Stuart Clark, author of our terrific book THE SUN KINGS: The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began, shortlisted in 2008 for the the 2008 Royal Society Prizes for Science Books, General Prize, will begin a series of weekly popular science/astronomy Twitter chats next Tuesday, November 24. Five chats are planned for 2009, on Tuesdays beginning November 24 at 1PM EST (10AM PST, 6PM GMT).  Each week the chat will focus on a different popular astronomy topic.

We are extremely pleased and thrilled to see our collaboration with the esteemed international news and commentary provider Project Syndicate and our new book THE PRINCETON ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE WORLD ECONOMY go live on their website.  They bring some of the world’s most distinguished voices to a global community that includes 431 leading newspapers in 150 countries. 

Together with the great folks at Project Syndicate, we’ve created a “Princeton Encyclopedia of the World Economy ” feature that appears on their homepage.  Click on the Wiki to find out the answer to the word of the day–or Terms of Trade!

Over at Balkinization, Brian Tamanaha describes his book Beyond the Formalist-Realist Divide as a corrective to this “largely false account”. Click through to read more, but here’s a tidbit or two:

The United States legal culture has swallowed whole a largely false account of our legal history. The book demonstrates that this false yet widely believed story has warped political science research on courts as well as legal theory debates about judging.

…

The historical argument in the book will likely generate controversy, for the conventional formalist-realist narrative has many expositors and defenders. It is stupefying to think that we could have been collectively wrong for so long about something so important and well known. Until conducting the research for this book, I too believed that it was true. The abundant evidence I present to show that it is false will come as a shock to many.

The Math Factor speaks with Michael Huber about, among other things, how he came up with the idea for the book Mythematics in which he uses the 12 labors of Hercules as a jumping off point for a series of mathematical problems. Turns out a visit to the MET inspired him to research the labors and eventually to write the book.

I know. It sounds like a set up for a bad joke, but the answer is they are both proud owners of The China Diary of George H. W. Bush.

The Examiner site reports that Yao Ming twittered about receiving a gift from former President George H. W. Bush–a copy of his 2008 book. The book is a day-by-day account of President Bush’s time in China as head of the United States Liaison Office in Beijing . The entries from 1974 and 1975 capture the culture (biking around Beijing) and the political conflicts (most famously with Henry Kissinger) of the era.

As I posted earlier, Viktor Mayer-Schonberger was interviewed “live” on the Metanomics program in Second Life. Here are some screen shots from the interview. As you’ll see, it was really well attended.

The Metanomics studio space in Second Life. The view from the top of the auditorium.

Metanomics host Robert Bloomfield (right) interviews Viktor Mayer-Schonberger.

An attentive, and interactive audience, listened in and posted questions via the chat function.

Viktor Mayer-Schonberger fields questions from the audience.

Zocalo just posted a great interview with Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, author of DELETE. Do you agree with Viktor about the virtue of forgetting and the dangers posed by infinite and ageless digital memory? Post your comments below.

It is very rare here in the Princeton Univ Press publicity dept to get interviews on Charlie Rose and Newshour, but we did just that this past week with Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff and their sizzling new book THIS TIME IS DIFFERENT: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly.  They also did a Q&A with viewers online at the Newshour after the show.  Read the Q&A and see the clip here.  It just goes to show that charts and graphs rule!  NY Times bestseller list here we come!

An interesting series of comments on the cover design for This Time Is Different by Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff over at the Book Design review. What does the cover suggest to you?

Be part of the “live” studio audience when Metanomics interviews Viktor Mayer-Schonberger in Second Life this Wednesday at 12 PM pacific. If Second Life isn’t your cup of tea, the interview will also be available on their web site later in the day.

This just came across my desk. Rep. Steve Israel (NY-02) has introduced legislation to create an American Democracy Index that is built on the research of Heather Gerken at Yale. We recently published her book-length argument on the need to gather information about how we vote and create a national ranking system so states can assess election reforms that work.

News Release 111-076

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 6, 2009

For more information, contact:

Lindsay Hamilton 202-225-3335

lindsay.hamilton@mail.house.gov

News Release

Rep. Israel Announces Legislation to Assess and Improve Election Systems Across the Country

The American Democracy Index will analyze voter and election administration data to publish a state-by-state analysis of practices prior to the 2012 elections

Washington, DC – On Friday, Rep. Steve Israel (D – New York) announced new legislation to assess and improve election systems throughout the country.  The American Democracy Index Act (H.R.4033) seeks to improve election administration throughout the United States by ranking states on election performance and comparing best and worst practices.

“For too many Americans, our election system is marred by long lines, lost ballots and controversial recounts. Our elections should be conducted in a way that makes Americans want to vote. It should be easy, expedient and accurate. The American Democracy Index will tell us where we’re succeeding and where we’re failing so that we can make improvements based on what works,” said Rep. Israel.

“The American election system remains deeply flawed, even after the debacle of 2000 and the Help America Vote Act that followed. Fixing the system requires real knowledge about what is working and what isn’t,” said Norm Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute scholar and Co-Director of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project. “A great first step would be a Democracy Index that requires good data from all states and localities to analyze the problems, and an ability to rank jurisdictions according to whether they are serving democracy by running elections well, or falling short of their peers and of any reasonable standards. Steve Israel has been a leader in pushing for ways to make the American election system the model it should be; this bill is another solid step in that direction.”

“Access to accurate information is the first requirement of good policy-making,” said Trevor Potter, a former Republican Chairman of the Federal Election Commission who now heads the non-partisan Campaign Legal Center.  “This bill will mandate that the government obtain and publish the best information that can be gathered about the functioning of our election system–and every political party should agree that is a very good and important thing to do.”

During the 2000 election, between 1.5 and 3 million votes were lost because of the registration process. According to the 2000 U.S. Census, about 1 million registered voters said they did not vote because polling lines were too long or polling hours were too short. Following the 2004 presidential election, 43 percent of local officials surveyed reported that an electronic voting system had malfunctioned.

The American Democracy Index Act requires that the Election Assistance Commission contract with an entity to collect voter data and publish the American Democracy Index for the federal election cycle of 2012. The American Democracy Index (ADI) will present voter and election administration data on a state-by-state basis in a manner designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of election administration practices. States will be ranked according to criteria established by an independent advisory board of election administration experts in consultation with the Election Assistance Commission. The legislation also establishes a pilot program for the 2010 federal election cycle to create an index that ranks localities within five states to measure the effectiveness of their election administration.

The concept is based on a proposal that Yale Law School Professor Heather Gerken wrote about in her book, The Democracy Index: Why Our Election System Is Failing and How to Fix It. She argues that a “Democracy Index” – a public ranking of election performances around the country – would encourage states to take real steps to make voting easier.

The bill also authorizes funding to assist states with reporting requirements.

Rep. Israel is a leader in the House of Representatives on election reform. In the 110^th and 111^th Congress, he introduced the Weekend Voting Act which seeks to move Election Day from Tuesday to the weekend in an effort to increase voter participation.

Rep. Israel serves on the House Appropriations Committee.

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