The US has sanctioned European researchers and policymakers studying misinformation, framing independent inquiry as a free speech violation. The Trump admin's refusal to allow regulation of platforms is US tech policy by other means—now being enforced through sanctions. Scholars must pay attention.

Nina Jankowicz: “They’re not doing this because they have any evidence of censorship — they lost a Supreme Court case that made those claims… They’re doing this because the group of researchers and advocates have stood up to liars like Donald Trump and the platforms that enable them.”

This seems like a great thing to have in perpetuity along the Kuskokwim River. #akleg

Hard not to see this as an extension of Trump's legal assault on higher education. Not like the FBI exactly covered itself in glory here.

"approaching significance." (I didn't create this, and unfortunately I can't remember the source to credit them.)

Happy Public School Snow Day on the Day No One Was Going to Show Up Anyway, for those who celebrate.

1. This is terrible. 2. This is such a BS claim from a university: “We are committed to teaching students how to think, not what to think.” No! We do, in fact, commit to teaching you what to think. You sign up for a psych course, you have to learn psychology. You can ignore it later if you choose.

When they seized property of Jews, "Mischlinge", & other people they deemed undesirable, the Nazis used the 1930s version of a Sharpie on deeds. Eventually names underneath were revealed, allowing legal redress for Nazi theft. When you hire for party loyalty over competence, incompetence follows.

Will the Trump warships tilt down at the bow when they sail, wander aimlessly around the ocean, garble all their communications, and devise pathetically transparent excuses for why they can't be expected to engage directly in military exercises?

It's kind of satisfying that Bari Weiss has proven to be so spectacularly inept at her one job -- spreading right-wing propaganda -- that a position in the Trump administration is now out of reach for her.

This link works, as of 7:05 ET Dec 22.

Every pre-holiday timeline needs seven otters a-playing.

Why would anyone ever want to allow Zoom to record their screen and audio even while they're using other apps? And yes, you have have to OPT OUT of invasive surveillance, at least on my institution's configuration of Zoom.

Extremely happy that my project got funded with a Consolidator Grant from @erc.europa.eu. The project is called FIRMS, and with a team, I'll study how the workplace/firm affects inequality in careers. We'll use register data to trace the careers of millions of workers. 1/3 www.uva.nl/en/content/n...

As we revisit - for the umpteenth time 🙄- the benefits of breastfeeding, I recommend this great piece in @sfjournal.bsky.social by @uncpopcenter.bsky.social Fellow Jessica Su & colleagues who find the benefits are not universal, at least for child development. doi.org/10.1093/sf/s...

New from me: In the New Republic @newrepublic.com, I wrote that we should refuse to choose between the easy way and the hard way to boost birth rates.

Alaska woman regrets visiting a simple bear necessarium. alaskapublic.org/news/2021-02...

When I was 7-9ish, my family went on full day or multi-day cross-country ski trips. My parents gave us "prizes" -- silly patches we could stick on our backpacks -- if we finished the trip without whining, bickering, or crying. Thinking about my "first place for not eating yellow snow" prize today.

In WHITE FLIGHT, I detailed how segregationists moved from the overt racism of the KKK to subtler and stronger forms of discrimination rooted in a language of race-neutral rights … and then MAGA just picked up the tiki torch and lit a cross again.

Social scientists spent the last 50 years arguing that racism is still prevalent in US even if it's covert (racism w/ a veneer), unconscious (racism w/out intent), or systemic (racism w/out racists). Along comes MAGA, which embraces gutter racism while claiming that teaching about racism is racist.

5% of People Detained By ICE Have Violent Convictions, 73% No Convictions

Postdoctoral opportunity in the social sciences at Notre Dame! apply.interfolio.com/177620

I'm teaching about racial discrimination today, which always makes me miss my friend Devah Pager. I can't believe she's been gone 7 years. Such a loss for the field. #socsky

That's not just a cliff. It's the west face of Mt. Thor.

Happy "let's circle back in the New Year" season to all who celebrate.

And that’s how Calvin got a degree in physics at OU

In discussions of this incident across the web I saw some faculty raising issues with the assignment rubric, and I just want to be clear that a phonebook-thick syllabus of course policies and the world's greatest rubric will not save you when people like this are pulling the strings.

Remember when Vinay Prasad was demanding impossibly high standards of evidence for things like masks and vaccines? But now he accepts the absolute lowest standards of evidence (VAERS observations) to attack vaccines. Interesting, no? It's almost like it was never about evidence.

More reasons to love crows.

I love crows. They aren't afraid to fight back against bullies.

New Trump administration map just dropped.

Genuinely wondering how Northwestern (and other universities) can reconcile its stated priority of advancing and disseminating scientific in the biological sciences with its acceptance of Trump's demonstrably incorrect, scientifically illiterate definition of sex.

Just to be clear: armed government agents are allowed to wear masks, balaclavas, and glasses that completely hide their identities as they disappear people off streets and out of public places, but students can't wear masks while protesting even in approved "time, manner, and place".

How does any lawyer write this stuff with a straight face? (This is in the "national security" section, which follows a section outlining restrictions on admissions and hiring, which follows a long section outlining restrictions on protest activities.) www.northwestern.edu/president/do...

The same people who naively embrace "genetics" as the explanation for complex social outcomes (e.g., poverty, crime, "IQ" / standardized test scores) are happy to reject genetic explanations for autism in favor of half-baked, unsupported theories that allow them to blame moms. And sell them stuff.

A thread of directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) that look like record covers... because that's EXACTLY what the world needs 1. Huey Lewis and the News: link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

My new book, The Division of Rationalized Labor, is now shipping! A brief summary of the argument to follow…

Whoever came up with the idea of charging foreigners a $100 surcharge to enter the big national parks has obviously never visited a national park. - It will discourage foreign visitors (and their money) - It will mean miserably long wait times for everyone as park entry attendants check passports

Finally, a good Trump administration decision: phasing out the penny. New ones will no longer be minted, except for a few straight-to-collectors models. My son's childhood piggy bank, the ashtray of our old car, the pen tray of my top desk drawer, and our couch just increased in value.

I wish he used his NASA brains to solve a more important mystery of airline travel: Why do passengers board in ANC looking mostly normal, but when they deplane in FAI an hour later they've grown bushy beards and their dress shoes & worsted wool have morphed into bunny boots & lumberjack flannel?

Honored to serve on Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Transition Committee on Technology. For too long, too many New Yorkers have been left behind. NYC deserves governance that centers affordability, equity, and the public good-looking forward to the work ahead. www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...

Baby names aren’t just personal choices; they reflect culture, geography, gender, identity, and as i've been investigating, politics too. I’ve been analyzing 50 years of U.S. baby naming to see how they map onto political polarization in the U.S. Here’s what I found 🧵

I remember when the Republicans threw a 6-month hissy fit about "government overreach" when Michelle Obama gently suggested we eat more fruits and vegetables.

Three lawsuits, including one by Wilderness Watch and our allies, take aim at a Trump administration-approved land trade that would allow for a road through designated wilderness in Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. alaskabeacon.com/2025/11/13/t...

So many things happening, I nearly missed the @newrepublic.com piece I was quoted in last week. It raises the possibility of continued political threats to SNAP, underscoring a point I make often: the best way to politically protect the safety net is to build the power of those who rely on it.

A farmer's walk from correlation to causation: Academic paper: cross-sectional studies find that grip strength is correlated with bone density, depression, heart disease, cognitive functioning, and mortality. Online rags: do these 2 exercises to increase your grip strength and you'll live longer!

A sign that Bluesky has permeated the mainstream: I'm getting follows from accounts devoted to cannabis. (This happened on X, too.) Probably bots searching for "weed" in user names. They're harmless enough, tho if a border agent wanted to make a fuss over my SM I might have some 'splainin' to do.

At Harvard, as at most private institutions, recording and posting a video of a class without the instructor's permission constitutes academic misconduct. For good reason: it undermines trust w/in classroom & stifles dialogue. Please don't retweet these videos, even if you agree with their message.

If you walk into a bar and discover the bartender is a neo-Nazi who is slipping poison pills into patrons' drinks, staying in the bar -- and inviting your friends to come too -- does not make you "neutral" or "unbiased." It makes you complicit. Divest from X.

@nbcnews.com : yeah, he's a neo-Nazi, but we're still going to push traffic to his web site. www.nbcnews.com/tech/elon-mu...