The Duck of Minerva

I've been deficient in serving your delicious, piping-hot links. I apologize. And to make matters worse, I have a very small selection of links today. But you can take solace in knowing that these are hand-crafted, artisanal links--the type of linkage that would make Henry Kissinger envious. The worst restaurant in America. Yes, this is a link to an episode of Kitchen Nightmares, but you'll find it gripping. Much like the owners of Amy's Baking Company in the Kitchen Nightmares episode above, is upset with its rankings. The PRC is trying to get the World Bank to cease ranking countries by...

Via Marginal Revolution, the always-interesting Xavier Marquez writes about Randall Collins' sociology. [Abandoned Footnotes] Obama staffers find jobs in white-shoe Washington. It turns out that the new boss is much the same as the old boss [The New Republic] Phil Schrodt talks about GDELT: Global Data on Events, Location, and Tone, a global events database that Jay Ulfelder has called the future of political science. Rolf Friedheim gives a detailed case-study of using the data in R to map some Russian protests. Good news for (consumers of) higher education: Marginal Revolution argues that...

A very restricted number of links today: Jennifer Victor lays out the strategy for an effective lobbying effort for political science. [The Mischiefs of Faction] Phil Schrodt delivers a sensible assessment of the state of play, including a warning about vitriol and a savage critique of the APSA. My thoughts are mixed: Vitriol is probably counterproductive, but some form of targeted shaming is probably justified---a vote against NSF independence is a vote against knowledge---but Schrodt is definitely right that the NSF won't play games with projects if Congress gives it clear instructions....