Michael J. Kane

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Data Visualization A Practical Introduction

Here’s a full draft of the upcoming second edition of my “Data Visualization: A Practical Introduction”: socviz.co

Scanned black-and-white image of the first page of an academic journal article. At the top left it reads “Psychological Bulletin, 1985, Vol. 97, No. 2, 286–306.” At the top right: “Copyright 1985 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 0033-2909/85/$00.75.” Centered below is the title in large serif font: “Much Ado About the Full Moon: A Meta-Analysis of Lunar-Lunacy Research.” The authors are listed beneath: “James Rotton, Florida International University” and “I. W. Kelly, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.” The opening paragraph begins in large serif text: “As we have approached the topic in this review, research on lunar periodicities ‘is not pseudoscience in the usual sense. But it is certainly bad science’ (Abell, 1979, p. 72).” It continues by noting that reviews often conclude with recommendations for further research, but the authors state they will depart from that tradition. They explain that the article’s title indirectly references an earlier work on the null hypothesis (Wilson, Miller, & Lower, 1967) and conclude with the line expressing hope that it will be “a ‘much adieu about the full moon.’”

The G.O.A.T in this regard:

Recently, van der Stigchel and colleagues posted a provocative commentary suggesting that we should be wary of bots in online behavioral data collection (🧵by @cstrauch.bsky.social here: bsky.app/profile/cstr...). But should we? Here is my response letter osf.io/preprints/ps.... 1/5

A line graph showing NSF grant awards made through 2/27/26 for fiscal year 2026 compared with grant awards for fiscal years 2021-2025 for the Directorate of STEM Education.

8/10

A line graph showing NSF grant awards made through 2/27/26 for fiscal year 2026 compared with grant awards for fiscal years 2021-2025 for the Directorate of Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences.

7/10

Generic white dude who programs @westbynoreaster Why then did you take down the “Einstein” chatbot? 1:22 AM · Feb 26, 2026 · 67 Views Advait Paliwal @advaitpaliwal · 16h Cease and desist Generic white dude who programs @westbynoreaster · 15h Really? Presumably from Canvas/Instructure, right? Advait Paliwal @advaitpaliwal · 7h Due to the name Einstein

In utterly DELIGHTFUL news, Adwait Paliwal, the desi techbro behind the cheatbot Einstein AI which claimed it could log into Canvas and do/turn in your assignments for you has been forced to take down his website.
He'll likely be back, and there are others like him in abundance, sadly.

"Your h-index will thank you" 😂 The professor's answer to students using Einstein has arrived www.professorfeynman.com

I'm a cognitive scientist with an interest in epistemic vigilance, and this essay that's been going around gave me pause.

I don't think it's straightforward to apply the concept of epistemic vigilance to interactions with LLMs, as this essay does.

🧵/

sbgeoaiphd.github.io/rotating_the...

No, turning over activities designed for your learning to a bot does not free you.

Undermining online learning hurts access to learning, especially for the not-wealthy.

Had a great discussion with @mjgault.bsky.social of @404media.co about Einstein and other online course autocomplete systems.

The vast majority of college students aren’t attending Ivy League schools, they’re grinding away at night classes in community colleges across the country. Distance and online learning has been an enormous boon for those students. “If there’s no credibility to that, then you’ve just ruined the investment and the learning goals and the access to meaningful learning that that they can then also use for employment of students who are underprivileged, who can’t come to the classroom, who are working full time and raising families and trying to get an education,” Mills said.

This is really important (via @annamillsoer.bsky.social ): the effect of AI/LLM cheating on online teaching will have real effects on the opportunity that many working-class people have to study college material. If these degrees become worthless b/c of rampant cheating we lose a real resource.

Einstein - AI Homework Agent Einstein logs into Canvas and does your homework automatically. He has his own computer — he can watch lectures, read essays, write papers, and participate in discussions.

Is this bad

Out of nowhere, an overwhelming craving for chef boyardee mini ravioli, cold, straight out of the can.

You’ve been beaten to it: Google “brownie pan all edges” & you’ll see several varieties. :)

Given that they pitch corrected Freddie Mercury (!) in their recent remix of their debut album, I'd stay away from sets like this until a lack of shenanigans can be confirmed.

Thanks for doing this work. I was leaning in this direction before, but now I'm sure that my lab will be taking an extended break from online/Prolific studies.

Would bots be able to simulate human behavior regarding Posner-type experimental effects if the nature of the study wasn't known beforehand? Curious about the suspected bots' experimental effects. (And, in general, thanks for addressing my questions.)

Very interesting and concerning. How many suspected bots did you identify (you say "several")? What did the suspected bots show with respect to the experimental effects of interest? Is it realistic that bots have been created to demonstrate (for eg) autocorrelation but not right-skewed Q-Qs?

Recent work has shown how vulnerable online survey research is to LLMs. Motivated by this, we examined our online Posner cueing data from Prolific. It's concerning. We now must carefully consider when (or whether?) online behavioral data can be trusted.
see our comment:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Two rulers, unalike in measurements

They released this like this

Why would anyone ever drive a car by people who do not Look At MEASUREMENTS

The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing
And I
I love it when you read to me
And you
You can read me anything

And I could make you rue the day But I could never make you stay
Not for all the tea in China
Not if I could sing like a bird
Not for all North Carolina
Not for all my little words
Not if I could write for you
The sweetest song you ever heard
It doesn't matter what I do
Not for all my little words

Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin

At it's best on a poppy roll or poppy bagel, IMHO

As a hater, I'm sure there's stuff to criticize in the study, but it's depressing that rage bait seems to be as big of a problem here as it was on Xitter.

FYI: not quite what the study was actually about:

bsky.app/profile/icas...

two super bowls in a row with drake getting slammed

"As AI trans­forms academic labor, much more is at stake than the terms & conditions of our employment. At stake is the very integrity of the teaching & learning process & the notion that all humanity—not just a few individuals—should benefit from the production of knowledge at our universities."

Love the Havens pick. Just missed my 5.

*Music From Big Pink -argh-