites will be coming of age than will be retiring. Hence, the opportunity exists for members of other groups to move up. However, Alba cautions, this demographic shift will only benefit disadvantaged American minorities if they are provided with access to education and training. In Blurring the Color Line, Alba explores a future in which socially mobile minorities could blur stark boundaries and gain much more control over the social expression of racial differences."
--- Surely the low-risk prediction is that Asians and Latinos will become "white", but that African Americans will remain s.o.l.?
december 2011 by cshalizi
Gothicka - Victoria Nelson | Harvard University Press
december 2011 by cshalizi
"The Gothic, Romanticism’s gritty older sibling, has flourished in myriad permutations since the eighteenth century. In Gothicka, Victoria Nelson identifies the revolutionary turn it has taken in the twenty-first. Today’s Gothic has fashioned its monsters into heroes and its devils into angels. It is actively reviving supernaturalism in popular culture, not as an evil dimension divorced from ordinary human existence but as part of our daily lives.
To explain this millennial shift away from the traditionally dark Protestant post-Enlightenment Gothic, Nelson studies the complex arena of contemporary Gothic subgenres that take the form of novels, films, and graphic novels. She considers the work of Dan Brown and Stephenie Meyer, graphic novelists Mike Mignola and Garth Ennis, Christian writer William P. Young (author of The Shack), and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. She considers twentieth-century Gothic masters H.P. Lovecraft, Anne Rice, and Stephen King in light of both their immediate ancestors in the eighteenth century and the original Gothic—the late medieval period from which Horace Walpole and his successors drew their inspiration.
Fictions such as the Twilight and Left Behind series do more than follow the conventions of the classic Gothic novel. They are radically reviving and reinventing the transcendental worldview that informed the West’s premodern era. As Jesus becomes mortal in The Da Vinci Code and the child Ofelia becomes a goddess in Pan’s Labyrinth, Nelson argues that this unprecedented mainstreaming of a spiritually driven supernaturalism is a harbinger of what a post-Christian religion in America might look like."
to:NB
books:noted
fantasy
horror
literary_criticism
history_of_religion
gothic
To explain this millennial shift away from the traditionally dark Protestant post-Enlightenment Gothic, Nelson studies the complex arena of contemporary Gothic subgenres that take the form of novels, films, and graphic novels. She considers the work of Dan Brown and Stephenie Meyer, graphic novelists Mike Mignola and Garth Ennis, Christian writer William P. Young (author of The Shack), and filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. She considers twentieth-century Gothic masters H.P. Lovecraft, Anne Rice, and Stephen King in light of both their immediate ancestors in the eighteenth century and the original Gothic—the late medieval period from which Horace Walpole and his successors drew their inspiration.
Fictions such as the Twilight and Left Behind series do more than follow the conventions of the classic Gothic novel. They are radically reviving and reinventing the transcendental worldview that informed the West’s premodern era. As Jesus becomes mortal in The Da Vinci Code and the child Ofelia becomes a goddess in Pan’s Labyrinth, Nelson argues that this unprecedented mainstreaming of a spiritually driven supernaturalism is a harbinger of what a post-Christian religion in America might look like."
december 2011 by cshalizi
Under the Drones: Modern Lives in the Afghanistan-Pakistan Borderlands - Shahzad Bashir, Robert D. Crews | Harvard University Press
december 2011 by cshalizi
In the West, media coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan is framed by military and political concerns, resulting in a simplistic picture of ageless barbarity, terrorist safe havens, and peoples in need of either punishment or salvation. Under the Drones looks beyond this limiting view to investigate real people on the ground, and to analyze the political, social, and economic forces that shape their lives. Understanding the complexity of life along the 1,600-mile border between Afghanistan and Pakistan can help America and its European allies realign their priorities in the region to address genuine problems, rather than fabricated ones.
This volume explodes Western misunderstandings by revealing a land that abounds with human agency, perpetual innovation, and vibrant complexity. Through the work of historians and social scientists, the thirteen essays here explore the real and imagined presence of the Taliban; the animated sociopolitical identities expressed through traditions like Pakistani truck decoration; Sufism’s ambivalent position as an alternative to militancy; the long and contradictory history of Afghan media; the simultaneous brutality and potential that heroin brings to women in the area.
Moving past shifting conceptions of security, the authors expose the West’s prevailing perspective on the region as strategic, targeted, and alarmingly dehumanizing. Under the Drones is an essential antidote to contemporary media coverage and military concerns.
in_NB
books:noted
coveted
afghanistan
pakistan
the_continuing_crises
This volume explodes Western misunderstandings by revealing a land that abounds with human agency, perpetual innovation, and vibrant complexity. Through the work of historians and social scientists, the thirteen essays here explore the real and imagined presence of the Taliban; the animated sociopolitical identities expressed through traditions like Pakistani truck decoration; Sufism’s ambivalent position as an alternative to militancy; the long and contradictory history of Afghan media; the simultaneous brutality and potential that heroin brings to women in the area.
Moving past shifting conceptions of security, the authors expose the West’s prevailing perspective on the region as strategic, targeted, and alarmingly dehumanizing. Under the Drones is an essential antidote to contemporary media coverage and military concerns.
december 2011 by cshalizi
More than Real: A History of the Imagination in South India - David Shulman | Harvard University Press
december 2011 by cshalizi
"From the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries, the major cultures of southern India underwent a revolution in sensibility reminiscent of what had occurred in Renaissance Italy. During this time, the imagination came to be recognized as the defining feature of human beings. More than Real draws our attention to a period in Indian history that signified major civilizational change and the emergence of a new, proto-modern vision.
In general, India conceived of the imagination as a causative agent: things we perceive are real because we imagine them. David Shulman illuminates this distinctiveness and shows how it differed radically from Western notions of reality and models of the mind. Shulman's explication offers insightful points of comparison with ancient Greek, medieval Islamic, and early modern European theories of mind, and returns Indology to its rightful position of intellectual relevance in the humanities.
