A suite of Lorcana tools for competitive play: ma-allen.com/lorcana/ (1/7) #lorcana #lorcanatcg

Bradley–Terry Models and Pairwise Comparisons in brms Whew—it's been a minute since I've written a blog post. But I recently published a paper that seemed like it would lend itself nicely to a new post, so here we are! Before I move on I'll note that this is an abbreviated version of a longer post…

Bradley–Terry Models and Pairwise Comparisons in brms Whew—it's been a minute since I've written a blog post. But I recently published a paper that seemed like it would lend itself nicely to a new post, so here we are! Before I move on I'll note that this is an abbreviated version of a longer post…

This week's reading list.

"Wars usually end when the fighting nations agree on their relative strength, and wars usually begin when fighting nations disagree on their relative strength." - Blainey 1988.

This week’s planned comic reads:

I saw a C-17 land at Gowen on Friday while I was shopping, and it looks like the A-10s are going to Lakenheath (where we toured/interviewed for our research), then to the Middle East to join Epic Fury: www.twz.com/news-feature...

I'm not going to burn through my Claude quota this week. It can't handle plumbing for me.

This is a great sadness. Let’s get back to 7 seasons with 22 episodes and give times for characters to actually develop. variety.com/2026/tv/news...

Sitting on the tarmac in Chicago. Soon #isa2026, I will be there…

Straits of Malacca, Hormuz, and Gibraltar. This tracks.

I get in too late, but definitely encourage anyone who can make this to go. Expand the network.

Great, now I am going on a date with Claude.

Dr. Hiriluk’s final scene in s2e7 hits so well. The whole episode was a rollercoaster.

At times, I feel like I don't understand how things work. This is a day and a half's worth of global oil consumption, but the goal may be to decrease any domestic pressure by altering global prices. We have (had) 415m in the SPR, so this is about a third of that. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/20/w...

Publication day! Check out my chapter on how to measure restrictions on civil society in the new Innovations in Human Rights book (edited by @kellyzvobgo.bsky.social and Francesca Parente) #PoliSky #PoliSciSky - Preprint: stats.andrewheiss.com/purple-parrot/ - Book: www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/inn...

From our FirstView article: Hidden Majoritarianism and Women’s Career Progression in Proportional Representation Systems DANIEL M. SMITH, @AliCirone.bsky.social, @teele.bsky.social, GARY W. COX and JON H. FIVA. doi.org/10.1017/S000...

No Starfleet Academy tonight, so One Piece s2 is my current fill-in now. What if the Federation was just some rubber kid who thought the Venrai Ral had cool flags?

Nampa is the 3rd-largest city in Idaho and is just outside Boise. At one point, I was going to Nampa weekly for card tournaments. Hogaboam was a town hall and was 47. idahonews.com/news/local/n...

Some people can imagine.

Trolley problem: More participants selected the utilitarian choice, to save five by killing one, when using the foreign language than their native tongue (Table 2). The difference between the foreign and the native language condition ranged from 7.5 percentage points to 65 percentage points.

YYYY-MM-DD is three things in a cell! I agree with the order though. :)

Ooh, I love some counterintuitive, experimental findings.

We're in the process of (trying at least) to rebuild QP and do some more regular blogging. @michaelallen.bsky.social set up a bsky account for the blog, which you can find below.

Venezuela seemed to "work" because there appeared to be months of behind the scenes talks paving the way and a somewhat cooperative successor. I suspect they, somehow, thought Iran would go as smoothly for reasons unknown. But truly stunning to see this talk as the Iran conflict spirals.

When your ally is a frenemy.

With bottlecaps.

New paper with Stephanie Zonszein! Political news is more important than ever, but local papers are shuttering across the US. In recent years, innovative community-centered outlets led by journalists have taken to WhatsApp and social media to reach groups such as immigrants. What are their effects?

Can elections reveal the public’s true opinions? It depends on who shows up to vote. In our latest "Good to Know," @egojunk.bsky.social explains how composition effects can distort election narratives. Read now: goodauthority.org/news/good-to...

Bajor goes from occupation to provisional government to republic to petitioning for Federation membership in five years.

A dive into the latest V-Dem decline for the United States.

The forgotten history of Cesar Chavez Lane. A Boise State student newspaper article from 3ish years ago on why there is a Cesar Chavez Lane that runs along the river on the North side of campus. www.arbiteronline.com/2022/09/01/t...

Not even ranked choice voting can overcome negative partisanship.

Wrote about political scientists' favorite "Well, actually..." It's our favorite for a reason. With data from New Jersey's recent election. goodauthority.org/news/good-to...

While the expanded cuts "exclude public schools," they do hit public higher education. It is hard to see what the 1.3 billion rainy-day financial stress fund in Idaho is for besides just a number politicians point to say it is getting bigger. #Idaho #HigherEd idahonews.com/news/local/g...

Which Simpsons predictions were right, which were close, and which were fake? Not sure how much credit I should give them for the Nobel prediction in a betting pool, but the Disney acquisition and Trump presidency were long shots. sheets.works/data-viz/sim... #DataViz #TheSimpsons #PopCulture

If you are going to release a paper in 2026 about comparing various March Madness bracket techniques, you should also release a predictive bracket before the bracket starts. So I can copy/paste it. arxiv.org/html/2603.10...

Maybe we can dig into this @flynnpolsci.bsky.social

The ten-year snapshot here is not surprising nor encouraging.

Political Science's academic job market having its worst post-Covid year -- almost 20% fewer jobs than at the same point in the previous cycle (which itself was bad!) Data scraped from APSA ejobs pdfs.

Overseas military bases don't just prepare for war. They shape international politics before conflicts begin.

Star Trek can help us to think about the tools of state power projection. We often think of weapons and capability, but logistics and access (bases) can be just as important. Bajor and Cardassia cared far more about the Federation presence at Deep Space 9 than they ever did about the Enterprise.

One thing that people miss about U.S. deployments overseas: U.S. service members can both build and undermine U.S. soft power. Why? Peacetime deployments create millions of contact points between servicemembers and civilians.

From PhD Comics (phdcomics.com). LaTeX was supposed to solve the formatting issues, not become them!

Starfleet Academy is over, so it is time to lower the United Federation of Planets flag and hoist the Straw Hat Pirates flag as we watch Season 2 of One Piece!

We get go live and breathe in the Firefly universe just a little bit more! deadline.com/2026/03/nath...

Soon: quantpeace.bsky.social

Co-showrunner Landau on the finale of Starfleet Academy: “I heard someone saying this yesterday on a podcast: I think that we're living in a time where we've been inundated with so many stories where the answer is that there's one lone wolf superhero who basically just lays waste

A friend shared this article with me that is making the rounds: www.sciencealert.com/a-simple-dri... "The press version of the article gives the appearance that sparkling water may be a substitute for energy drinks for focus by leading with this: To stay in the zone, gamers often turn to caffeine

U.S. sending USS Tripoli, thousands of Marines to Middle East www.axios.com/2026/03/13/m...