This paragraph, by Carole McGranahan, encapsulates my main beef with LLMs and writing. “Writing is a commitment to people”, says Jason DeLeon, quoted by McGranahan. Why, then, are we so eager to outsource this commitment to a piece of software?

Letting a 24 year old lead hundreds of millions of grants cuts at CDC…

Inside the turmoil and leadership vacuum at the CDC The Trump administration intends to nominate a permanent director soon One person already turned the job down NEW [gift link] www.wsj.com/health/healt...

#RPVBooks Whenever I teach a writing workshop, regardless of the discipline(s) whom I’m teaching, I ALWAYS recommend Carole McGranahan’s edited volume.

tech stuff that is very bad that isn't generative AI - Betting markets - Camera glasses (Meta) - Fascist doorbell cameras - Driverless cars clogging up cities - EVs are still getting bigger -> makes them deadlier, more polluting (through more power consumption) - Streaming death spiral

My new article in @jhppl.bsky.social situates the current attacks on public health in a historical perspective. What I found surprised me. We've seen this before, and it's not as unprecedented as it feels. Thanks to @sarahgollust.bsky.social @oberlanderunc.bsky.social for editing! Read free below.

A number of people have asked me if I know of methods books in human geography. I do, and sometimes I post about those. But even though I’m equal parts political science and human geography, I publish more often in polisci and public policy/public admin. That’s why I post more in those topics.

A number of folks in political science asked me for recommendations for books on qualitative methods. I really love this one. #RPVBooks #NewReadingMaterial

Just when I thought I couldn’t love Dolly Parton more, she comes up with additional ways to be an angel.

#RPVBooks #NewReadingMaterial I happen to believe that criminology is a real science/discipline/field of study and I want to learn more. This book was recommended to me, have you read it? Thoughts? Other good criminology books?

#NewReadingMaterial #RPVBooks I am a political scientist but also a human geographer.

And this has not stopped either 👇🏼 bsky.app/profile/tayl...

This has not stopped despite people here being tired and tapped out of money. 👇 bsky.app/profile/whst...

Things feels calmer now in Minneapolis but the ICE siege is far from over. Many families are traumatized and remain in hiding, we still have over 900 ICE agents in Minnesota, and the economic impacts on our city—and especially on our targeted neighbors—are staggering.

#NewReadingMaterial #RPVBooks I struggle to put my phone down. Someone on here recommended this book to understand social media addiction through the lens of addiction to gambling. Can’t wait to read it.

Is America healthy now www.wsj.com/us-news/clim...

I specialized in quant market research in B-School. But I can’t count the number of times I’ve looked at quant study output and said “let me see the instrument” followed by “can we do some follow-up interviews to figure out what the respondents were thinking when they answered these questions”.

And specifically faith in *quantitative* social science. There's a wealth of insight from *qualitative* research in fields like sociology that gets very little attention politics- and policy-wise.

My copy of @leannecpowner.bsky.social ‘s book just arrived. Oh, and do you by any chance recognise that scholar who blurbed her book? ;)

While we weren't thinking about the specific framework of epistemic vigilance, we recently found no evidence that participants applied source credibility towards LLMs, instead treating advice on a case-by-case basis: bsky.app/profile/did:...

More broadly, the essay is a great example of the "illusion of understanding" that @lmesseri.bsky.social and I warned in 2024 would be a risk of using LLMs, especially as they become more capable 17/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The fact that there’s a secret network of doulas going around Minneapolis to help with home births for parents afraid of ICE should be front-page news. These children, born in secrecy, are American citizens.

UPDATE! Join us for “Demystifying Academic Life: What No One Tells You”, now featuring a special moderator announcement: We’re thrilled to welcome Meghna Sabharwal as moderator, bringing her insight, generosity, and leadership to this conversation.

BREAKING: Columbia President Claire Shipman says DHS agents entered a residential buliding this morning and detained a student. "Our understanding at this time is that the federal agents made misrepresentations to gain entry to the building to search for a 'missing person.'"

Something very few people (except my chemical engineering peers) know: I took managerial economics and contemporary dance during my ChemEng undergraduate. I also took project management (civil engineering) and acid mine drainage (mining engineering) courses during my Masters in Economics.

I just closed seven tabs pointing to seven different Bulletin of Latin American Research articles on informality. UGH. I hate when my fast fingers do this.

Detroit was once home to 18 Black-led hospitals – here’s how to understand their rise and fall theconversation.com/detroit-was-...

They beat a blind refugee who speaks no English for failing to obey police commands he could not understand. Then instead of apologizing, they charged him with possession of a “weapon”—HIS WALKING STICK. Then they dumped him miles from home without notifying anyone, after which he was found dead.

WIRED says the "Johnny MAGA" X account that spreads pro-Trump propaganda is run by a White House staffer named Garrett Wade and does rapid response for the Trump regime www.wired.com/story/a-whit...

There are journal issues...and then there are journal issues! The truly epic 25th Anniversary Special Issue of the GEP journal, titled "Continuity and Change in Global Environmental Politics," is now live and free to read for the next 90 days through @mitpress.bsky.social.

The DNC should release this as an ad immediately

I am revising a manuscript for a journal and I always need to listen to classical music while writing. I use this YouTube "Mozart for working studying and brain power" playlist, but I am happy to receive other recommendations of classical music for writing. youtu.be/3AkZazth0a0?...

I mean, first of all, HOW DARE YOU?

Maryland is suing the Department of Homeland Security to block a planned ICE detention center in Washington County, saying the federal government failed to do a required environmental impact study and public health concerns. w/ @maddioneill.bsky.social www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

Rebekah Caruthers: “Our concern is that there is more friction and more barriers being injected into our system in terms of registering to vote and accessing the ballot. That creates more barriers, and as people run into them it decreases the likelihood of them actually voting.”

A former ICE instructor is expected to testify that new agents are trained to run roughshod over constitutional rights, including the right against a home invasion, and that the federal agency is “broken."

I have absolutely no chill. This should not come as a surprise to anyone.

If a foreign scholar who only runs regressions on Mexican violence data and has absolutely no field experience in Mexico nor speaks Spanish takes the Mencho capture to write their next regression discontinuity paper I am going to fucking lose it.

LLMs will automate *some* processes, but as human-designed technology that requires human input, humans will always be required to discern the quality of the output. Imagine outsourcing who gets to decide if your literature review is good or not, or worse yet, the process of LEARNING while doing it.

The people who responded “agree” are not honest or trustworthy.

For those wondering: I’m ok, as is my family. León (where my parents live) was one of the places where a couple of cars and convenience stores were burned. There is a metric tonne of misinformation regarding the current situation in Mexico, and foreign commentators aren’t helping either.

I have always hesitated to be verified, on Twitter, on LinkedIn, on everything because of these privacy concerns.

77% had no criminal conviction. And “Traffic offenses alone made up nearly 30% of the convictions, the largest category by far.”

This is it. This is the reason. Look, the orange man may be deeply stupid but his army of goons is not (far from it) and they build systems to inflict the most damage on vulnerable populations and to manipulate voting constituencies. The sooner US citizens realize this, the sooner they can act

I think that for me, the best part of being an academic is the endless learning. I was one of the speakers at a book launch yesterday and I learned so much from listening to my fellow panelists and the audience!

Imagine taking a vacation abroad & being disappeared to a jail for 40+ days for no reason. That’s what this Admin is doing to foreign tourists. It's outrageous & hurting our businesses.  When will other nations start holding the Admin accountable for mistreating their citizens?

A new study finds that longer daily social media use was associated with predominantly negative outcomes for 60% of adolescents, but not all platforms are the same. The variances point to the opportunity for more nuanced regulation than blanket bans, writes Tim Bernard.

This sounds unbelievable but its true: since Bezos acquired The Post, his wealth has grown tenfold and the Post has been cut in half. donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-trust-...

When you put it like this, a $75 million bribe to Melania and gutting the Washington Post seems like a small price to pay.