I don’t think you can understand the dynamics of the Epstein and Trump and how this much corruption gets suppressed in the digital age without reading Robert Entman’s book, Scandal or Silence, an exploration of the factors that really drive presidential scandal. robertmentman.com/2012/03/24/s...

is it really “winning” if this is what you win?

"The Albanese government has ruled out granting tech companies an exemption to copyright laws that ... would have allowed them to mine their content to train artificial intelligence models for free." Excellent news for all of us whose work is being stolen by AI. www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Just…wow

Over the past week, the president said the DOJ should pay him a quarter billion dollars, bulldozed half the White House to build himself a gaudy ballroom, bragged about murdering civilians in international waters, pardoned some more criminals, directed federal prosecutors to indict his opponents ...

"But when the team looked at the employees’ actual work output, they found that the developers had completed tasks 20% slower when using AI than when working without it. Researchers were stunned. “No one expected that outcome. We didn’t even really consider a slowdown as a possibility.” 🎁link

I've received an 'exclusive' invite to try Nature's new 'research assistant', which will burn down a forest to provide a 'summary of the paper' I'm reading and I have SUCH exciting news for them, that's called an 'abstract' and the actual authors already wrote it for me, no forest-burning required.

In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.

It’s on election nights especially that I really miss the old good twitter.

This is so great. I wish we had it at Memorial. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/w...

LOL

I needed to take 3 trips to city hall this year in order to vote - I was not on the voters list despite living in the same house for 18 years. The average person would not take these extra steps. Voter turnout is partially a function of electoral management. Let us assess our processes, St John's.

You don't say...

This is tough to read but really important.

MAY I EXPLAIN?

A truly brilliant idea. Get your debate bingo card here. Will the leaders talk about child care? Or any other "gender" issue? I am curious! nl.childcarenow.ca/2025/10/07/n...

🦖 Steve's T-Rex mug > inotternews.etsy.com/listing/1755...

Hey folks! There is still a few spots left in the intro to audio storytelling workshop I will be teaching in October through the StoryCenter.org. Here is the link to the workshop page" www.storycenter.org/schedule/pod...

Everyone is talking about this article, and it is GOOD. Recommend!

Say it often, say it loud: "Overall, research has not supported the common-sense presumption that digital approaches to schooling are better than non-digital alternatives. At the broadest level, widespread computer use in education has been found to be associated with lower student achievement."

This is the part that I find most astounding and hard to watch.

Why did Polarization & Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) create a whole portfolio of work on preventing gendered violence? Because the online worlds we study are 1/ www.linkedin.com/posts/cynthi...

Gross. This is shameful.

Joined by @bittner.bsky.social and @sarahsmellie.bsky.social Sarah Smellie on The Writ Podcast to break down the Newfoundland and Labrador provincial election. www.thewrit.ca/p/ep-146-wha...

Sent this to some important teens in my life. I’m sure they’re rolling their eyes but I am delighted. 🤣

THERE IS A PODCAST! Come on with this! I am so excited.

Oh the role of academic wives is one of my all time favourite topics!!! How exciting!

this is, hands down, the best video I've seen on men's influencer content and it's not close either

THIS!!!!!

“It’s shocking … did you consider not complying with this request?” Butler said. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Are you attending #APSA2025 and (thinking of) writing a book on the topic of gender and politics?! Come meet the editors of the @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org Cambridge Studies in Gender & Politics! Friday at 2:30pm at the Sutton Place Hotel (Salon Cezanne). We want to talk w/ you!

Currently writing up a few paragraphs to explain the science of sampling to undergraduates and am reminded of how amazing some folks are at explaining math and probability with such seeming ease. This is no simple feat even if simple random sampling is not that complex.

A student told her professor “President Trump’s laws state that there are two genders,” and that the lesson was “illegal” for contradicting that. It’s not. Executive orders are not laws. Compliance with authoritarianism will not protect universities. Either we stand up for our missions or we fall.

Nine things I have written are in this database. I hate it.

Monday Giggle!

I can't believe I need to have an AI policy! I made it pretty short though: Using AI is cheating, yourself mostly. In addition to the environmental blight created by AI, it makes no sense to use it in your intellectual and creative work. Why would you outsource your innate intelligence?

Easiest way to teach someone how difficult data prep is would be to record me using a new to me dataset. The final syntax file does not begin to cover all the things I tried and didn't work until I eventually found a way to discover the 130 observations out of 22k that need to be fixed.

Yup

I hope when Kevin Costner dies his obituary identifies him as “American Actor Who Portrayed White Characters”

Introducing Geordi! Our new Golden Doodle puppy, who at 10 weeks old is adorable and frisky and destined to be best friends with her older brother Data, the grumpy 5 year old Scottish Terrier. Her humans are in love.

#MorningReads Sex is often used as a proxy for gender (in political surveys here), but this study shows it misses nuance—about a quarter of people don’t fit neatly. A finer measure of gender improves analysis and highlights the need for better survey design. #SOGIData

Universities need to stop partnering with AI. It is confusing our students and making them think that they *should* use AI instead of training their brains. We are ensuring a future of shriveled, useless brains. The future is bleak.

86% among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars backed the resolution: "Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the UN Convention for the Prevention & Punishment of the Crime of Genocide". www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Encountering more and more GenAI/LLM produced work. It is like sewage, but without a sanitation infrastructure, no pipes, no workers, no regulations. Like shit it flows everywhere, it makes everything worse, dangerous and smelly, and no one is fixing it or taking any responsibility.

Defund education, then insert for-profit pure garbage to fill the void. The future is bleak.

over the last week, several political scientists i trust have declared trump a dictator and that america is not a full functioning democracy anymore. see here: goodpoliticsbadpolitics.substack.com/p/where-we-a... donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-author... i think making a list clarifies this:

The fact that the thing we're calling artificial intelligence *can't do math* and yet we're jamming it into programs that successfully *have done math* for decades, then warning people against using the AI to do math, seems like an excellent summary of where we are.

I’m at the stage of news consumption where I quietly whisper “unhinged” to myself before moving on to the next news story. Things *waves hands* are so fucked.

It’s the first rain we’ve had in WEEKS. It startled him so much he started barking at it. 🤣