Decent threads post, obviously some kind of record

New article: Experimental education research: rethinking why, how, and when to use random assignment Out today (even though it’s Saturday): doi.org/10.1080/1380... With @drsamsims.bsky.social @mjinglis.bsky.social @benweidmann.bsky.social @benstyles.bsky.social & Hugues Lortie-Forgues

Dance in the Country, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1883 (flipped)

Congratulations to Sarah Marshall on her being selected for the Great Britain senior rowing team! 🇬🇧🚣 After helping Oxford Women secure their first Boat Race victory since 2016, Sarah has made her senior international debut while continuing her Economics research at Oxford. 🔗 buff.ly/cKMrxYp

Cape Verde defeats Argentina via a 2-3 loss in extra time

"Despite looking like gambling, Polymarket is actually a scam."

Want to run a fake London estate agency and repeatedly scam people out of thousands of pounds through rental scams? The good news is that for £250 you can join all the official renters' protection schemes and do it with a UK government badge of approval! www.londoncentric.media/p/london-ren...

If you’re waking up not knowing any scores just watch this: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Egypt! (Feel sorry for the 18yo Aussie)

I spent this afternoon at the Old Bailey for the sentencing of two Romanians convicted of stabbing Iranian opposition journalist Pouria Zeraati in Wimbledon in March 2024. The judge today ruled that the Iranian state was behind the attack: as.ft.com/r/5dbfaf9e-6...

Again. Damn.

Traditionally, longbows.

Was at harry styles gig on Wednesday. Seats in the gods. Joyful. 10/10 do recommend Aside: He offered to pay for someone's car repairs as they broke down on the way to the gig and it "sounded expensive". (camera stayed on team getting deets.)

Futuristic can opener OR the only way to safely hold your phone f viewing X ?

Small but sloooow win: 9 months after first contacting journal editor about GLARING conflict of interest in developer-led review the COI statement was finally updated from "none" to one that sets out ... ...the author/owners were reviewing evidence on the efficacy OF THEIR OWN PROGRAMME... (alt)

This paper is worth it for table 1 alone. 👏 @sabinehoffmann11.bsky.social @boulesteixlaure.bsky.social et al onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

“Enshittification” has made it into the Oxford English Dictionary. Coined by @doctorow.pluralistic.net, it is defined as “the process by which an online platform degrades over time, typically resulting from business decisions prioritizing profit”. It is one of 900 new entries this quarter.

This is an absolutely wild thread that has blown my mind. Half!

Strengthening distance learning in prisons - @prisonersed.bsky.social blogs on the importance of distance learning in prisons www.russellwebster.com/strengthenin...

Peacock Spider (genus Maratus), a group of tiny Australian jumping spiders famous for their vibrant colours and elaborate courtship dances to attract its mate. They are very tiny in size only between 2-5 millimetres ( the size of a pea)

WTAF. This is small scale state failure causing state level problems.

@exeter.ac.uk is not in deficit, has £200m+ cash reserves, hasn’t invested in white elephants, doesn’t have a recruitment problem, never had 1000s of international students, and deliveres outstanding outcomes in teaching and research. If UEB’s data projects a deficit won’t they share it with UCU?

New Orleans ended June with 36 murders per my unofficial tally. That's the fewest as of midyear since 1969 and the second fewest since 1964. There are still six months left, but New Orleans is on pace to have fewer than 100 murders in a year for the first time since 1970.

Labour is losing far more voters to the left than to the right

This is a big problem. If the last information people receive is always “numbers went up” because “numbers went down” is never reported we shouldn’t be surprised that perceptions about immigration end up so skewed. Media should take some responsibility here - this is a salient and polarising issue.

Ben Cullen, a leading figure of the "Raise the Colours" campaign, will stand trial for three separate charges regarding a total of 78 indecent images of children. I have only seen this covered in local newspapers, so far. Grim as it is, it needs wider coverage www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/2624087...

The treatment of this woman is absolutely outrageous and one of the most egregious corporate violations of free speech I've seen. I have just bought the book as a fuck you to Facebook. It's available here uk.bookshop.org/p/books/care...

Summary of the Home Office Impact Assessment for Asylum Bill is hilarious (if it weren't so depressing). HO analysts say "basically no evidence to suggest *any* of these policies will work *even on their own terms*" (but will probably cost money). assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a43e1...

WHOA. Apex trail cam.

Justice Brown Jackson's argument for birthright citizenship is very moving. I recommend reading it in full. An excerpt with alt-text below. “The Reconstruction Amendments were an anticaste, antisubordination reset for the Nation, not a mere spot treatment for the dark stain of slavery.” — KBJ

🎯

Not a great economy alert! Wall Street Bets users think Palantir spiked today because The Onion story titled “Palantir Acquires Pentagon for $800 Billion” hit their front page. They’re guessing trading bots indexed the top post on the subreddit reddit not understanding source.

#TodayinHistory #dataviz #OTD 📅 Jun 30, 1812 Pierre Simon Laplace presented his analytical theory of probabilities to the Academy of Sciences, a milestone in mathematical statistics

On my way to London from Edinburgh to make sure I can attend the discussion paper on randomisation tomorrow. rss.org.uk/training-eve...

Now at JDLCC: @oliveiratr.bsky.social and I's accessible (but opinionated) guidance on testing theories with reciprocal effects using panel models. We argue for centering theory, making sure your data can answer your question, and defaulting to robust estimators. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

I implore anyone who has an audience and speaks about genAI and LLMs to refer to them as products, not technologies, as much as possible. Keep hammering that home.

The minimum wage for 18-20 year olds is £22,568 for a 40 hour week. For a year of work. The 12 hours *maximum* of work that Nigel Farage has disclosed for promoting gold pays £22,500. Per hour.

Would anyone else be interested in using any settlement money from Anthropic (assuming some is paid out) to seek legal advice to take on one of the other thieves of our IP?

Really important. Relationships with researchers in this trial produced equal improvements in mental health whether or not the participant was taking an active drug.

A quarter of terror attacks in Britain over the past decade have targeted Muslims, but some have gone largely unnoticed because of delays formally declaring them terrorism Most jihadist attacks, by contrast, have been declared within hours of taking place inews.co.uk/news/uk-terr...

See the original, not the rip-off… www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2...

My department at @uni-of-warwick.bsky.social is advertising 3 Tenure-Track AP positions in Political Science and 2 Teaching positions. The department is nice, non-toxic, and in good financial shape (which is not a given these days, in the UK or elsewhere): warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

Any UK Space experts on here? The UK Space Agency is seeking nominations for two new members of the Space Technology Advisory Committee.

Save this for dark days when you doubt that there is progress. There really is!