U.S. Presidents since George Washington have delivered State of the Union addresses each year to describe the nation’s condition and prioritize future action. Can we glean historical patterns from the texts? Do presidents speak similarly in times of war or depression? Do Republicans and Democrats emphasize different words? How does the evolution of American English […]
Scientific graphics are one of the most important means we have of communicating complicated quantitative information. Here are a few ideas for improving the effectiveness of your figures: Learn a new feature of your graphics package. Most of us only use a fraction of the capabilities of our graphics programs. There’s much to be gained […]
Part 3 of 3. Return to Part 2. The Twitter network differs from Facebook and LinkedIn because it does not require relationships to be reciprocal. Accordingly, I can follow users whose updates I find interesting or valuable without any expectation that they will do the same. (In network parlance, this creates a “directed” graph, in […]
Part 2 of 3. Return to Part 1. As with LinkedIn, the graph of friendships in Facebook generally corresponds to relationships established in the real world. Due in part to its more broad-based entertainment appeal, Facebook presently has about six times more registered and active users. I joined Facebook in early 2004 while I was […]
Part 1 of 3 Humans are ubiquitously social animals. Even our identities are socially informed: when asked to describe ourselves, many of us would mention familial relationships (“a husband,” “a mother,” “a sister”), the culture we are from, or the professional community implied by our work. John Donne’s famous quote “No man is an island” […]
No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne […]