One of the sub-calls suggests orgs might propose "...entirely new modalities to redefine what we consider knowable."

My Callais take: we should view the politics behind this decision through the "colorblind" lens - a backlash frame palatable to normal people. open.substack.com/pub/goodpoli...

This is one of the most quietly revolutionary things any city can do to improve kids' lives & outcomes. If you genuinely care about kids having access to education or safe after school spaces & activities, then fund your libraries, staff your libraries, & make every public school ID a library card.

Following our April 29 announcement, we believe it's important to be transparent about the context that led to the decision. We want to explain, where we can, why this was made on such short notice, only days before we were set to host RightsCon. Read: www.rightscon.org/rc26-stateme...

New version of my R package {democracyData} available: github.com/xmarquez/dem...

Harry Kane has put together a Ballon D'Or-caliber season while playing 771 games of online chess and improving his rapid rating by 280 points His Bayern teammate Michael Olise, second in the BDO odds, has played 854 games and improved by 344 points Their accounts have never played each other

Very helpful. I'm still struggling with alt text on data visualizations for teaching. Sometimes the graph is there to explain something but often it is for practice drawing inferences from data. And then it feels like you need to exhaustively describe the figure, which quickly gets absurd.

Gifting this article bc I learned things from it - it’s not good news. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/o...

i don’t ask for much but i’d really like ssx tricky to be available to play on any modern console pls and ty

My dad died a few weeks ago. He was a good dad and funny and interesting and lived a remarkable life. He was a journalist, and, as a result, his friends tend to write wonderfully. I want to share this delightful remembrance by his friend John Jeansonne:

Sunrise at a backcountry camp. Isle Royale National Park #new #blueskyartshow #nationalparks #sunrise #Saturdaysunrise

Whenever someone complains about roundabouts I suggest that at least we don't follow 1970s Yugoslav traffic laws, and they look at me funny and generally find someone else to talk to.

Contrary to our expectations, Trump's appointees were not distinct from the other judges of the D.D.C. However, we find that Biden's appointed judges in the district were consistently more lenient than those of other presidents (Trump, Obama, Bush II, Clinton, & Reagan) across multiple models.

Our forthcoming article in PRQ explores partisan and individual presidential appointment effects on the sentencing of those who attacked the US Capitol on January 6. We find: There were no partisan differences between Republican and Democratic judges in length or probability of imprisonment. And...

After Claudia Goldin became the first woman to win a solo Nobel in economics, she got hundreds of invitations. She accepted three. One was advising WNBA players on a labor deal. She helped players land the biggest % raise in US sports history. www.wsj.com/economy/wnba...

Very interesting reflections on interpreting trends in V-Dem data for a specific country (Mongolia) from an expert on that country.

💡 How does V-Dem assess the levels of democracy in a country? Watch the video or read the thread below to find out! 🧵1(7) #VDemMethodology #VDemData #Polisky #PolDataSky #SocialScienceData #PoliSciSky @vdemamlat.bsky.social @digitalsocietyproject.org

📢 We are hiring: Combined Postdoc position at V-Dem Institute and GLD! Applications are open for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Cross-National Survey Methodology in Political Science. Application: web103.reachmee.com/ext/I005/103... 🧵1(4) #Polisky #PoliSciSky #PoliticalScienceJobs #PostDoc

📣Freedom in the World 2026 is now out! freedomhouse.org/report/freed... tl;dr: - Global freedom declined in 2025 & every year since 2005 - 20 yrs of backsliding has transformed the world: more autocrats, fewer democratizing states - Freedom deteriorated in the US last year & over the last 20

However, with still largely free and fair elections, broad freedoms of expression and association, and a very strong civil society, the country has the potential to continue confronting the ongoing autocratization through voting, protesting, and broader organizing and advocacy.

A 🧵on how the @vdeminstitute.bsky.social accountability indices help us understand how democratic backsliding is occurring in the United States. tl;dr: in principle, vertical constraints on the president remain strong; in practice, horizontal and diagonal constraints have been greatly weakened.

I will do anything, use any VPN, crawl through any shady pirate site, to not have to watch Alexi Lalas call the World Cup.

Social scientists' AI takes on social media, a first pseudo-weberian sketch with four ideal types.

As usual, this year's V-Dem update includes an annual update to the original DSP expert survey.

Yes, particularly a decline. Takes 2 minutes. And always suggest 2-3 other reviewers. It speeds things up like you can’t imagine.

V-Dem Dataset v16 is out! The dataset includes several hundred indicators along with five indices that measure a country’s overall degree of democracy, according to different definitions of democracy. V-Dem Steering Committee comments on the new data and U.S. ratings: v-dem.net/release-stat... 1(2)

Here's the release statement from V-Dem's Steering Committee, of which I am a member, which may help contextualize these findings: v-dem.net/release-stat...

V-Dem v.16 is now released, w. updated scores for 2025. Most countries remain stable from 2024, but some clear improvements (on diff’t democracy indices), incl. S. Korea, Sri Lanka & Mauritius. Largest declines came, by far, in the US. This figure shows 10-yr changes on the Liberal Dem. index.

💡 When does a Country decline on the V-Dem Democracy Indices? Watch the video or read in the thread to find out! #PoliSky #PoliSciSky #PolDataSky #Acedemia #PoliticalScience #Democracy #DemocraticBacksliding #VDemMethodology #VDemDataset @vdemamlat.bsky.social

📢 Out Now! V-Dem Dataset v16 & the V-Dem Institute Democracy Report 2026 💾 The V-Dem Dataset: v-dem.net/data/the-v-d... 📰 The Report "Unraveling The Democratic Era?”: v-dem.net/publications... 📈 Explore the new data with the V-Dem Graphing tools: v-dem.net/graphing/gra... #PoliSky #PoliSciSky 1/3

💡What does V-Dem mean by 'Liberal Democracy'? The liberal principle of democracy emphasizes the importance of protecting individual and minority rights against a potential “tyranny of the majority” and state repression. Watch the video or see the thread below to find out more 👇 #Polisky #PolDataSky

📢 V-Dem dataset version 16, updated with data for 2025, and the V-Dem Institute Democracy Report 2026 will be released on March 17! Make sure to follow us so you don't miss the announcement. @vdemamlat.bsky.social #Polisky #PoliSciSky #PoliticalScience #PoliticalScienceData #AcademicSky #VDemData

NSF Update through March 13, 2026 1/2

I stand by my assertion that Sinners on Broadway would do looooooong-run numbers. A fixture, a steady on the street, like Book of Mormon, Hamilton, Chicago

"AI" is not a stochastic parrot.🦜 I wrote this piece a couple weeks ago, but it was hard for me to finish up given AI's role in society and war over the past few weeks. I should share it at some point though. Not perfect, but here it is. medium.com/@margarmitch...

One cool thing about Fargo Public Schools is they offer students a chance to participate in a 5th grade string orchestra, but that is being cut, along with instrument sectionals (ie, lessons for kids who can't afford private ones) in middle school. Tiny violin I guess given current reality...

Random Q: does anyone know who Merle Fainsod's PhD advisor was? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_F...

Random Q: does anyone know who Merle Fainsod's PhD advisor was? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_F...

douglas adams was our most accurate futurist

This is Jerry Lawson. He invented the video game cartridge for the Fairchild Channel F system. Because of his invention, many consoles had cartridges and CD formats and would become the norm. The Atari 2600, NES, Genesis, and many consoles wouldn't exist without him. Happy Black History Month.

January 2026 wtf

Fargo public schools still holding out...-42 wind chill at the bus stop tomorrow should be interesting.

The US granted visas to Jews but only allowed 30,000 in from Germany a year. You had to wait for your number to come up. Meet Robert Smallbones. An unassuming British diplomat who 'hacked' this system so effectively (saving 48 THOUSAND Jews) the UK government kept his scheme secret for decades /1 🧵

Huh, pretty sure this policy is why I exist today. Or, at least, my grandfather and great-grandparents took a Vienna-Paris-London-DC route, with a pretty long stop in London.

Snow could be better but bluebird days at White Pass provide some great views of Ranier.

Love this quote from the article: “I characterize science as a bunch of 5-year-olds playing soccer,” says another researcher [Sam Goldman]. “They all go where the ball is, running around the field in a herd.” www.wired.com/story/scient...

North-Eastern vs Western Minnesota (wind chill of -18 in the second photo).

gotta be the time I enjoyed cheese