Monthly Archives: June 2013
Yesterday was International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
June 26th is International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, and I suspect few are aware that the Convention against Torture is both the most widely signed international human rights treaty and the most widely violated. To help raise awareness … Continue reading
Why would Police Risk Planting a Violent Protester?
Yesterday Joakim Kruetz posted this question on Facebook: The quote is from a blog post at The Independent. To understand why police would do this, it is helpful to think of protest—police interaction as a strategic interaction in which both police … Continue reading
“The Standing Man” Protest, Taksim Stylee
The following crossed my in-box the other day, and I thought I would share (though I am not a fan of the term “passive resistance”). Here is to hoping the video link works well. From: Denis O’Hearn Sent: June 18, … Continue reading
Why is Autism Rising?
The answer is deceptively simple: because the reproductive chances of a person “on the spectrum” have changed. In other words, the (small) proportion (or incidence rate) of autistic human beings has grown, and will continue to grow. The primary conjectures … Continue reading
Stepping in it Right Out the Gate, But Surviving: My Spring Course Evaluations
This past semester I made the most stupid classroom blunder of my career (thus far, anyway). It was the first day of the required undergraduate research methods (stats) class, and we are required to take roll on the first day. … Continue reading
My Autism Score
I do not know why it took me so many years to fall out of the tree and consider the possibility that I have a score above the Asperger’s Syndrome (now collapsed into autism) threshold. But in the spring or … Continue reading
Eating Crow, Damascus Stylee
Over at Political Violence at a Glance Andy Kydd describes the situation in Syria this way: We are now past at least 70,000 dead in the Syrian conflict and mass atrocities are being committed on an almost daily basis. That reminds me … Continue reading
Will Opines 