• Henry Farrell reflects on political economy, game theory, and methodology [Crooked Timber]
• ICYMI: Voeten links to Fukuyama on new measures of governance (ungated) [The Monkey Cage, Governance] Fukuyama seeks a measure of the actual quality of governance, regardless of regime type. For my part, I’ll note that I’ve discovered “political scientists measure democracy using quantitative indices” is an unintended laugh line with students and economists.
• I attended a great talk by UVa. prof. Craig Volden yesterday afternoon; his forthcoming projects on legislative effectiveness are truly exciting. Some early fruits are available in work with Alan Wiseman (Vanderbilt) in Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law.
• BLTN: Jay Ulfelder offers further reflections on the difficulty of forecasting events in international politics. [Dart-Throwing Chimp]
• BVLTN: I want to second John Sides’s call for a greater number of “virtual brown bags”. In fact, Dan, maybe the Duck could do hangouts?

Less important but of interest.

• Habemus sodam [Christian Science Monitor]
• Via a reader I won’t name even by initials, “Vatican department shares Rome palazzo with gay sauna [BBC]
• NSFW, but actually not too bad: F*** Your Couch, a Tumblr about bad Craigslist postings.
• How the Beatles made “From Me to You” to order, which is something of the musical equivalent of the Bambino calling his shot [Slate]
• Tips on R coding practices. [The Shape of Code]