The Bloody Lens – Thursday Evening Event in London!

I'm participating in an event in London this Thursday evening.  Please come!  It should be really interesting and there are still a few (free) tickets left. Below is the event description. You can sign up here. (Note there is a room change.  It's now in room 104 of Senate house rather than the Court Room.  …

The Torture Trial

I'm mesmerized by this New York Times article which shows video footage of key people testifying under oath about the US post 9/11 torture program, also known as "enhanced interrogation".  The most interesting bits are the testimony of military psychologists John Bruce Jessen and James Mitchell. The two psychologists — whom C.I.A. officials have called …

I’m tweeting

I finally started tweeting from @Michael_Spagat Please follow me! I plan to do more than just robo tweets of my blog posts.  For now I'm expecting to cover the usual subject matter of the blog plus Trump and probably a little Brexit.   But we'll see how it goes.  

Data Dump Friday Returns!

Hello again. I've loaded up the data page with more than 20 new public opinion surveys.  That's the good news. The bad news is that these are all surveys fielded in Iraq by D3 Systems and KA Research Limited.  So I expect them to be loaded with fabricated data.  Ultimately, I think the main value of …

Economics of Warfare – Lecture 11

School started up again this morning...and not a moment too soon as Mystics and Statistics has made it all the way up to Lecture 7 from last term (with some interesting commentary.) To keep my nose in front here is lecture 11.

Mystics and Statistics Blogs on the Economics of Warfare

A while back I directed readers to the Mystics and Statistics blog which I continue to recommend.  Mystics and Statistics now returns the favour with interest.  Check out their series of posts on my Economics of Warfare lectures. I've just been dumping these lectures onto my blog without comment.  So you should appreciate the way that Chris Lawrence …

Economics of Warfare – Lecture 7

Here's lecture 7.

Economics of Warfare – Lecture 6

Here is lecture 6 from my course.  I apologize again for failing to blog but I think I'm finally digging myself out of the hole I've been in this teaching term.

Interesting Articles on the 9/11 Anniversary

(Note for the confused.  I first made the mistake of posting this without a title and the only way I could figure out to correct the mistake was by trashing the first post and reposting with a title.   MS) I happen to be in the US right now where you'd have to be unconscious …

Chilcot on Civilian Casualties: Part 4

In October of 2004 The Lancet published a paper by Roberts et al. that estimated the number of excess deaths for the first year and a half of the Iraq war using data from a new survey they had just conducted.  (Readers wanting a refresher course on the concept of excess deaths  can go here.) …