Measure Twice, Cut Once xkcd.com/3149/

I didn't know until we buried my mother, so probably most people here don't know: Jewish cemeteries strongly recommend that you get insurance for the headstone. Because the cemeteries are so often desecrated, the gravestones smashed.

Today is a public holiday in Germany to celebrate reunification. Seems like the perfect day to once again recommend this amazing book on the rather incredible chain of events leading up to the opening of the Berlin wall!

thetab.com/2025/10/01/a... doomed. at least gen alpha's parents are just going butlerian jihad

OpenAI employees are very excited about how well their new AI tool can create fake videos of people doing crimes and have definitely thought through all the implications of this

Oh this is both really good and really bad. Schrödinger would be SO happy.

Memorizing this

YES. YES. YOU NEED A STEPPED WEDGE TRIAL. Then the shouting will stop.

IS IT TIME FOR MY PHOTO AGAIN

Haven't read the paper but nice to see Florence Nightingale's "rose" graph still in use 125 years later www.florence-nightingale-avenging-angel.co.uk/blog/florenc...

Have you ever forgotten an important date—like a birthday for a loved one? Now imagine if forgetting meant ending up in jail. Two years ago, we ran a randomized experiment that found that text message reminders reduce jail stays for missed court dates by over 20%.

Grants going 👇

Once again illustrating the epic scale of decision making failure during coalition years re being anti-nuke.

Enshittification of our discourse and thinking through chowing down on US political discourse. Makes me wonder aloud why @newsagents.bsky.social doesn't have a European edition rather than, say, US one. (I can guess...)

Damn. (I used to ❤️ MASK as a kid. I'm sure it's aged well...)

Firm linked to peer Michelle Mone must repay government nearly £122m after breaching PPE contract, judge rules

1 October 1925 | 100 years ago, Stanisław Zalewski, a Polish man, was born in Sucha Wola. Join us on the occasion of his birthday and share your birthday wishes in the comments.

Can large language models stand in for human participants? Many social scientists seem to think so, and are already using "silicon samples" in research. One problem: depending on the analytic decisions made, you can basically get these samples to show any effect you want. THREAD 🧵

Yale Sociology is hiring an associate or full professor in quantitative sociology. Come work with me! Applications open tomorrow. Details available here: apply.interfolio.com/174709

Stanford Sociology is fortunate to have an open senior search this year! More info in the job announcement here: facultypositions.stanford.edu/cw/en-us/job...

#Florida woman wins Mortal Kombat tournament playing with newborn baby in arms. You know, like you do. www.dexerto.com/mortal-komba...

oh it's time to post the Tetris story again. (short version: reporter goes to cover early e-sports, discovers that his wife is, unknowingly, the greatest Tetris player in the world) archive.boston.com/news/globe/m...

Go check out the HUD website.

Many students use AI to get their work done. I think this is a disaster for higher education — it circumvents the process of learning, and expertise never gets built. I wrote about it for The Argument today, with findings from our latest poll on AI attitudes. www.theargumentmag.com/p/chatgpt-an...

Weird to see people denying there was a 50% HE participation target set by Labour in early 2000s. In this speech: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_poli... Tony Blair said:

Maintenance grants: glad they're coming back in any form Partly personal: I wouldn't have been able to go - or stay - at university as an undergraduate without a grant But also not personal: education is a rock solid route for social mobility. HE not the goal for all but the opportunity matters

Really good piece this from @stephenkb.bsky.social. Hilariously brutal on the “What did we learn on our summer holidays?”memo. "The title sounds like it was written by an eight-year-old, which would surely have been preferable to the actual content."

I don't agree that the machine learning stuff is the first-order solution re DASH but it should definitely be in the mix/integrated but with v good behavioural science view on how to decide using it.

Coffee

Prediction: IF it survives into reality, the "contribution to the UK" thing re ILR will end up being: - on the basis of a COVID-like list of occupations. AND for those not on the list: - a bar so low re volunteering/enforcement it'll be a (hopefully) minor lift

This is an insightful, funny and (gasp) evidence-based view of who votes and might vote for Labour. @benansell.bsky.social better be careful in case he gets asked to go inside the tent to help out the "strategist" sorry, strategists

Labour’s strategists are be being pulled by the very strings of the puppets they think they are making dance. They have imagined a socially authoritarian working class Labour voter who is long gone. The Andy Capp in their head has left containment and is making increasingly incessant demands. 23/n

I'd love to see the evidence re "the fact that people [who? Where? When?] feel [vibes] the country is out of control" [what does 'control' mean?]

Read Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld (saw someone on here talking about American Wife and have now gone down a CS rabbit hole).

Journals with short paper options where economists might publish - thanks to Dave Evans for compiling and maintaining bit.ly/36qNVfn

Get the latest from @europeansocreview.bsky.social

This is my regular reminder to everyone that jstor is open to the general public now; a free account there will give you access to 100 papers a year.

Scholarship opportunities for studying MSc/MA Sociology (shorturl.at/RiL2P) @sriucl.bsky.social: 📌Master's Bursary: shorturl.at/gKkvx 📌Global Master's Scholarship: shorturl.at/sift7 📌Humanitarian Scholarship: shorturl.at/y9qsL 📌Chevening: www.chevening.org Applications open from October 13!

I think it's more about how stuff is written, how it's tailored to audiences, how it's disseminated and what it is that people want to hear in the first place (ie confirmation bias). So then you're into the usual stuff about algorithms, regulation etc

🥳 ARED, a Senegalese NGO, is awarded the highest honour in education*!! It has two laureates annually: one this year is Mamadou Amadou Ly, ARED's founder & director. 🥳 ARED is the unicorn that everybody wants: an indigenous NGO whose intervention is shown by... yidanprize.org/laureates/ma...

Weird. I use the camera on my (Google) phone as though I'm going to take a photo and it shows a link to the website the QR points to. Don't use google lens for this at all!

I read academic papers for my articles but it's also really not difficult to get behind the paywall. (I'm a member of London Library which gives you access to most things).

The deadline to provide inputs into this piece of work is swiftly approaching -- 8 October. Please consider filling out the survey we're using to structure people's input! www.who.int/news-room/ar...

Harsh but true

www.lbc.co.uk/article/sadi... Don't bring words to a data fight.

This is a nice idea! My children's book "The Randomisers" will be page after page of them conducting high quality RCTs and reporting null results. Then they get tenure. That's how it works, right?

My new children’s book is available in bookshops from today! Join Luke and Ruby in ‘The Experimenters’ on cosy adventures where you think, test, & experiment like a real scientist. It’s been so much fun working with with illustrator Sayani Mukherjee & publisher @littleislandbooks.bsky.social

Someone please overlay the Benny Hill theme

Hey! An open double spiral staircase made in wood (the world’s biggest of its kind) is now gracing #NotreDame’s South tower ! Opening day for visitors: 20 September !

Finished reading David Hand's Dark Data. A very good introduction to missing data and the problems it brings in policy, practice and life in general. Worth having on the bookshelf. (One thing I can't believe I didn't know was randomised response for collecting sensitive self-report data. Neat!)