Lots of great links this week!

On Wednesday, 7 January, noon (EST), Toronto Data Workshop hosts Ciara Zogheib, University of Toronto, on "Government Data and AI Strategies: A Case Study of Technology Policies in Canada's Federal Service". All welcome. Zoom: utoronto.zoom.us/j/4784708970 Details: rohanalexander.com/tdw.html

Nothing better than a reviewer's tick next to a paragraph.

Nice year of work from @theijf.org theijf.org/article/most...

The best books that I read in 2025:

After a year of trying, I finally got my hands on some of the annual financial statements for the Eric Woodward Foundation. They've raised a lot of new questions about the Langley township mayor's pre-election pledges... theijf.org/article/eric...

I can't believe Microsoft brought back Clippy. The king is dead; long live the king. 📎👑

New paper in Nature Human Behaviour. I use a conjoint experiment to test multimodal large language models (MLLMs) for context-sensitive content moderation and compare with human subjects. Methodologically, this demonstrates how social science techniques can enhance AI auditing. 💻🤖💬

A short reflection on my childhood piano teacher, who taught me to read music, and as a consequence, indirectly taught me to love data analysis: www.monicaalexander.com/posts/2025-1...

Super awesome

PoliSci Friends- I'm updating some MRP-based public opinion estimates. Anyone willing to share micro data from recent nationally representative surveys you've run (e.g., CES modules) that ask one or more batteries of binary questions about the American public's issue/policy preferences?

Academia regularly has meetings with like 4/6 of these. 😬

I get to meet Ken Benoit in-person today!

Hang it in the Louvre.

Very happy to host Chris Barrie tomorrow at noon EST on "Reasoning models and synthetic data generation". All welcome. Zoom: utoronto.zoom.us/j/4784708970 Details: rohanalexander.com/tdw.html

Cannot make this up.

This Wednesday, 19 November 2025, noon (EST) on Zoom - utoronto.zoom.us/j/4784708970 - I'm hosting Mellissa Meisels, Yale, on "Strategic Campaign Attention to Abortion Before and After Dobbs". All welcome! Sign-up/details: rohanalexander.com/tdw.html

Allowing billionaires to collude is the most Canadian thing that could happen to the Hudson's Bay charter

Given the topic, I'm not sure that Elliott would want me to post this, but it was an interesting read so sharing it nonetheless: open.substack.com/pub/gelliott...

Very useful!

I’m quoted in @theguardian.com today on the forms, impacts, and gendered differences in the violence faced by politicians and why it matters for democracy. Read more: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n... @utoronto.ca #VAWIP #gendersky #polsky

There are three Toronto Data Workshop online talks coming up 12, 19, and 26 November, noon EST. This first is this Wednesday at noon on Zoom: utoronto.zoom.us/j/4784708970. All welcome.

One of the recommendations: @rohanalexander.bsky.social ‘s book

Happy new Helen DeWitt book day for those who celebrate (which in a just world would be everyone)!!!

Teaching stream faculty searches are great because you get all sorts of ideas for your own teaching/assessment!

Job Opportunity Alert Instructional Professor (open rank) in Data Science: apply.interfolio.com/176416 EOE/Vet/Disability

Amazing pol sci post doc.

Vale Brian Cantwell Smith ischool.utoronto.ca/news/obituar...

Wake up babe, new Helen DeWitt profile just dropped! www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/b...

Excited to see our Bluesky paper featured in @davidakin.bsky.social’s daily roundup newsletter. Read more about our results here: doi.org/10.1017/S000...

Enjoying these graphs.

It's of course not great that Lily Allen had horrid marriage, but wow what an album and so great to have her back in our lives.

Got my own office coffee set-up (staff at L'Espresso were rude one too many times!)

Number of unique speakers in the Australian parliament, by gender, 1998-2025. By Lindsay Katz and @inessadeangelis.bsky.social.

GitHub Actions is my passion.

IDK why but the second espresso just always pours better.

Looks great @vincentab.bsky.social !

Setting up a MCQ mid-term and reminded of the time one of my professors made every answer d, apart from one question, "to see who has confidence in their answers".

Absolutely wonderful from @vickiboykis.com - newsletter.vickiboykis.com/archive/i-wa...

Today I got to do Fisher's tea tasting experiment in class and both student groups got the grouping completely right!

Funny that Dan Wang's book came out the same year Mokyr got the Nobel; while the one phrase review of Wang is engineers vs lawyers, the similarities between what he ways about US manufacturing and Mokyr on the industrial revolution is striking. (Mokyr in the 4th image is from Anton Howes).

Submitted with an hour and 3 minutes to spare.

Remarkable: historyofparliament.com/2025/10/15/m...

Sunday morning trifecta: espresso, croissant, and NSERC.

Nothing better than a new Nick Crocker issue "What's seldom is wonderful": open.substack.com/pub/nickcroc...

Amen

A mature and rigorous approach to version control is really important before you start messing around with AI agents (ask me how I know lol).

Yay, a Nobel partly for econ history! (implicitly just a lot of careful data work)!