New paper: Discrete Choice Experiments are often used to value non-market goods. We show that auditory information, (birdsong), alongside standard text info, can make a big difference in how much people value such goods, in this case bird habitats. Link here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

This 1952 memo from the Pentagon UFO files is superb There is no point preparing for aliens ‘because no one of consequence is going to take this rubbish seriously unless it happens. At that point, our policy will be determined in the traditional manner of grand panic.’ 🤣 www.war.gov/medialink/uf...

I also signed this letter

Replication Crisis xkcd.com/3117/

I should say: cutting US funding for Gavi is a tragically misguided decision that can and should be reversed.

🚗 Noise pollution also drowns out the sounds of nature🚐 Our research shows that traffic noise reduces the calming, restorative power of birdsong 🐤 w/ @konraduebel.bsky.social, @simon-butler.bsky.social, @anthonyhigney.bsky.social, Nick Hanley & Eleanor Ratcliffe 👉 osf.io/preprints/os...

🚨 Thrilled to announce 4th Annual SGPE Summer School 🎓 One-day masterclass on causal inference 📚 Topics: SCM, matrix completion, partial ID 🗓️ 5 June | 📍Stirling, UK | 💻 Dr Anthony Higney (Glasgow) 🎟️ £50 PhDs / £100 staff Lunch & dinner included! Sign up:bit.ly/SGPE2025SS All welcome!

Why is there such a difference in loneliness by gender for teenagers? who.int/europe/publica…

James Webb Satellite took a fantastic shot of the Planet Saturn with it's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). This is just an Amazing shot that shows the planet and the rings in brilliant detail.

Paper finds heat pump adoption in UK led to 70% less carbon usage and 40% less energy. www.nber.org/202502/diges...

My favourite Minoan fresco from Akrotiri, showing boats arriving to the harbour. A detail. #FrescoFriday

Workshopping here: if an estimate contains information about an ex-ante unobserved treatment then it has some degree of external validity for that treatment.

We should at a minimum do what Nature does, in which the referee comments and author responses are published along with the paper. Allows the paper itself to be an authoritative artifact while lifting the curtain on the debate that led its creation. (quoting @dholtz.bsky.social ) 4/

Some hope for first gens after all! Fabulous new study notes: "academics from poorer backgrounds introduce more novel scientific concepts but are less likely to receive recognition." This is good, not bad, news. Our different view on life is our super power to make change! www.nber.org/papers/w33289

According to some of the records in the archive, Santa Claus himself sat in Parliament in the 15th century... But was he really in Westminster when he should have been at the North Pole? #Christmas Below, Dr Hannes Kleineke explores the mystery of 'Nicholas Christmas'

Take a look at artifact. This inscription is ostensibly part of a large stele which has evidently been broken into fragments and we are seeing one (middle) section. All the edges are broken and unfinished. Here is the problem - if this was a broken stele, some letters would be fragmentary.

Reading this paper now. Interesting but I don't quite agree with his take on "true" p-values. Will post about it next week. arxiv.org/abs/1603.07532

This person is using my study/chart in a misleading way on twitter. There is a correlation here between the SE and effect size that is picked up by pub bias methods. Partly this is due to underlying study characteristics. Adjust for this and we find there is pub bias, but lead does cause crime.

I haven't fully read this piece by @jacklandry.bsky.social yet but according to his meta-analysis of only the recent spat of GI pilots, the income elasticity of labor supply on the intensive margin is...0.16. Which is broadly consistent with the literature! jainfamilyinstitute.org/guaranteed-i...

This fearless science sleuth risked her career to expose publication fraud Anna Abalkina @abalkina.bsky.social is part of Nature’s 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2024. Holly Else reports at Nature. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Funding available to do a PhD on statistical methods for assessing the integrity of RCTs, based in Aberdeen, with Alison Avenell, myself, Graeme MacLennan and Mark Bolland. Competitive process, funded by MRC Trials Methodology Research Partnership: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

I have started writing about papers as I read them to help remember them, but in case others are interested I am also putting them on my site. First one is a working paper criticising publication bias detection. I think their critique is not quite right. anthonychigney.github.io/home/blog/Tr...

My default explanation for sudden changes in a time series is change in measurement. So glad to see another example, sent to me by a colleague who shares my cynicism. Short, clear explanation of Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Which is important to the story.

Around 1800 BCE, a businesswoman named Taram-Kubi received 20 shekels of fine gold, presumably as payment for textiles she wove. She lived in Assur, capital of the Assyrian empire, and sent her textiles to far-flung Anatolia for her husband to sell them cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/28...

We've just made it much easier to reuse the data on Our World in Data. Here is an overview of our new features: enhanced data downloads and the Chart Data API. ourworldindata.org/easier-to-re...

The National Milk Scheme led to large increases in Milk consumption (Hollingsworth, 1951). Much lower now.

Wow - @flintdibble.bsky.social has collected loads of archaeology starter packs here in this thread. Lots of fantastic people doing brilliant research and engagement here in the cerulean ether. Thank you Flint!

Bit of trivia: my Auntie (furthest left) is in possibly the first ever image uploaded to the Web. petapixel.com/2012/07/10/t...