Suspicious supervisors and suspect surveys

Public opinion polls are ubiquitous in rich countries, especially during elections. Such polls estimate general support levels for political candidates based on the strength of their support within a small sample of that population. The classical ideal for building...

Accidents Will Happen?

On October 3, 2015 the US bombed a hospital run by the NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), killing 22 and injuring dozens. This is an especially bad incident for the US, possibly constituting a war crime depending on the exact circumstances. From the beginning US...

Is the Risk of War Declining?

I teach more than one hundred students every year but will bet my house that a student taller than 7’6’’ will never walk into my classroom. This is because human heights conform well to a “normal” distribution, or “bell curve,” rendering large deviations from average...