Dear Applied Statistics Community, Welcome back for the 2008-2009 academic year. We have an exciting lineup of speakers this coming semester. The workshop kicks off this coming Wednesday, September 17th, with Andrew Gelman, Department of Statistics and Political Science, Columbia University. Andrew will be presenting results from his recently released book "Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State". Here is an introduction to the book from the publisher: With wit and prodigious number crunching, Andrew Gelman and his coauthors get to the bottom of why Democrats win elections in wealthy states while Republicans get the votes of richer voters, how the two parties have become ideologically polarized, and other issues. Gelman uses eye-opening, easy-to-read graphics to unravel the mystifying patterns of recent voting, and in doing so paints a vivid portrait of the regional differences that drive American politics. He demonstrates in the plainest possible terms how the real culture war is being waged among affluent Democrats and Republicans, not between the haves and have-nots; how religion matters for higher-income voters; how the rich-poor divide is greater in red not blue states--and much more. With the excitement surrounding the current presidential races, this presentation promises to be informative to anyone interested in separating the facts from the myths about vote choice in America. For those interested, a blog is available about the book <http://redbluerichpoor.com/> , which is also available for purchase<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/069113927X?ie=UTF8&tag=res… . As a reminder, the applied statistics workshop meets every Wednesday in CGIS-Knafel, 1737 Cambridge St, room K-354 (Previously N-354, before the Chad Johnson/Prince-esque name change that recently swept through the north building). We start at 12 noon with a light lunch and the presentations usually begin around 1215. To give Andrew the maximum amount of time, we will skip the normal "business" meeting that usually starts the year. If anyone has any suggestions about how the workshop could improve, or would like to present at the workshop this year, please let me know (email would probably be the quickest and most effective method) Cheers Justin Grimmer