At a time when contemporary ideologies and language wars threaten to segregate the study of pre-modern India into linguistic silos, Shulman demonstrates through his virtuoso readings of important literary works—works translated lyrically by the author from Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam—that Sanskrit and the classical languages of southern India have been intimately interwoven for centuries."
to:NB
books:noted
history_of_ideas
imagination
philosophy_of_mind
india
In general, India conceived of the imagination as a causative agent: things we perceive are real because we imagine them. David Shulman illuminates this distinctiveness and shows how it differed radically from Western notions of reality and models of the mind. Shulman's explication offers insightful points of comparison with ancient Greek, medieval Islamic, and early modern European theories of mind, and returns Indology to its rightful position of intellectual relevance in the humanities.
At a time when contemporary ideologies and language wars threaten to segregate the study of pre-modern India into linguistic silos, Shulman demonstrates through his virtuoso readings of important literary works—works translated lyrically by the author from Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam—that Sanskrit and the classical languages of southern India have been intimately interwoven for centuries."
december 2011 by cshalizi
Is American Science in Decline? - Yu Xie, Alexandra A. Killewald | Harvard University Press
december 2011 by cshalizi
"Alarmists argue that the United States urgently needs more and better trained scientists to compete with the rest of the world. Their critics counter that, far from facing a shortage, we are producing a glut of young scientists with poor employment prospects. Both camps have issued reports in recent years that predict the looming decline of American science. Drawing on their extensive analysis of national datasets, Yu Xie and Alexandra Killewald have welcome news to share: American science is in good health.
Is American Science in Decline? does reveal areas of concern, namely scientists’ low earnings, the increasing competition they face from Asia, and the declining number of doctorates who secure academic positions. But the authors argue that the values inherent in American culture make the country highly conducive to science for the foreseeable future. They do not see globalization as a threat but rather a potential benefit, since it promotes efficiency in science through knowledge-sharing. In an age when other countries are catching up, American science will inevitably become less dominant, even though it is not in decline relative to its own past. As technology continues to change the American economy, better-educated workers with a range of skills will be in demand. So as a matter of policy, the authors urge that science education not be detached from general education."
in_NB
books:noted
science_in_society
sociology
Is American Science in Decline? does reveal areas of concern, namely scientists’ low earnings, the increasing competition they face from Asia, and the declining number of doctorates who secure academic positions. But the authors argue that the values inherent in American culture make the country highly conducive to science for the foreseeable future. They do not see globalization as a threat but rather a potential benefit, since it promotes efficiency in science through knowledge-sharing. In an age when other countries are catching up, American science will inevitably become less dominant, even though it is not in decline relative to its own past. As technology continues to change the American economy, better-educated workers with a range of skills will be in demand. So as a matter of policy, the authors urge that science education not be detached from general education."
december 2011 by cshalizi
The Assumptions Economists Make - Jonathan Schlefer | Harvard University Press
december 2011 by cshalizi
"Economists make confident assertions in op-ed columns and on cable news—so why are their explanations often at odds with equally confident assertions from other economists? And why are all economic predictions so rarely borne out? Harnessing his frustration with these contradictions, Jonathan Schlefer set out to investigate how economists arrive at their opinions.
While economists cloak their views in the aura of science, what they actually do is make assumptions about the world, use those assumptions to build imaginary economies (known as models), and from those models generate conclusions. Their models can be useful or dangerous, and it is surprisingly difficult to tell which is which. Schlefer arms us with an understanding of rival assumptions and models reaching back to Adam Smith and forward to cutting-edge theorists today. Although abstract, mathematical thinking characterizes economists’ work, Schlefer reminds us that economists are unavoidably human. They fall prey to fads and enthusiasms and subscribe to ideologies that shape their assumptions, sometimes in problematic ways.
Schlefer takes up current controversies such as income inequality and the financial crisis, for which he holds economists in large part accountable. Although theorists won international acclaim for creating models that demonstrated the inherent instability of markets, ostensibly practical economists ignored those accepted theories and instead relied on their blind faith in the invisible hand of unregulated enterprise. Schlefer explains how the politics of economics allowed them to do so. The Assumptions Economists Make renders the behavior of economists much more comprehensible, if not less irrational."
in_NB
books:noted
economics
social_science_methodology
gives_economists_a_bad_name
While economists cloak their views in the aura of science, what they actually do is make assumptions about the world, use those assumptions to build imaginary economies (known as models), and from those models generate conclusions. Their models can be useful or dangerous, and it is surprisingly difficult to tell which is which. Schlefer arms us with an understanding of rival assumptions and models reaching back to Adam Smith and forward to cutting-edge theorists today. Although abstract, mathematical thinking characterizes economists’ work, Schlefer reminds us that economists are unavoidably human. They fall prey to fads and enthusiasms and subscribe to ideologies that shape their assumptions, sometimes in problematic ways.
Schlefer takes up current controversies such as income inequality and the financial crisis, for which he holds economists in large part accountable. Although theorists won international acclaim for creating models that demonstrated the inherent instability of markets, ostensibly practical economists ignored those accepted theories and instead relied on their blind faith in the invisible hand of unregulated enterprise. Schlefer explains how the politics of economics allowed them to do so. The Assumptions Economists Make renders the behavior of economists much more comprehensible, if not less irrational."
december 2011 by cshalizi
Erica Chenoweth » Why Civil Resistance Works
november 2011 by cshalizi
"Though it defies consensus, between 1900 and 2006, campaigns of nonviolent resistance were more than twice as effective as their violent counterparts. Attracting impressive support from citizens that helps separate regimes from their main sources of power, these campaigns have produced remarkable results, even in the contexts of Iran, the Palestinian Territories, the Philippines, and Burma.
