“We left with all of my children” is a weird answer. Were they considering leaving one or more behind? Do they sometimes forget their children, but not with sex traffickers? Is there some other time they left kids with child rapists?

It has rained every day in Exeter (and I think all of England) since Jan 1. As today is Feb 9, I believe makes 40 days — so we’ve officially reached Biblical levels of rain.

Assuming Udogie is out and with Romero’s red today (and further assuming nobody else back), I think Spurs’ lineup Tuesday is Vicario Gray Dragusin VdV Souza Gallagher Palhinha Odobert Sarr Xavi Solanke

I've been listening to RATM for the last two hours straight, and I'm about five minutes from booking a flight to Minnesota.

🚨Job alert 🚨 I have an opening for a postdoc in my team at @ipz.bsky.social in the area of digital democracy starting Sep 1, 2026. If you are working on the impact of the digital transformation on politics, please apply by 🗓️ Mar 1, 2026. 📤 Please share widely! www.ipz.uzh.ch/de/ueber-uns...

“May the vibes be ever in our favor”

I know the reason Spurs are better in Europe than PL is the quality of opposition. But maybe try white shorts at home in PL just in case it’s that.

Scarlett has plays a whopping 27 minutes all season in 4 appearances. 9 minutes PL (2 appearances) and 18 minutes CL (2 appearances). He turns 22 later this season. He may yet achieve his promise, but it wasn’t going to be this season with this manager.

Very happy with Spurs win and the unlikely 4th place finish in the CL league phase. I love the underdog story of Bodø/Glimt, and am very happy to see they made the knockout phase! (Just hope Spurs don’t have to go there again.)

Qualtrics conjoint folks (using Leeper code): do you have any tips/tricks for how to make it look good on mobile (or at least not look awful)? Looks fine on desktop, but mobile is a mess (and study population prob mostly mobile). Keen to not reinvent the wheel if this is already solved.

If Spurs win at Frankfurt on Wed, that (as I read schedule) leaves no games between Feb 7 (away at Man U) and Feb 22 (NLD derby at home). That would be an uncommonly convenient time for a midseason coaching change. Also gives TF 3 big chances to make his case case. That said, today even better.

Here’s my stab at lineup vs Burnley: Vicario Porro Danso VDV (C) Udogie Gallagher Biss Odobert Sarr Tel Solanke Romero/Xavi rest ahead of CL match. Spence on bench in case needed as sub across multiple positions. We use four subs: DM (65)-> RKM DU (75) -> DS YB (75) -> JP/AG PMS (85) -> JP/AG

Not only does Djed Spence wear different color boots, they appear to be different brands. (Not that up on how logos look on different boots.) The pink looks like Adidas, and the green New Balance. Is that right?

We know who we are, we know who we are. List B of Europe, we know who we are. #COYS #THFC

Inigo Perez in a potentially interesting option for what I assume is the soon to be vacant Spurs managers position. The Bielsa influence is perhaps not quite as omnipresent as with Poch, but still seems a big influence. www.nytimes.com/athletic/677...

Obviously very terrible and destabilizing. The small glimmer of hope is that indefinite tariffs “until a deal is reached” is maybe a walk back from the brink. “I’m going to tax imports from you until you sell it to me” > “I am going to take that thing I want by force.”

Greenland prompted reposting this for first time in a while. The Trump administration does not offer policy proposals in the traditional sense, nor does Trump engage in good faith negotiation. He demands concessions that give him submission, subservience, status, or wealth.

Is he turning it around or crashing into the docks?

Is he turning it around or crashing into the docks?

Alas, not the best day for Spurs fans. I don’t know Ryan Mason, but here’s my unsolicited advice to him: depending on what future you want, either make sure your ringer is turned on or that your phone is turned off.

If negotiations over Greenland end with Starmer waving a piece of paper guaranteeing peace in our time, that’s obviously a bad sign.

As always, a great Bluesky thread by @polpsychjoe.bsky.social summarizing our recently accepted article at the Journal of Environmental Psychology. Just an absolutely great team of people! (Special kudos to @mbarnfield.bsky.social for leading and getting this across the line!)

Conor Gallagher is a good footballer. But, given that the only depth Spurs have is at the box-to-box midfielder 8 role, I honestly don’t understand the transfer rumors here. Is the Lange/Frank vision 8s for every outfielder? Are Spurs cashing in on Bergvall or Sarr as outgoings?

Thomas Frank — I think you may have misinterpreted what Spurs fans mean when they say “we’re a cup team.” Or, based on the reaction, maybe we are and I’m the one who misunderstood.

January 6, 2026 — my first revise and resubmit of the year where a reviewer is unhappy that we have used OLS for a seven point Likert scale. Reviewer can have their ordered probit/logit. I wonder if the results will be basically the same. Spoiler: they will.

Idle Spurs speculation of the worst sort: is the (possible) Paratici move to Fiorentina partly about paving the way for some kind of multi-club structure between the billionaire Lewises and the billionaire owner of Fiorentina. I feel like pulling that off that would be peak wheeler-dealer Paratici.

An important and sobering foreign policy analysis of the US action in Venezuela by one of the best @profsaunders.bsky.social.

Thoughts on Spurs and Frank after the Brentford game. 1) Spurs are not fun to watch. With Johnson leaving, Spurs are without their best 5 attacking players from last season (2 back soon?). How much is this turgid play due to Frank and how much is lack of proven top tier PL attacking players?

Me: I really need to spend less time on football (Spurs) January transfers. Also me: I want to read in depth profiles of every potentially available left footed defender and every progressive passing defensive midfielder.

Maybe being a tech executive is genuinely hard, but as a casual doom scroller so much seems to be “don’t shoot yourself in the d**k challenge (impossible).”

Our neighbours at @tcdpoliticalsci.bsky.social are hiring 3 (!) tenure-track faculty members: – Assistant Professor in Political Economy – Assistant Professor in International Politics – Assistant Professor in Political Science Deadline: 15 Jan 2026 More details: jobs.tcd.ie @tcddublin.bsky.social

When Trump turns to renaming DC streets after himself, which street(s) will be targeted? My guess is Pennsylvania Avenue, and he’ll also ask to renumber so that the White House is at 1 Trump.

As an angsty teenager, of course I liked Depeche Mode. I feel like the song “Personal Jesus” should get a new lease on life as a critique of LLM chatbots.

we have 5 positions open at @goetheuni.bsky.social in Frankfurt - a 4,5 year postdoc in my @erc.europa.eu project on the educational cleavage - 2 postdoc & 2 PhD positions, 4 years, in a research group on Reconfiguration & Internalization of Social Structure www.uni-frankfurt.de/48794784/FB0...

New post-doc position working with me in a new lab at @snfagora.bsky.social ! It's one year appointment, renewable for up to 5 years. The position includes data analysis and independent research, mentorship of lab members, and participation in SNF Agora Institute life. apply.interfolio.com/178796

Whatever the Puskas award for best post is, this is a strong contender.

Did you know that from tomorrow, Qualtrics is keen to light its brand on fire?

At this point in PL, Spurs are in remarkably similar position to last year. I humbly submit that the Spurs underlying talent — when fully fit — is somewhere between 4th and 9th, and that given current long term injuries (JM, DS, DK, and also now DU) the available talent level is more 7th to 13th.

Between Spurs losing one match 3-0 and winning another match 3-0, I strongly prefer the latter.

Get your flu jab folks! This “mutant super flu” is no joke. Hit me like a freight train Saturday night, and have been basically incapacitated since.

Andy is a great scholar and even better person. Highly recommend.

PhD opportunity at the University of Oxford. The Morelli scholarship funds a doctoral student to work with me on on democratic backsliding, strategies of democratic defense and regeneration, or the rise of illiberalism. Deadline Jan 9. More information at users.ox.ac.uk/~ssfc0073/

Spread the word: I'm looking to hire a postdoc to explore the concept of attention (as studied in psych/neuro, not the transformer mechanism) in large Vision-Language Models. More details here: lindsay-lab.github.io/2025/12/08/p... #MLSky #neurojobs #compneuro

If you are interested in the latest methods research from the Survey Futures programme, and especially if you are interested in surveys in Wales, come to our next Survey Practice Forum in Cardiff on 29 January. It's free but places are limited. Register now! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/5th-survey...

I think I have this flu, and it really really sucks! Be careful out there. I procrastinated getting my flu shot — I strongly encourage you to learn from my dumb mistake and get yours if you haven’t yet.

This is my all time favorite Onion headline (complete with picture to make the joke work), which is apropos today given the passing of architect Frank Gehry. theonion.com/frank-gehry-...

I can’t believe that FIFA — the organization that paid millions of dollars for a biopic movie to show the true heroes of football, the executives — has (was going to say the Trump peace prize, but really there are so many snarky things one could put here)

Not that anybody cares about other sad dad music in rotation, but here's featured prominently: Frightened Rabbit, Manchester Orchestra, El Ten Eleven, and Taylor Swift (most notably Midnights). Doubt I can still make the whole room shimmer though, or really that I ever could.

I don't know if this is prediction, or just what I'd like to see for Spurs tomorrow. Vicario Spence Romero VDV Udogie Bergvall Gray Kudus Simons Johnson RKM (Spence gets nod to shore up defense generally and against Schade specifically; would like to see wings to switch sides periodically)

So Spotify says my most listened to artist this year was The National. Yeah, that sounds right.