google.com/policy

Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution points us to the relatively new blog Policy by the Numbers, an independent blog run by Google employees trying to bring more empirical evidence to policy discussions. Some of them are really great. A few highlights:

• Charlie Hale on the similarities of predicting meth lab openings and Lord's Resistance Army raids

• Josh Blumenstock on describing risk sharing networks using cell phone activity

• Alex Tabarrok on decreasing US government funding of R&D

• Vint Cerf on why data matters for public policy