I’m probably the last quantitative person on the net to discover the magic of Google Charts. The API is completely URL-driven, so all you have to do is fill in the blanks to get presentation-quality charts like this (from an ongoing project and completely devoid of context):

The URL for the chart above is here (line breaks inserted for readability):
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=p&chd=t:28,23,18,8,7,7,7,2
&chs=450x200&chl=DC%20Action%20(28%)|DC%20Knowledge%20(23%)
|DC%20Join%20(18%)|AC%20Expr%20(8%)|AC%20Knowledge%20(7%)
|DC%20Expr%20(7%)|AC%20Join%20(7%)|AC%20Take%20Action%20%20(2%)
&chco=ff0000,00ff00,0000ff
The developer’s guide is ridiculously easy to follow. For me at least, it really takes a lot of the headache out of whipping up data visualizations. This is definitely my second-favorite new toy of 2008.

My scholarly work rarely touches on questions of race, ethnicity, or identity, but as an African-American male, my interest in these topics is quite personal. When Obama identified a need for more good-faith dialogue on race in this country in his acclaimed “A More Perfect Union” speech last March, I fully endorsed the sentiment but found myself at a loss to conceptualize the nature of such an exchange in light of the off-putting toxicity of much American racial discourse. Recently, however, I found a high-profile online forum that answers Obama’s call about as well as I could have imagined: Ta-Nehisi Coates’ blog on the Atlantic Monthly’s web site.

Coates takes great pains to curate a respectful, honest comment section—a task most of his Atlantic colleagues have abandoned—and his efforts pay off in deliberative spades. The blog attracts a diverse range of readers if the commenters are any indication, and the discussion for the most part achieves a refreshing frankness while avoiding awkward euphemism. As a social scientist, I find myself instinctually drawn to the scholarly frame of cause and effect: what makes Coates’ blog different from other discussion sites in which racial topics are not debated with nearly as much charity? I have my suspicions, but would prefer to answer the question with data. Perhaps a comparative study of a sample of race-blogs categorized along theoretically relevant lines? Might be a good excuse to acquaint myself with a few new literatures . . .

One day I’ll think of something spiffy to place in this space—perhaps a real blog, or a spectacularly pithy statement of purpose. For now, use the white links above to navigate through the site. If you’re looking for ReCal, you’ve found it. There’s a smattering of other content in the other sections, which I intend to flesh out fully throughout the next few months. So stay tuned . . .