R still dominates the graduate programs at top universities

A recent course on quantitative method at Harvard emphasizes the use of R. Here is a website that gives all of the course materials, including R codes.

Some clips showing the glory of the KU championship

Thanks to KU jayhawk fans and the Internet, I was able to share the joy back to Lawrence.

The happiness and craziness on KU campus and in Lawrence
The rap for KU jayhawks!
The craziness in KU football stadium
The craziness in KU Allen Fieldhouse 1
The craziness in KU Allen Filedhouse2
The craziness on Mass street downtown Lawrence

My favorite:
The summary of the classic moments
The classic last minutes of the game
Kansas 2008 National Champions: Stand up for the Champion (by Right Said Fred)

I was built to be the best
Number one and nothing less
Leave me to my destiny
I have waited patiently
I have vision' oh i believe
I know I can count on me
So stand up for the champions
For the champions stand up
Stand up stand up
For the champions for the champions
Stand up for the champions
For the champions stand up
Stand up stand up
For the champions for the champions
Stand up

Here we go it's getting close
Now it's just who wants it most
It's just life that's how it is
Cause we have our strength and weaknesses
Oh i have vision' oh can't you see
I'm on the move make way for me
So stand up for the champions
For the champions stand up
Stand up stand up
For the champions for the champions
Stand up for the champions
For the champions stand up
Stand up stand up
For the champions for the champions
Stand up

And when i fall down
I have to pick myself back up
And when i fall down
I have to pick myself back up
And when i fall down
I have to pick myself back up
And when i fall down
I have to pick myself back up
So stand up stand up for the champions
For the champions stand up
Stand up stand up
For the champions for the champions
Stand up
Stand up stand up
For the champions for the champions
Stand up stand up
For the champions for the champions
Stand up stand up
For the champions for the champions
Stand up stand up
For the champions for the champions
stand up

終於--KU拿下NCAA冠軍了！

令所有Jayhawks感動的一刻~
擊敗Roy Williams領軍的北卡軍團之後再拿下冠軍。啊，這支永不放棄的球隊讓我感到光榮。
KU出現在主題曲的最後一段~

The ball is tipped
and there you are
you're running for your life
you're a shooting star
And all the years
no one knows
just how hard you worked
but now it shows...
(in) ONE SHINING MOMENT, IT'S ALL ON THE LINE
ONE SHINING MOMENT, THERE FROZEN IN TIME

But time is short
and the road is long
in the blinking of an eye
ah that moment's gone
And when it's done
win or lose
you always did your best
cuz inside you knew...
(that) ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU REACHED DEEP INSIDE
ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU KNEW YOU WERE ALIVE

Feel the beat of your heart
feel the wind in your face
it's more than a contest
it's more than a race...

And when it's done
win or lose
you always did your best
cuz inside you knew...
(that) ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU REACHED FOR THE SKY
ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU KNEW
ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU WERE WILLING TO TRY
ONE SHINING MOMENT....

KU Jayhwak is back to NCAA final four!

Congratulations Jayhwaks!

Watch the video here.

Fedora Linux (V7) LiveDVD

LiveCD的意思是，你將這個影像檔iso燒成一塊DVD之後，就可以將整個作業系統帶著走。目前連中小學生都在學著用，可以預見下個世代將可以不再受到Windows的約束。而你，還在堅持（大補帖的）XP或VISTA嗎？

http://fedora.tw/ossacc/index.html

研究生甘苦談的漫畫

看到同學給我看的台灣版碩士生生活甘苦談漫畫，http://www.wretch.cc/album/album.php?id=gradlive&book=2
我不禁想起我在博士時最喜歡的博班生生活甘苦談的漫畫：
美國版：http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

比較比較可以看到更多趣味。

A new book of applying ABM to Political Science research

這本新書Identifying Threats and Threatening Identities


The Social Construction of Realism and Liberalism (2006) by David L. Rousseau 是近年極少數能夠做到利用多元研究方法來研究政治學課題的創新之作。其中它使用民調資料與代理人基模擬來探討「認同形成」的做法可算是樹立了新的研究典範。



http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?book_id=5415

Computational social science PhD fellowship opportunity for fall 2008, George Mason University

The PhD program in computational social science at George Mason, for a student to begin studies in fall 2008.  



-Network structures in International Relations - network-based  

imperialism, structural properties of international agreements and alliances, economic interdependence networks, agent-based models of evolving relations;

- Evolution of social networks - dynamic network models, cascades and avalanche processes in networks;



More information about the program and center is available at:

http://socialcomplexity.gmu.edu/



For specific questions related to the graduate program, contact Dawn Parker, acting director for the CSS PhD program, at cssgrad@gmu.edu.



Full application instructions are available at:

http://socialcomplexity.gmu.edu/phd.php

Multi-Agent Simulation Suite (MASS)

Multi-Agent Simulation Suite (MASS), the agent-based modeling toolset developed at AITIA International.



MASS contains a dedicated programming language for agent-based simulations (FABLES), which is compiled to RePast 3.1. (So, you can continue editing it and add advanced features, or you can directly develop your model in Repast and use the other components of MASS). FABLES has an integrated development environment (called FABLES IME) built on top of the Eclipse

platform. The MASS suite contains further modules as well, like a

graphing/visualization package with wizards, a tool for running and processing batch experiments (the Model Exploration Module or MEME), and a web interface to web-enable your simulation (also useful for doing lab experiments with human subjects -- ie. mixing them with your artificial agents). Unfortunately, this last module (the Participatory Extension or PET) is not yet available in the public release.



The public release of MASS is free, but not open source. It does not contain all the latest features, but we believe it is generally usable.



The suite is available at

http://www.aitia.ai/services_and_products/simulation_systems

Public Opinion Pros: An online magazine for survey researchers

心理學和經濟學界在其專業期刊之外亦發行大眾導向的雜誌，政治學界除了Foreign Affairs之外，比較少看到這樣的雜誌。免費的線上版Public Opinion Pros讓人眼睛一亮。