How's your day going?

Best agent-based modelling textbook you've read? Preferably R and Python examples (or translated into these languages).

I can confirm that the authors of this website are heroes and we should all pay them money: poloclub.github.io/transformer-...

Corbyn trying and failing to run a party is the nice piece of olden-days nostalgia I didn't know I needed today

Seems an apt time to re-up this...

TFW you're due to teach Transformers and contextual embeddings at 9AM after your one year old slept for 3 hours during the night

So no-one thought to tell me that the nearest sports bar to NYU Faculty Housing is also where the NYC Man City supporters club meet... Lmk if anyone is looking for a sublet

We're hiring an Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science ❗ 📚 jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/... Apply before 26 October and join an internationally outstanding group of social science methodologists 🌎

Some professional news

Am I the only one who can't understand about 25% of what Nick Robinson says on the radio because of that sort of trailing whisper thing he does towards the end of a sentence? Or am I getting old?

H/t @beckshewer.bsky.social for my next slide on confounders

Has anyone seen good data on the Union flag phenomenon in the UK? Please lmk if so. Am thinking of trying to generate some data on this

I have finally gotten round to writing my AI Use Statement for a grad. course I'm teaching in Gen AI... I would be grateful of your thoughts!

Trying to use this to label some data and it's absolutely crap. Grateful for any pointers

#OpenAccess from @polanalysis.bsky.social - Measuring Media Criticism with ALC Word Embeddings - cup.org/4fUMARy - @cbarrie.bsky.social, Neil Ketchley, @aasiegel.bsky.social & Mossaab Bagdouri #FirstView

I had actually quite measured opinions about AI and now unfortunately this advert has forced me to believe we should burn everything down to the ground

Excited to share our new paper in Political Analysis co-authored with Neil Ketchley, @aasiegel.bsky.social and Mossaab Bagdouri! 📢 We introduce an open-source, computationally light method for measuring media criticism—a key marker of media freedom and democratization.

New job ad: Assistant Professor of Quantitative Social Science, Dartmouth College apply.interfolio.com/172357 Please share with your networks. I am the search chair and happy to answer questions!

Me as I open my credit card statement balance after furnishing a two-bed apartment in five days

Pre-modern universities promoted the spread of ideas. This is why you should oppose post-modernism at universities btw

He says he likes his new office but they put the wrong name outside

To get a key fob for the children's park where I live I have to go to a bank and print a cashier's check for $15 American banking is very sensible and not at all completely insane

Made it

NYC-bound

I am going to be on a podcast with Jennifer Egan and I am very excited by this news

Everyone on ChatGPT today

Everything I post on X now gets like 3 views and 1 like. What I'm saying is very little has changed for me there

A propos this

A propos this

"resolve the structural problems in UK HE, you say? "I give you NEW MEANINGLESS REF RATING!" That should do it

best qualitative research you've read incorporating llms into the pipeline? I already have the work recently published in SMR

Preview of Monday's newsletter! One answer to 'why do British political parties keep pretending they have a different core vote to the one they have', I think, is that it would be a lot more ideologically convenient for them if they did.

James Orr has now been on Radio 4 as both a "JD Vance whisperer" and commentator on the rise of Reform in the UK. Last time I checked he was a Professor of Religion and expert in German phenomenology... Can someone explain these bookings...?!

⚽ 🏠

It appears that football came home. Again. Sorry 4 u

Did I just get an R&R at a very competitive scientific journal? Yes. Did I remain unaware of that decision for several weeks because I had failed to spell my email address correctly in the online system? Also yes.

Today I learnt a new skill and I couldn't be prouder

Smh what has society come to when even my sunglasses are polarized

Berkeley Sociology is hiring faculty! Sept 1 application deadline. Two positions: (1) open area junior search. aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05013, (2) associate or full professor in Anti-Black Racism and Social Inclusion aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05012 Please help spread the word!

I continue to find it a marvel that the Substack model of jamming everyone's inboxes remains popular. You're saying you're **paying** to get more emails?

This is a very good book

In addition to the original UK results, we have now ***replicated*** this (TWICE) in the US. The main findings hold strong: information diets are a lot more diverse in attention than in engagement. New version here: osf.io/preprints/os...

In addition to the original UK results, we have now ***replicated*** this (TWICE) in the US. The main findings hold strong: information diets are a lot more diverse in attention than in engagement. New version here: osf.io/preprints/os...

I just paid my daughter's daycare for NYC and I was charged a $70 processing fee for paying by credit card rather than check and can someone please for the life of all of us explain why any of is this makes sense in 2025?

Journals need to start accepting video content that is my opinion of the day. Eg: we have a paper where we've made a clone of social media. Screenshots are completely insufficient to judge whether this is a realistic and usable mock environment... Video means you can show this.

I'm in London for a wedding and everyone seems to sinking pints in the sun and I haven't been mugged even once yet. Can someone explain?

I've started reading about human AI relationships and Replika AI in particular and now I can't read anything else

We are pleased to announce that Benjamin Toff, Ruth Palmer, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen's AVOIDING THE NEW is the Winner of the 2025 Hazel Gaudet-Erskine Best Book Award from the International Journal of Press/Politics. buff.ly/KzI2QdM @polcomm.bsky.social #IJPP