War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

So far in 2025, Iran’s authorities have executed at least 1,106 people. Today, on World Day Against the Death Penalty, we urge the international community to apply pressure on Iranian authorities to stop their assault on rights.

María Corina Machado, congrats! Not just a deserving Nobel peace prize winner. The message the committee seems to give by this choice is: it's democracy, stupid!

I thought of a paradox: the most Kremlin-friendly populists (soon) seem to rule Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. All countries that resisted and suffered from the Kremlin's iron fist in postwar central Europe. Am I right here? Any central Europe experts have an explanation?

One major challenge in understanding the lives of homeless people, is the lack of reliable and encompassing data. One source that is underexploited are the data produced by outreach organisations. Grateful to Diogenes for the collaboration! doi.org/10.4000/14tnx

Once bitten, twice shy? The country that invented appeasement does it again. www.theguardian.com/media/2025/s...

Wow...

"The Dunning-Kruger effect applies to smart people also. It's not just that stupid people don't know they're stupid; smart people don't know they're stupid. What happens at a certain level of wealth is, you start to believe that the genius that made you rich applies to everything."

Wow.... Reading for pleasure falls by 40% in the US - on.ft.com/4lBx9yG via @FT

You have to give it to them Americans: irritate your EU and Ukrainian 'allies', give a thumbs up to your kindred spirit, and kiss up to the bully. All of that with choosing a location. Faut le faire.

Waiting for a strange press conference, my train of thoughts drives me from Munich to Canossa. But hey, he didn't have to go to the dictator's crib, and no ashes to see in the POTUS coiffure. So there's hope.

Strange that "across the Atlantic" just means the anglophone mother country across the pond. Could it be related to monolingualism? www.nytimes.com/2025/08/13/o...

Long time ago, we drove through Morocco by car. Panhandling in every town, except for the capital. We imagined the king could not bear the sight of misery, hence the Maghreb-style Potemkin town of Rabat. Now another prospective king plans the same .. share.google/wBM7WtByk2py...

"Free speech for me, but not for thee" sums it up nicely.

"A fraudster always makes the loudest noise". VERY interesting observation, revealing the rigid thinking of an 8-year old who sipped from his dad's whiskey. As we all know: decibels imply deviance!

Leaving Montréal after the SASE conference. I came to the conclusion I could be a Canadian of sorts: Belgians are the little guy among neighbours, speak English and French, have an even love-hate relationship with both culturally, and are neither Anglo nor French. Great to be stuck in between!

Using time series graphs to make causal claims be like

Zó een ongeïnformeerde, droevige, oubollige, misbegrepen tirade tegen 'tellen': "Want het probleem met telbare dingen is net dat: je begint ze te tellen. En met wiskunde komen sommen en vergelijkingen. En met vergelijkingen winnaars en verliezers." www.standaard.be/opinies/wat-...

Calling people of colour un-American? Free speech! Antisemitic drivel? Unacceptable. All racisms are equally horrible, but some are not. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/u...

Happy that our article on how the law may change the public's assessment of prostitution has been published. For once I am happy to add complexity to the overly simplistic debate. doi.org/10.1007/s105...

Sometimes good research just finally provides well-designed evidence for an assumption many hold: supply in sex work is driven by economic slumps. doi.org/10.1016/j.jp...

A Nobel prize for Sebastian Majstorovic and friends! The fight to protect US data has begun - on.ft.com/43V3FVV via @FT

"The death of truth is the ultimate victory of evil." That is why boring things such as independent research , budgets, 'metrics, sampling, and survey design matter so much.

Tussen 2015 en 2023 groiede escort- en privéprostitutie van 35 naar 50% (onze schatting). Deze relatieve groei leidt tot sekswerk op plekken waar het eerder nauwelijks aanwezig was. Weinig verbazend dus dat dit leidt tot stennis op deze nieuwe plekken.

RIP. One of the greatest. Every day I am inspired by one of his Serra Palada pictures on our home's wall.

If research were a zero sum game, some might be tempted to rejoice a US decline elsewhere. But it is not, so weep the US masochism. Hurting science somewhere is hurting it everywhere.

New in @msmagazine.com from the big boss Dr. Jamila Taylor and me on what the attacks on data mean for advancing equity and social and economic goals: msmagazine.com/2025/05/20/t...

Habemus vrouwelijke rector! @vetobe.bsky.social www.veto.be/onderwijs/li...

Simon Schama finishes his essay, with a citation from Hannah Arendt: "Truth, though powerless and always defeated in a head-on clash with the powers that be, possesses a strength of its own (...). Persuasion and violence can destroy truth, but they cannot replace it." on.ft.com/4jWiUEx

The final honor guard for Pope Francis included migrants, prisoners, transgender people, the homeless and others selected by the Vicariate of Rome as a symbol of the late pope’s mission of inclusion and outreach. Read more from the funeral: wapo.st/3YdDGqM

Just assume for a second that this was an article about the navy library policy of Borduria? What would we infer from this information about this lovely country? Who’s In and Who’s Out at the Naval Academy’s Library? www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/u...

Probably a more realistic take on North Sea human smuggling than the simplistic discourse from politics. And with intriguing unintended consequences! open.spotify.com/episode/6OGJ...

Center for Public Integrity is shutting down: Wesley Lowery resigned as board chair. The nonprofit newsroom, founded in 1987, is in talks to turn over its archives to a watchdog group. www.cjr.org/news/center-...

Was just listening to this mr. Witkoff in his interview with an American-accent Vatnik. The logic is that it would be ok to give Vermont to Canada if 50% +1 is in favour. To be clear: in an election organised by the Canadians, at gunpoint.

Does Peer Review Penalize Scientific Risk Taking? Evidence from NIH Grant Renewals: Pierre Azoulay; Wesley H. Greenblatt

Shout out to the people of the More-or-Less-podcast. Debunking the pseudo-crowd in such an accessible way, that's what effective science communication should always sound like. open.spotify.com/episode/1JQU...

Here's my take on “The Vital Importance of Good Economic Statistics”—and the threats to them. Listen to a new @econofact.bsky.social podcast: econofact.org/podcast/the-... #econsky #statistics #economicstatistics #BLS #federalstatistics #inflation #jobsday #jobs #data #datascience

The inverse of the Great Leap Forward: DIY-agriculture solves high prices. I now wonder what the original Leap did with people's standard of living?

Watched some episodes of A Thousand Blows, and it made me eager to re-read Norbert Elias (and not just the essay of sport & violence). #sociology

Sykes-Picot, Molotov-Ribbentrop,... History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes. Agonizing wait for the minions who give their name to a new bloody dyad. #Sociology

Note for jingoists: corruption is learnt behaviour. A spillover of firms' corruption abroad to corruption domestically is likely. Donald Trump to halt enforcement of law banning bribery of foreign officials - on.ft.com/4hyzvgI via @FT

Premier De Wever: "Langdurig werklozen zitten overwegend in het zuiden van dit land". Én in Antwerpen, de Vlaamse werkloosheidskampioen met ook veel langdurige werkloosheid (31% langer dan 2 jaar). www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/20...

If I understand this as intended, keeping data away from the public is part of the fight against ideology. Queer ideology! As Obelix would have it: "ils sont fous, ces...". Health Resources Vanish Following D.E.I. and Gender Orders www.nytimes.com/2025/01/31/h...

We=I+others. No input or outcome make much sense without the latter.

Are big cities important for growth? The conclusion of this piece seems to be: not very.

I put my money on Callicles as person of the year 2025.

#EconSky #Sociology feb.kuleuven.be/research/eco...