Trump at the UN: "I look at London where you have a terrible mayor... Now they want to go to Sharia law." This is entirely false. London Mayor Sadiq Khan is politically moderate and has never ever called for Sharia law. This is Islamophobic propaganda and a bigoted attack on Khan.

The US Administration has proposed an astronomical tax on lawful, high-skill immigrant workers. The economic evidence is clear about what Americans can expect: Less innovation, less entrepreneurship, lower productivity. A diminished future. My new summary at @piie.com —>

www.forbes.com/sites/joshua... A useful reminder of what happens when due process is not followed. We have regulatory agencies with a breadth & depth of expertise for a reason (inc labelling). Look no further than the Kefauver-Harris Amendment (1962) & earlier Drug, Food and Cosmetic act (1938).

#OTD 1759 William Playfair b (d 11 Feb 1823) A Scottish engineer he invented or improved numerous statistical graphics methods still used today, including line, area, bar & pie charts. 1/3

Wikipedia: ▫️Free ▫️Sources at the bottom ▫️Full edit history ▫️Discussion page to check controversies ▫️Openly stated editing policies Academia: "This isn't trustworthy!!" AI: ▫️Literally none of the above and, usually, the complete opposite Academia: "I guess we have to embrace this!"

Impassioned plea for more mixed-methods research (quant & qual) from @timharford.ft.com "The hard data is never as eloquent as a good story. Humboldt would measure the cactus but also sketch it; drag his barometer up a volcano, but spin a yarn about the epic climb." www.ft.com/content/d419...

If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.

So you have a Wordle type itch but love data? So here’s Chartle. Powered by numbers from @ourworldindata.org chartle.cc

A really neat paper thinking through what "Identifiability" means, how we can determine it, and implications for modeling. Arxiv: arxiv.org/abs/2508.18853 #statssky #mlsky

All is not well at Elsevier richardtol.substack.com/p/fraud-and-...

The total number of deaths in the world, all the countries, from any cause, is about 65 million per year.

It melts my head that X is still used for official Government communications, and, catching up on today's news and the fact we have a foreign billionaire inciting violence on our streets, it's clearer than ever that this should end. I raised this in Parliament last week 👇

R Developer Day at University of Warwick brought together R-Ladies from around the world 🌎. Spaces like this remind us how powerful our global community is when we learn, collaborate and build together. Thanks to Heather Turner for making this possible 💜 #RDevDay #rladies

This is untrue on most major issues (though the media eıite don't know this). It is untrue on immigration in particular. Untrue on climate, on Trump, on human rights, on inciting racism. And much else

Losing them 'at the rate of one a week'. Two data points. Why frame the article in this stupid way?

There's no reason not to share data from a systematic literature review, other than cowardice.

"Commentary *like this* about a deputy Prime Minister felt politically unsurvivable" - Chris Mason, BBC ten o'cıock news. This script over these pictures treats vandalism & criminal damage as a legitimate form of democratic voice. The BBC should avoid doing that, esp in broader current climate

Poster, and #rstats package for drawing tetraplots, are at github.com/DavidFirth/t...

Nearly a million people marched against Brexit. Not front page news. 50 people gather outside a hotel. National news for weeks. "Fears of mass unrest", media says.

The erosion of basic principles like due process and the expanding use of our military on domestic soil puts the liberties of all Americans at risk, and should concern democrats and republicans alike.

At next week's RSS conference I'll be presenting a poster (a first for me...it's about time!) "Tetraplot displays of UK General Election results" shows how to graph GE 2024 vote shares across 4 parties in a useful way. Full PDF poster at: github.com/DavidFirth/t...

Excellent thread. Read it, and spread the numbers.

Donald Trump has committed the most profound, harmful and unnecessary economic error in the modern era. Almost everything he said—on history, economics and the technicalities of trade—was utterly deluded econ.st/3YbbFjq

Statements like "X% of jobs (with some large X) can be done by AI." are less statements about the capabilities of AI than about the fraction of bullshit jobs in that person's visible universe.

We’re excited to welcome Christl Donnelly as the opening speaker at this year’s RSS Conference in Edinburgh. A leading voice in epidemiology and stats, her lecture kicks off a packed programme 📅 Don’t forget: 10% off registration until 22 July 🔗 Register: rss.org.uk/training-eve... #RSS2025Conf

Following the dismissal of Erika McEntarfer as US Commissioner of Labor Statistics, we've released a statement of concern. At a time of global economic uncertainty, we stress the importance of the independence of statistical institutions and the protection of the integrity of official statistics.

Britain is “lawless” and “broken”. Do you feel safe walking the street after dark where you live? Every two years the European Social Survey has been asking this question across the continent.

Recruitment has begun for chair of the UK Statistics Authority. Could you help rejuvenate our official statistics? An important role 3 days a week / £75-£81k / 5 year term / apply by 5th September uksa.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/news/applica...

@mrjamesob.bsky.social Illegal football at Kenilworth Road. www.lutontown.co.uk/en/news/can-...

“Grok’s Nazi turn wasn’t a glitch–it was the direct result of Musk’s determination to use X as a platform to promote his far-right politics. No excuse for any university to be funnelling money or clicks his way." Me in @resprofnews.bsky.social www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

PNAS just asked me to order reprints for our recent commentary. For fun, I thought I'd see how much they cost. 25 prints—of just one page, mind you—646 USD. And then they have the temerity to charge 160 USD for shipping. The for-profit publishers will take all we let them. Choose other journals.

Happy birthday Brenda Milner! 🧠🎉 Today is her 107th birthday, she's a legend, a superhero.

The American Time Use Survey is up for renewal, or cancellation. OMB is gathering input on the data's importance. @ipums.bsky.social organized a rapid response briefing to equip us with tools to effectively comment. #EconSky #sociology #policysky Register: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

People: World Cup can't happen now FIFA will pull out football fans: FIFA will just do corruption People: who even understands how to be corrupt well enough to navigate this situation? FIFA: www.insideworldfootball.com/2025/07/08/f...

it’s insane that real antisemitism like this is intensely normalized and endorsed by the most powerful people in the world but you can’t say free palestine without people trying to ruin your life

Shunichi Amari has been awarded the 40th (2025) Kyoto Prize in recognition of his pioneering research in the fields of artificial neural networks, machine learning, and information geometry www.riken.jp/pr/news/2025...

Two more climate change explainers from the RSS task force including @dariodomi.bsky.social @adrianraftery.bsky.social @andrewcparnell.bsky.social amongst others.

From Hunter S. Thompson’s ESPN page 2 column one week after 9/11.

Oh time.com/7295195/ai-c...

Absolutely ludicrous narrative. Nobody sends their kids to private schools out of some altruistic instinct. And moreover all the schools that are closing seem to have been struggling already. When independent schools closed under the Tories nobody blamed the government

The influence of Bletchley Park on UK mathematics www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

This is excellent news.

Land of the free

This looks super interesting, a great topic for discussion at an RSS meeting. But really 🤨: "usages"??! Why not just "use"?

Call for discussion papers 2025: Innovative usages of natural experiments and causal inference in statistics and data science👇 rss.org.uk/news-publica...

😂

Here you go: an absolute beast of a starter pack, with many of the UK's most prominent humanists on it. Includes scientists, historians, philosophers, public figures, the New Humanist editorial team and Humanists UK staff. A network for reason and decency. go.bsky.app/PTC4j2d

We are delighted to announce that Prof. Jonathan Wakefield (University of Washington) will deliver the next CRiSM colloquium on 29th May at 11am. he will speak on Small Area Estimation in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. warwick.ac.uk/fac/sc...