soapbox

Apparently as a result of last year’s departmental review, there is going to be (I’m told) a new graduate student position made to represent us in departmental meetings. The extent of this positions’ involvement is not yet determined, however I think that whomever takes up this post may have a large impact in that respect.

Kristina Lynch is the chair of the grad committee this year and so any interested/proactive parties may want to contact her before the term starts and throw their hat in the ring.

If you don’t yet know about this website, then you (especially as a reader of this blog) should.

Between the chief writer/analyst Nate Silver’s pedigree as a U.Chicago economist and a statistician over at Baseball Prospectus, I think his statistics are pretty solid. Plus, he embodies two of this blog’s frequently favorite topics: politics and baseball.

For example: his projections are the results of Monte Carlo style simulations of the actual election based on current and historical polling data, all judiciously weighted based on the poll’s historical
performance. Color me duly impressed.

Hooray for yet another way to waste copious amounts of time on the interwebs!

Gotta love grad student ingenuity…good times.