Combining statistical analysis with case studies of these specific countries and territories, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan detail the factors enabling such campaigns to succeed-and, at times, causing them to fail. They find that nonviolent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement, information and education, and participator commitment. Higher levels of participation then contribute to enhanced resilience, a greater probability of tactical innovation, increased opportunity for civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for the regime to maintain the status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents’ erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment. They find successful nonviolent resistance movements usher in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, this book originally and systematically compares violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, Chenoweth and Stephan find violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds."
to:NB
books:noted
political_science
civil_disobedience
social_movements
sociology
Combining statistical analysis with case studies of these specific countries and territories, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan detail the factors enabling such campaigns to succeed-and, at times, causing them to fail. They find that nonviolent resistance presents fewer obstacles to moral and physical involvement, information and education, and participator commitment. Higher levels of participation then contribute to enhanced resilience, a greater probability of tactical innovation, increased opportunity for civic disruption (and therefore less incentive for the regime to maintain the status quo), and shifts in loyalty among opponents’ erstwhile supporters, including members of the military establishment. They find successful nonviolent resistance movements usher in more durable and internally peaceful democracies, which are less likely to regress into civil war. Presenting a rich, evidentiary argument, this book originally and systematically compares violent and nonviolent outcomes in different historical periods and geographical contexts, debunking the myth that violence occurs because of structural and environmental factors and is necessary to achieve certain political goals. Instead, Chenoweth and Stephan find violent insurgency is rarely justifiable on strategic grounds."
november 2011 by cshalizi
In the Wake of the Crisis - The MIT Press
november 2011 by cshalizi
"These top economists discuss future directions for monetary policy, fiscal policy, financial regulation, capital account management, growth strategies, and the international monetary system, and the economic models that should underpin thinking about critical policy choices. Among the new realities they consider are the swing of the pendulum toward regulation; the need for new theoretical approaches, incorporating advances in agency theory, behavioral economics, and understanding of credit markets and finance based on theories of imperfect information; and the importance for macroeconomic policy to target not just inflation but also output and financial stability."
to:NB
books:noted
economics
macroeconomics
economic_policy
financial_crisis_of_2007--
stiglitz.joseph
blanchard.olivier
november 2011 by cshalizi
Economics After the Crisis - The MIT Press
november 2011 by cshalizi
"Turner argues that the faults of theory and policy that led to the crisis were integral elements within a broader set of simplistic beliefs about the objectives and means of economic activity that dominated policy thinking for several decades. This dominant discourse cast economic growth as the objective, markets as the universally applicable means of achieving it, and inequality as inevitable and necessary. Turner takes on these assumptions point by point, arguing that more rapid growth should not be the overriding objective for rich developed countries, that inequality should concern us, that the pre-crisis confidence in financial markets as the means of pursuing objectives was profoundly misplaced, and that these conclusions have broad implications for the case for economic freedom, for specific areas of public policy (including financial regulation and climate change), and for the discipline of economics itself."
to:NB
books:noted
economics
economic_policy
financial_crisis_of_2007--
turner.adair
november 2011 by cshalizi
The Future Was Here: The Commodore Amiga - The MIT Press
november 2011 by cshalizi
"Long ago, in 1985, personal computers came in two general categories: the friendly, childish game machine used for fun (exemplified by Atari and Commodore products); and the boring, beige adult box used for business (exemplified by products from IBM). The game machines became fascinating technical and artistic platforms that were of limited real-world utility. The IBM products were all utility, with little emphasis on aesthetics and no emphasis on fun. Into this bifurcated computing environment came the Commodore Amiga 1000. This personal computer featured a palette of 4,096 colors, unprecedented animation capabilities, four-channel stereo sound, the capacity to run multiple applications simultaneously, a graphical user interface, and powerful processing potential. It was, Jimmy Maher writes in The Future Was Here, the world’s first true multimedia personal computer.
Maher argues that the Amiga’s capacity to store and display color photographs, manipulate video (giving amateurs access to professional tools), and use recordings of real-world sound were the seeds of the digital media future: digital cameras, Photoshop, MP3 players, and even YouTube, Flickr, and the blogosphere. He examines different facets of the platform--from Deluxe Paint to AmigaOS to Cinemaware--in each chapter, creating a portrait of the platform and the communities of practice that surrounded it. Of course, Maher acknowledges, the Amiga was not perfect: the DOS component of the operating systems was clunky and ill-matched, for example, and crashes often accompanied multitasking attempts. And Commodore went bankrupt in 1994. But for a few years, the Amiga’s technical qualities were harnessed by engineers, programmers, artists, and others to push back boundaries and transform the culture of computing."
I am now old enough that a beloved instrument of my childhood has historical studies written about it.
books:noted
computers
the_present_before_it_was_widely_distributed
amiga
Maher argues that the Amiga’s capacity to store and display color photographs, manipulate video (giving amateurs access to professional tools), and use recordings of real-world sound were the seeds of the digital media future: digital cameras, Photoshop, MP3 players, and even YouTube, Flickr, and the blogosphere. He examines different facets of the platform--from Deluxe Paint to AmigaOS to Cinemaware--in each chapter, creating a portrait of the platform and the communities of practice that surrounded it. Of course, Maher acknowledges, the Amiga was not perfect: the DOS component of the operating systems was clunky and ill-matched, for example, and crashes often accompanied multitasking attempts. And Commodore went bankrupt in 1994. But for a few years, the Amiga’s technical qualities were harnessed by engineers, programmers, artists, and others to push back boundaries and transform the culture of computing."
I am now old enough that a beloved instrument of my childhood has historical studies written about it.
november 2011 by cshalizi
Democracy Despite Itself - The MIT Press
november 2011 by cshalizi
"Oppenheimer and Edwards argue that democracy works because regular elections, no matter how flawed, produce a variety of unintuitive, positive consequences. Mass participation in contested elections creates psychological pressure for voters to be better citizens and for politicians to be better leaders; alternating power regularly between different factions helps avoid instability; citizens are sometimes able to overcome their ignorance and make informed choices; and voters do have the power to punish politicians for excessively bad behavior. The brilliance of democracy, write Oppenheimer and Edwards, does not lie in the people’s ability to pick superior leaders. It lies in the many ways that it subtly encourages the flawed people and their flawed leaders to work toward building a better society."
to:NB
books:noted
democracy
re:democratic_cognition
november 2011 by cshalizi
Boosting - The MIT Press
november 2011 by cshalizi
"Boosting is an approach to machine learning based on the idea of creating a highly accurate predictor by combining many weak and inaccurate “rules of thumb.” A remarkably rich theory has evolved around boosting, with connections to a range of topics, including statistics, game theory, convex optimization, and information geometry. Boosting algorithms have also enjoyed practical success in such fields as biology, vision, and speech processing. At various times in its history, boosting has been perceived as mysterious, controversial, even paradoxical.
This book, written by the inventors of the method, brings together, organizes, simplifies, and substantially extends two decades of research on boosting, presenting both theory and applications in a way that is accessible to readers from diverse backgrounds while also providing an authoritative reference for advanced researchers. With its introductory treatment of all material and its inclusion of exercises in every chapter, the book is appropriate for course use as well.
The book begins with a general introduction to machine learning algorithms and their analysis; then explores the core theory of boosting, especially its ability to generalize; examines some of the myriad other theoretical viewpoints that help to explain and understand boosting; provides practical extensions of boosting for more complex learning problems; and finally presents a number of advanced theoretical topics. Numerous applications and practical illustrations are offered throughout."
in_NB
books:noted
coveted
machine_learning
ensemble_methods
re:democratic_cognition
collective_cognition
classifiers
regression
This book, written by the inventors of the method, brings together, organizes, simplifies, and substantially extends two decades of research on boosting, presenting both theory and applications in a way that is accessible to readers from diverse backgrounds while also providing an authoritative reference for advanced researchers. With its introductory treatment of all material and its inclusion of exercises in every chapter, the book is appropriate for course use as well.
The book begins with a general introduction to machine learning algorithms and their analysis; then explores the core theory of boosting, especially its ability to generalize; examines some of the myriad other theoretical viewpoints that help to explain and understand boosting; provides practical extensions of boosting for more complex learning problems; and finally presents a number of advanced theoretical topics. Numerous applications and practical illustrations are offered throughout."
november 2011 by cshalizi
related tags
19th_century_history ⊕ 20th_century_history ⊕ 1001_nights ⊕ abstraction ⊕ abstract_algebra ⊕ academia ⊕ action_principles ⊕ adaptive_behavior ⊕ affectionate_parody ⊕ afghanistan ⊕ africa ⊕ agent-based_models ⊕ ahmed.manan ⊕ ai ⊕ aitmatov.chingiz ⊕ al-qaeda ⊕ alchemy ⊕ alexander ⊕ alexander.jennifer_karns ⊕ algebra ⊕ algorithms ⊕ allende.salvador ⊕ alperovitz.gar ⊕ alternate_history ⊕ america ⊕ american_hegemony ⊕ american_history ⊕ american_imperialism ⊕ american_revolution ⊕ american_south ⊕ american_west ⊕ amiga ⊕ amusing_if_true ⊕ analogy ⊕ anarchism ⊕ ancient_greece ⊕ ancient_history ⊕ ancient_trade ⊕ angkor ⊕ animals ⊕ animal_cognition ⊕ animation ⊕ antarctica ⊕ anthropology ⊕ anti-imperialism ⊕ apocalypticism ⊕ apollo_project ⊕ arab_world ⊕ aral_sea ⊕ archaeology ⊕ architecture ⊕ aristocracy ⊕ armchair_travel ⊕ arnold.v.i. ⊕ art ⊕ artificial_intelligence ⊕ artificial_life ⊕ art_deco ⊕ art_history ⊕ asceticism ⊕ ashby.w_ross ⊕ aspect.alain ⊕ astrobiology ⊕ astrology ⊕ astronomy ⊕ ataturk ⊕ atlases ⊕ atran.scott ⊕ attila ⊕ authoritarianism ⊕ authority ⊕ autism ⊕ automata:mechanical ⊕ automata_theory ⊕ bactria ⊕ bad_data_analysis ⊕ bad_science ⊕ baker.dean ⊕ banking ⊕ bardou.franciois ⊕ barely-comprehensible_metaphysics ⊕ barnes.eric_christian ⊕ barrel_cortex ⊕ barzun.jacques ⊕ bauerlein.mark ⊕ bayesianism ⊕ bear.elizabeth ⊕ beckwith.christopher ⊕ beer.stafford ⊕ berlin ⊕ big_science ⊕ binmore.ken ⊕ biochemical_networks ⊕ biography ⊕ bioinformatics ⊕ biological_basis_of_morality ⊕ biological_organization ⊕ biology ⊕ biran.michal ⊕ blanchard.olivier ⊕ blogs ⊕ books:noted ⊖ books:recommended ⊕ books:reviewed ⊕ book_reviews ⊕ boolean_networks ⊕ bootstrap ⊕ borderline_psychoceramica ⊕ bosnia ⊕ botany ⊕ bouchaud.jean-philippe ⊕ bounded_rationality ⊕ bowles.samuel ⊕ bramah.ernest ⊕ branching_processes ⊕ brawley.tawana ⊕ bruno.giordano ⊕ buddhism ⊕ bureaucracy ⊕ burke.edmund ⊕ burning_man ⊕ but_hes_our_evil_bastard ⊕ c ⊕ c++ ⊕ calculus_of_variations ⊕ california ⊕ cameroon ⊕ campaign_finance ⊕ canada ⊕ cancer ⊕ cannibalism ⊕ capitalism ⊕ carnegie_mellon ⊕ cars ⊕ catoni.olivier ⊕ catullus ⊕ caucasus ⊕ causality ⊕ causal_inference ⊕ cellular_automata ⊕ central_asia ⊕ central_limit_theorem ⊕ cetaceans ⊕ change_of_representation ⊕ chaos ⊕ chapati_mystery ⊕ charismatic_megafauna ⊕ chechnya ⊕ chemistry ⊕ chicago ⊕ chile ⊕ chiles ⊕ china ⊕ china:prc ⊕ chinese_civilization ⊕ christensen.b.j. ⊕ christianity ⊕ cities ⊕ civil_disobedience ⊕ civil_rights ⊕ clarke.kevin ⊕ classical_mechanics ⊕ classifiers ⊕ class_struggles_in_america ⊕ clerks_and_craftsmen ⊕ climate_change ⊕ climatology ⊕ clinical_vs_actuarial_prediction ⊕ cognitive_development ⊕ cognitive_science ⊕ cohen-tannoudji.claude ⊕ cold_war ⊕ collective_action ⊕ collective_cognition ⊕ collective_support_for_individual_choice ⊕ comanches ⊕ comics ⊕ commons ⊕ communism ⊕ comparative_history ⊕ comparative_methods ⊕ comparative_religion ⊕ complexity ⊕ computation ⊕ computational_complexity ⊕ computational_statistics ⊕ computers ⊕ concepts ⊕ condensed-matter_physics ⊕ congress ⊕ conquistadores ⊕ conservation_laws ⊕ conservatism ⊕ conspiracy_theories ⊕ consumerism ⊕ contagion ⊕ control ⊕ convexity ⊕ con_games ⊕ cooking ⊕ cooley.alexander ⊕ copernicus ⊕ corporate_governance ⊕ corporations ⊕ corruption ⊕ cosmopolitanism ⊕ cost-benefit_analysis ⊕ counter-culture ⊕ counter-insurgency ⊕ counter-terrorism ⊕ counterculture ⊕ covariate_shift ⊕ coveted ⊕ coyle.diane ⊕ craft ⊕ credit_ratings ⊕ creeping_authoritarianism ⊕ crime ⊕ crispin.jessa ⊕ cryptozoology ⊕ cthulhiana ⊕ cultural_criticism ⊕ cultural_differences ⊕ cultural_evolution ⊕ cultural_exchange ⊕ cultural_models ⊕ cultural_studies ⊕ cultural_transmission ⊕ cultural_transmission_of_cognitive_tools ⊕ culture ⊕ cybernetics ⊕ dada ⊕ daly.lew ⊕ daoism ⊕ darwinism ⊕ data ⊕ data_analysis ⊕ data_mining ⊕ davidson.jenny ⊕ death ⊕ debunking ⊕ deceiving_us_has_become_an_industrial_process ⊕ decision-making ⊕ decision_theory ⊕ defenses_of_liberalism ⊕ degeneration ⊕ delanda.manuel ⊕ democracy ⊕ demography ⊕ density_estimation ⊕ deregulation ⊕ design ⊕ desolneux.agnes ⊕ detective_novels ⊕ development_economics ⊕ development_policy ⊕ devroye.luc ⊕ de_soto.hernando ⊕ dictatorship ⊕ diet ⊕ differential_equations ⊕ diffusion_of_innovations ⊕ dirty_hippies ⊕ disasters_of_war ⊕ disease ⊕ diversity ⊕ donohue.laura ⊕ drugs ⊕ dr_science ⊕ dupuis.paul ⊕ dying_earth ⊕ dynamical_systems ⊕ dynamic_programming ⊕ early_modern_european_history ⊕ early_modern_world_history ⊕ ecological_rationality ⊕ ecology ⊕ econometrics ⊕ economics ⊕ economic_democracy ⊕ economic_geography ⊕ economic_growth ⊕ economic_history ⊕ economic_policy ⊕ economic_sociology ⊕ education ⊕ efficiency ⊕ egypt ⊕ ellis.richard ⊕ ellis.warren ⊕ empires ⊕ empiricism ⊕ endocrinology ⊕ energy ⊕ engels.friedrich ⊕ english_history ⊕ enlightenment ⊕ ensemble_methods ⊕ entrepreneurship ⊕ entropy ⊕ environmentalism ⊕ environmental_catastrophes ⊕ environmental_management ⊕ environmental_policy ⊕ epidemic_models ⊕ epidemiology ⊕ epidemiology_of_ideas ⊕ epidemiology_of_representations ⊕ epistemology ⊕ ergodic_theory ⊕ esotericism ⊕ ethics ⊕ ethnicity ⊕ ethnography ⊕ ethology ⊕ eugenics ⊕ eurasian_history ⊕ europe ⊕ evangelicals ⊕ evolution ⊕ evolutionary_biology ⊕ evolutionary_epistemology ⊕ evolutionary_game_theory ⊕ evolutionary_psychology ⊕ evolution_of_cognition ⊕ evolution_of_communication ⊕ evolution_of_cooperation ⊕ evolution_of_culture ⊕ evolution_of_intelligence ⊕ evolution_of_language ⊕ evolution_of_learning ⊕ exoticism ⊕ experimental_economics ⊕ experimental_physics ⊕ experimental_psychology ⊕ experimental_sociology ⊕ explains_a_lot ⊕ explanation ⊕ explanation_by_mechanisms ⊕ exploration ⊕ fairy_tales ⊕ faking_it ⊕ fantasy ⊕ fashion ⊕ fear ⊕ feminism ⊕ fiction ⊕ field_theory ⊕ filtering ⊕ finance ⊕ financial_crises ⊕ financial_crisis_of_2007-- ⊕ financial_markets ⊕ financial_speculation ⊕ first_contact ⊕ fish ⊕ fisher.irving ⊕ fisher.r.a. ⊕ flocks_and_swarms ⊕ fmri ⊕ folk_biology ⊕ food ⊕ ford.richard_thompson ⊕ foreign_policy ⊕ foundations_of_mathematics ⊕ foundations_of_statistics ⊕ fox.kevin ⊕ frank.robert ⊕ fraud ⊕ freedom ⊕ freedom_as_self-control ⊕ french_revolution ⊕ friedman.milton ⊕ friedman.nir ⊕ from_community_to_society ⊕ functional_connectivity ⊕ funny:geeky ⊕ futurism ⊕ futurology ⊕ gailey.jeannine_hall ⊕ galbraith.james_k. ⊕ gambling ⊕ game_theory ⊕ gdp ⊕ geekdom ⊕ generalized_linear_models ⊕ general_equilibrium ⊕ gene_expression_data_analysis ⊕ gene_regulation ⊕ genres ⊕ geoghegan.thomas ⊕ geography ⊕ geology ⊕ geometry ⊕ giere.ronald ⊕ gifford_lectures ⊕ gigerenzer.gerd ⊕ gintis.herbert ⊕ gives_economists_a_bad_name ⊕ globalization ⊕ goldreich.oded ⊕ goody.jack ⊕ gorenberg.gershom ⊕ gosselin.peter ⊕ gossip ⊕ gothic ⊕ grafton.anthony ⊕ graphical_models ⊕ graph_spectra ⊕ graph_theory ⊕ great_transformation ⊕ greenland ⊕ grimmett.geoffrey ⊕ gustafsson.bo ⊕ hadith ⊕ happiness ⊕ hardle.wolfgang ⊕ harris.zellig ⊕ have_read ⊕ hayek.f.a._von ⊕ hayes.brian ⊕ heavy_tails ⊕ hermeticism ⊕ heuristics ⊕ hill.anita ⊕ hinduism ⊕ historical_fiction ⊕ historical_materialism ⊕ historical_myths ⊕ historiography ⊕ history ⊕ history_of_biology ⊕ history_of_ideas ⊕ history_of_mathematics ⊕ history_of_medicine ⊕ history_of_morals ⊕ history_of_physics ⊕ history_of_religion ⊕ history_of_science ⊕ history_of_statistics ⊕ history_of_technology ⊕ hoarding ⊕ hobbes.thomas ⊕ hogan.erin ⊕ holt.frank ⊕ hopper.grace ⊕ hormones ⊕ horrifying ⊕ horror ⊕ how_things_work ⊕ huff.toby ⊕ humans_as_prey ⊕ human_ecology ⊕ human_evolution ⊕ human_nature ⊕ hunter-gatherers ⊕ hypercycles ⊕ identity_formation ⊕ ideology ⊕ imagination ⊕ immigration ⊕ immortality ⊕ imperfect_competition ⊕ imperialism ⊕ incest ⊕ india ⊕ individualism ⊕ indonesia ⊕ induction ⊕ industrial_landscapes ⊕ industrial_organization ⊕ industrial_revolution ⊕ inequality ⊕ inference_to_latent_objects ⊕ influence ⊕ information_society ⊕ information_theory ⊕ infrastructure ⊕ innovation ⊕ input-output_analysis ⊕ insects ⊕ institutions ⊕ insurance ⊕ intellectuals_in_politics ⊕ intellectual_property ⊕ intelligence ⊕ interacting_particle_systems ⊕ interlocking_directorates ⊕ international_monetary_fund ⊕ internet ⊕ interpretation ⊕ intro_prob ⊕ invariance ⊕ invention_of_tradition ⊕ inverse_problems ⊕ in_NB ⊕ iraq ⊕ ising_model ⊕ islam ⊕ islamdom ⊕ islamic_civilization ⊕ islamism ⊕ israel ⊕ israel.jonathan ⊕ israel_lobby ⊕ italy ⊕ i_want_to_believe ⊕ jackson.matthew ⊕ james.william ⊕ janssen.marco ⊕ japan ⊕ jefferson.thomas ⊕ johnston.john ⊕ jost.jurgen ⊕ journalism ⊕ judges ⊕ kerala ⊕ kessel.john ⊕ keynes.john_maynard ⊕ kiefer.n.m. ⊕ kith_and_kin ⊕ knowledge_as_a_factor_of_production ⊕ knowledge_representation ⊕ koller.daphne ⊕ korea ⊕ krieger.martin ⊕ kuru ⊕ kurzman.charles ⊕ kushans ⊕ labor ⊕ landscape ⊕ lange.oskar ⊕ large_deviations ⊕ lasers ⊕ las_vegas ⊕ latin ⊕ lattimore.owen ⊕ launius.roger_d ⊕ lauritzen.steffen ⊕ law ⊕ law_and_economics ⊕ lead ⊕ learning_theory ⊕ lee.ching_kwan ⊕ lehmann.erich ⊕ leibniz ⊕ leisure ⊕ lemuria ⊕ leontief.wassily ⊕ levin.adina ⊕ levinson.marc ⊕ levy_processes ⊕ le_guin.ursula_k. ⊕ li-jost.xianqing ⊕ liberalism ⊕ linear_algebra ⊕ linguistics ⊕ link.kelly ⊕ lippmann.walter ⊕ liquid_crystals ⊕ literary_criticism ⊕ literary_history ⊕ lives_of_the_artists ⊕ lives_of_the_entrepreneurs ⊕ lives_of_the_scholars ⊕ lives_of_the_scientists ⊕ lobbying ⊕ logic ⊕ logistics ⊕ london ⊕ loneliness ⊕ long_nineteenth_century ⊕ love ⊕ machine_age ⊕ machine_learning ⊕ macleod.ken ⊕ macroeconomics ⊕ macro_from_micro ⊕ madness_of_crowds ⊕ madrick.jeff ⊕ maeda.john ⊕ magical_thinking ⊕ magistra ⊕ management ⊕ manhattan_project ⊕ maps ⊕ market_failures_in_everything ⊕ market_socialism ⊕ markov_models ⊕ martin.john_levi ⊕ martingales ⊕ marx.karl ⊕ masculinity ⊕ mathematical_biology ⊕ mathematical_logic ⊕ mathematics ⊕ matriarchy ⊕ maya_civilization ⊕ mccarthyism ⊕ mccurdy.howard_e ⊕ mchugh.maureen ⊕ mclemee.scott ⊕ measurement ⊕ mechanism_design ⊕ media ⊕ medicine ⊕ medieval_eurasian_history ⊕ medieval_european_history ⊕ memoir ⊕ mendelsohn.farah ⊕ mesopotamia ⊕ metallurgy ⊕ metalworking ⊕ metaphor ⊕ meteorology ⊕ methamphetamines ⊕ methodological_advice ⊕ methodology ⊕ microcosms ⊕ mies_van_der_rohe ⊕ military_industrial_complex ⊕ military_privatization ⊕ military_revolution ⊕ millenarianism ⊕ millward.james ⊕ minoans ⊕ mirowski.philip ⊕ mirsky.jonathan ⊕ misspecification ⊕ mixing ⊕ modeling ⊕ model_selection ⊕ modernism ⊕ modernity ⊕ modern_history ⊕ modest_proposals ⊕ molecular_biology ⊕ moles.david ⊕ money_laundering ⊕ mongol_empire ⊕ monopolistic_competition ⊕ monsters ⊕ monte_carlo ⊕ moral_depravity ⊕ moral_philosophy ⊕ moral_psychology ⊕ moral_responsibility ⊕ moundbuilders ⊕ mountains ⊕ mu'tzailism ⊕ mueller.john ⊕ multiculturalism ⊕ mumford.david ⊕ music ⊕ mystery_cults ⊕ mysticism ⊕ mythology ⊕ nanotechnology ⊕ narrative ⊕ narrative_theory ⊕ nationalism ⊕ national_income_accounting ⊕ native_american_civilizations ⊕ native_american_history ⊕ natural_born_cyborgs ⊕ natural_history_of_truthiness ⊕ natural_language_processing ⊕ natural_science_of_the_human_species ⊕ neo-conservatism ⊕ neoliberalism ⊕ nerdworld ⊕ netherlands ⊕ networked_life ⊕ networks ⊕ network_data_analysis ⊕ network_formation ⊕ neural_networks ⊕ neuroscience ⊕ newspapers ⊕ new_mexico ⊕ neyman.jerzy ⊕ nielsen.michael ⊕ nietzsche.friedrich ⊕ nilsson.nils ⊕ noble_savage ⊕ noether.emmy ⊕ nolan.deborah ⊕ nomadism ⊕ non-stationarity ⊕ nonparametrics ⊕ not_making_this_up ⊕ novels ⊕ nugent.benjamin ⊕ nukes ⊕ nye.mary_jo ⊕ obsession ⊕ ocaml ⊕ occultism ⊕ oceanography ⊕ opinion_research ⊕ optimization ⊕ organizations ⊕ ostrom.elinor ⊕ ottoman_empire ⊕ our_decrepit_institutions ⊕ overpopulation ⊕ pac-bayesian ⊕ pain ⊕ paintings ⊕ pakistan ⊕ paleontology ⊕ papua_new_guinea ⊕ parallel_computing ⊕ parasite_porn ⊕ paris ⊕ parody ⊕ particle_filters ⊕ particle_physics ⊕ passing ⊕ patriarchy ⊕ pattern_languages ⊕ pattern_theory ⊕ pearl.judea ⊕ pedagogy ⊕ peer_review ⊕ peirce.c.s. ⊕ persianate_culture ⊕ phase_transitions ⊕ pheromones ⊕ philosophy ⊕ philosophy_of_history ⊕ philosophy_of_mind ⊕ philosophy_of_science ⊕ photography ⊕ photos ⊕ phylogenetics ⊕ physics ⊕ pinochet.augusto ⊕ pittsburgh ⊕ plague ⊕ plagues_and_peoples ⊕ plants ⊕ plato ⊕ poetry ⊕ poincare ⊕ polanyi.michael ⊕ police ⊕ policy_analysis ⊕ policy_analysis_as_a_social_process ⊕ political_economy ⊕ political_judgment ⊕ political_networks ⊕ political_philosophy ⊕ political_science ⊕ politics_since_the_cold_war ⊕ politkovskaya.anna ⊕ polling ⊕ popper.karl ⊕ popular_science ⊕ popular_social_science ⊕ possibly_NSFW ⊕ post-industrialism ⊕ post-soviet_life ⊕ post-soviet_politics ⊕ post-structuralism ⊕ poverty ⊕ pr0n ⊕ practices_relating_to_the_transmission_of_genetic_information ⊕ pragmatics ⊕ pragmatism ⊕ prairie_dogs ⊕ prediction ⊕ presentation_of_self ⊕ pretty_pictures ⊕ priest.dana ⊕ primates ⊕ primo.david ⊕ principal_components ⊕ prions ⊕ privatization ⊕ probability ⊕ probably_approximately_correct ⊕ productivity ⊕ professionalism ⊕ programming ⊕ progress ⊕ progressive_forces ⊕ prosthetics ⊕ pseudodoxa_epidemica ⊕ pseudoscience ⊕ psychiatry ⊕ psychoceramica ⊕ psychoceramics ⊕ psychology ⊕ public_policy ⊕ quantum_mechanics ⊕ R ⊕ race ⊕ race_in_America ⊕ racial_thinking ⊕ racism ⊕ radev.dragomir ⊕ random_fields ⊕ random_walks ⊕ rationality ⊕ rational_expectations ⊕ rauchway.eric ⊕ re:almost_none ⊕ re:AoS_project ⊕ re:critique_of_diffusion ⊕ re:democratic_cognition ⊕ re:do-institutions-evolve ⊕ re:homophily_and_confounding ⊕ re:knightian_uncertainty ⊕ re:phil-of-bayes_paper ⊕ re:social-networks-as-sensor-networks ⊕ re:stacs ⊕ re:your_favorite_dsge_sucks ⊕ rebonato.riccard ⊕ reductionism ⊕ regression ⊕ regulation ⊕ religion ⊕ renaissance_history ⊕ replicator_dynamics ⊕ representation ⊕ reputation ⊕ reputation_systems ⊕ research ⊕ reversion_to_the_mean ⊕ rhetoric ⊕ rhetorical_self-fashioning ⊕ richardson.robert_c. ⊕ risk_assessment ⊕ risk_vs_uncertainty ⊕ robin.corey ⊕ robots_and_robotics ⊕ robson.eleanor ⊕ roman_empire ⊕ rose.stephen_j. ⊕ rowland.ingrid ⊕ rumors ⊕ runciman.w.g. ⊕ running_dogs_of_reaction ⊕ rushdie.salman ⊕ russell.bertrand ⊕ russia ⊕ saliba.george ⊕ salton_sea ⊕ samuel.geoffrey ⊕ san_francisco ⊕ satire ⊕ savings_and_loan_disaster ⊕ schimmel.annemarie ⊕ schoeman.ferdinand_david ⊕ scholasticism ⊕ schraff.virginia ⊕ science ⊕ science_as_a_social_process ⊕ science_fiction ⊕ science_in_society ⊕ science_policy ⊕ science_studies ⊕ scientific_computing ⊕ scientific_discovery ⊕ scientific_instruments ⊕ scientific_realism ⊕ scientific_revolution ⊕ scientific_thinking ⊕ scooped ⊕ seals ⊕ secret_histories ⊕ self-organization ⊕ sen.amartya ⊕ sendak.maurice ⊕ sex_differences ⊕ shiller.robert ⊕ shrader-frechette.kristin ⊕ siberia ⊕ signal_transduction ⊕ silk_road ⊕ simulation ⊕ sinno.abdulkader ⊕ slavery ⊕ smallpox ⊕ snakes ⊕ sober.elliott ⊕ socialism ⊕ social_cognition ⊕ social_criticism ⊕ social_democracy ⊕ social_engineering ⊕ social_influence ⊕ social_life_of_the_mind ⊕ social_media ⊕ social_mobility ⊕ social_movements ⊕ social_networks ⊕ social_neuroscience ⊕ social_psychology ⊕ social_science_methodology ⊕ social_theory ⊕ sociology ⊕ sociology_of_science ⊕ sole.ricard ⊕ solidarity ⊕ solnit.rebecca ⊕ solow.robert ⊕ something_about_america ⊕ song_dynasty ⊕ south-east_asia ⊕ south_africa ⊕ south_asia ⊕ space_exploration ⊕ space_station ⊕ speed.terry ⊕ spinoza ⊕ sporns.olaf ⊕ stalin ⊕ standardized_testing ⊕ state-building ⊕ state_estimation ⊕ state_terrorism ⊕ statistical_inference_for_stochastic_processes ⊕ statistical_mechanics ⊕ statistics ⊕ stiglitz.joseph ⊕ stochastic_differential_equations ⊕ stochastic_processes ⊕ strategic_interaction ⊕ strategic_position_in_networks ⊕ strong_reciprocity ⊕ structural_equations ⊕ stupid_security ⊕ suburbia ⊕ sufism ⊕ superheroes ⊕ superstition ⊕ symbolic_dynamics ⊕ symmetry ⊕ synchronization ⊕ systems_biology ⊕ tacit_knowledge ⊕ tang_dynasty ⊕ tantra ⊕ taxes ⊕ teaching ⊕ tech-art ⊕ technical_change ⊕ technological_change ⊕ telescope ⊕ temujin ⊕ terrorism ⊕ terrorism_fears ⊕ text_mining ⊕ theology ⊕ theoretical_biology ⊕ theoretical_computer_science ⊕ thermodynamics ⊕ thermodynamic_formalism ⊕ the_american_dilemma ⊕ the_continuing_crises ⊕ the_earth_as_transformed_by_human_action ⊕ the_enlightenment ⊕ the_family ⊕ the_french_disease ⊕ the_great_risk_shift ⊕ the_great_transformation ⊕ the_long_nineteenth_century ⊕ the_nightmare_from_which_we_are_trying_to_awake ⊕ the_organism_as_an_adaptive_control_system ⊕ the_present_before_it_was_widely_distributed ⊕ the_public_and_its_problems ⊕ the_running-dogs_of_reaction ⊕ the_singularity_has_happened ⊕ thomas.clarence ⊕ time_series ⊕ timur ⊕ titan ⊕ to:NB ⊕ todorov.tzvetan ⊕ tokugawa_period ⊕ tokyo ⊕ totalitarianism ⊕ tourism ⊕ to_be_shot_after_a_fair_trial ⊕ to_read ⊕ to_teach ⊕ to_teach:complexity-and-inference ⊕ to_teach:data-mining ⊕ to_teach:statcomp ⊕ to_teach:undergrad-ADA ⊕ to_teach:undergrad-research ⊕ trade_in_antiquity ⊕ tradition ⊕ translation ⊕ transmission_of_inequality ⊕ travelers'_tales ⊕ trust ⊕ truth ⊕ turkestan ⊕ turkey ⊕ turner.adair ⊕ uncertainty ⊕ uncomfortably_close_to_home ⊕ unhappy_hipsters ⊕ unions ⊕ university_industrial_complex ⊕ urbanism ⊕ urban_planning ⊕ us-iraq_war ⊕ uses_of_the_past ⊕ ussr ⊕ us_civil_war ⊕ us_foreign_policy ⊕ us_history ⊕ us_military ⊕ us_politics ⊕ us_southwest ⊕ utter_stupidity ⊕ vampires ⊕ vance.jack ⊕ vasalou.sophia ⊕ vast_right-wing_conspiracy ⊕ venice ⊕ via:? ⊕ via:albers ⊕ via:alevin ⊕ via:alyssa ⊕ via:anoopsarkar ⊕ via:arsyed ⊕ via:arthegall ⊕ via:asarwate ⊕ via:a_fine_theorem ⊕ via:bookslut ⊕ via:britta ⊕ via:bruces ⊕ via:crooked_timber ⊕ via:culturecat ⊕ via:dani-rodrik ⊕ via:djm1107 ⊕ via:earningmyturns ⊕ via:edge-of-the-american-west ⊕ via:email ⊕ via:emerson ⊕ via:fred_feinberg ⊕ via:gelman ⊕ via:harris.elatia ⊕ via:ICCI ⊕ via:idlethink ⊕ via:jbdelong ⊕ via:jcgoodwin ⊕ via:joncgoodwin ⊕ via:judea_pearl ⊕ via:katenepveu ⊕ via:kevin_drum ⊕ via:kinsella ⊕ via:kjhealy ⊕ via:klk ⊕ via:lisa_schweitzer ⊕ via:logista ⊕ via:manuel ⊕ via:moorishgirl ⊕ via:rortybomb ⊕ via:samefacts ⊕ via:scotte ⊕ via:sean-carroll? ⊕ via:shirky ⊕ via:timothy-burke ⊕ via:unfogged ⊕ via:usip_blogs_meeting ⊕ via:vqv ⊕ via:wikipedia ⊕ video_games ⊕ violence ⊕ visual_display_of_quantitative_information ⊕ von_hippel.eric ⊕ voting ⊕ wagner.donald ⊕ war ⊕ warfare_of_science_and_theology_in_christendom ⊕ war_crimes ⊕ whats_gone_wrong_with_america ⊕ when_you_put_it_like_that_it_does_sound_pretty_creepy ⊕ white.harrison_c. ⊕ why_oh_why_cant_we_have_a_better_academic_publishing_system ⊕ why_oh_why_cant_we_have_a_better_press_corps ⊕ winners_curse ⊕ wisdom_of_the_east ⊕ wolin.sheldon ⊕ womens_history ⊕ work_of_art_in_the_age_of_mechanical_reproduction ⊕ world_bank ⊕ world_government ⊕ world_history ⊕ writing_advice ⊕ xinjiang ⊕ yates.joanne ⊕ yee.danny ⊕ yoga ⊕ young.j.z. ⊕ zen ⊕ zilsel.edgar ⊕ zionism ⊕ zombies ⊕ zoology ⊕ zoroastrianism ⊕Copy this bookmark: