Spew Stats, 2015

I just posted my annual review of the blog, where I discuss the major posts and events of 2015.  Here, I engage my narcissism by navel gazing at the stats. 

The posts that got the most hits this year were: 

1. Thinking/Talking about Social Media and Research: This mostly presented the views of a couple of participants at a Carleton seminar (faculty to faculty) on how/why to use social media as part of research.
2. Sexism in Political Science: Fact or Fact?  I got annoyed by more mything about sexism in Political Science.  This post got far more comments and play here and at the Duck of Minerva than any other post than anything else I wrote in 2015.
3. NATO 101 Again In the aftermath of the Paris attacks, people said a lot of stuff about NATO that indicated that they didn't know NATO.  So, I presented this explainer.
4. Co-authoring and Mentoring: Trust or What?  The biggest story for Political Science and for data science of the year was the fraud committed by Michael Lacour.  I wrote a key question that arose--what responsibility do mentors and co-authors have in vetting the data/research of their co-authors and advisees?
5. When Realism is Unrealistic I was annoyed that John Mearsheimer was saying, dare I say it, idealistic stuff about how to manage the Ukraine problem by .... selling out Ukraine?
6. How to Win a Propaganda War  I was super proud that Trudeau did something that was both right and good--not just accepting refugees but welcoming them in the best piece of anti ISIS propaganda that the West has probably put out.
7. Speed versus Armor, Academic Style   Super annoyed that Texas would let students come to class armed, I did my best "Modest Proposal" to ponder how best to defend against armed students.  The real answer, of course, is to shoot first, like Han.
8. Rejection is the Name of the Game  Self-flagellation is popular.  I listed damn near all of the times I was rejected by journals, presses, potential employers, etc., to demonstrate that even successful academics have to deal with much rejection throughout one's career.
9. Trump the Traitor  If Trudeau is one of the best allies the fight against ISIS has with the embracing of refugees, well, Trump is probably the Benedict Arnold of this fight, arming ISIS with visuals and audio that may make Muslims around the world have more fear about the US.
10. Mach and Cheese: When Media Outlets Become Spokespeople for Lobbies I was mighty miffed when one of the press outlets in Canada basically acted as a cheerleader for the dairy cartel.

Some old posts got a heap of hits this year

1. For your Situational Awareness got the most mistaken hits.  Otherwise, speaking Pentagonese is popular?
2. Mama, Don't Let Your Kids Become Political Scientists probably got the most number of depressed hits--the job market ain't great.
3. Ye old post about bags of milk vs plastic containers still gets much love.
4. Comparative xenophobia.  See Wash Post below.
5. The Broken Academic Job Market where I argue that no one should try to pay for academic mentoring.

How did my readers find one of my posts?

1. Twitter by almost 50% more than 
2. Google
3. Directly--people seeking out the spew.
4. Facebook
5. Political Science Rumors--sometimes I put a link there when I wanted to weigh in on an issue in the profession.
6. Duck of Minerva.  Probably due to the links I put in my posts over there.
7. Lawyergunsmoney.  That blog has quite a following, so one link to my armor vs speed post (see above) got a heap of hits.  
8. The Washington Post. Mostly due to the old posts about xenophobia, I think.  
9. Outside the Beltway.  A blog that includes posts by a twitter friend/twitterfightclub adversary: James Joyner.
10. Vox, as they cited my explanation of ethnic outbidding and xenophobia in the GOP primary campaign.

 Where do my readers live?

1. United States
2. Canada
3. United Kingdom
4. Germany
5. Australia
6. France
7. New Zealand
8. Brazil
9. India
10. Netherlands