NEW: The bad news about international-student enrollments at American colleges just got worse. An exclusive @chronicle.com analysis of just-released State Department data shows new visa issuances in the summer of 2025 dropped by more than a third. www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
After nearly a decade measuring American public support for political violence, @nathankalmoe.bsky.social and I have published a somewhat comprehensive guide to measuring these attitudes. This includes historical comparisons and responses to common critiques. doi.org/10.1093/poq/...
By moving right on immigration & other key issues, and generally coming off as incompetent (esp on cost of living), UK Labour is losing vote share to left-wing parties AND to right-leaning ones. This is what happens when a party appeases its opponents & loses its core identity.
That's what I heard from the inside, too. They don't make awards (even when recommended for funding) and also don't reject proposals (for fear of backlash).
This is so bleak. If U.S. American science is ever to recover, we might need to rebuilt the NSF from the ground up.
The National Science Foundation is systematically being converted to the National AI and Quantum Research Foundation.
βI see it as the administration exerting political control over what has traditionally been NSFβs ability to fund the best science.β
10 hour study with me at Columbia showing lunch
Her in the library
DHS illegally arrested me please help Text against image of her knees
Columbia student detained today is a day-in-the-life influencer with 100K followers. Her stories right now go from her studying for a Genetics exam in a nicely edited "ten hour study with me at Columbia" video, to a photo of her knees with the caption "dhs illegally arrested me please help"
New article out exploring great ape name recognition! We find partial evidence that zoo-living chimps & bonobos know each other's names π Huge thanks to Animal Behavior and Cognition (a great open-access journal) & co-authors for your collaboration!ππ΅
unsvr1.com/web/abc/work...
π¨π¨ My lab is hiring a Postdoc! π¨π¨
Postdoc opening in my lab at Harvard Psych (start: Summer/Fall 2026).
We study identity, group dynamics, language, & politics.
Rolling review begins 3/14
Apply: academicpositions.harvard.edu/postings/15806
Please repost + tag folks who might be a good fit! π
Worst kept secret in academia is out!
University at the centre of gagging orders in multiple sex harassment cases is revealed as ... Oxford University
Maybe some of the money & effort directed to hushing things up could be redirected to protecting women ?
www.thetimes.com/uk/education...
Iβm once again writing that disbelief in structural racism is similar to climate change denial and then I remembered they donβt believe in that either.
Bots have made their way to Prolific experiments. Our lab has stopped online testing of adults entirely now for this reason - we want to know if what we study is real. Probably data collected 2-3 years ago are ok, but moving forward we just can't know. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide.
This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.
"We know that this can be done, because it has been done. In his famous Madison Garden speech..FDR declared war on 'Government by organized money,' and he won that war...To say that a comparable project is impossible today is to say that democracy canβt be saved. And Iβm not willing to accept that."
NSF Summary:
Slow progress in most Directorates with Social Behavioral and Social Sciences, STEM Education, and Technology, Innovations, and Partnerships continuing to lag behind...
11/11
A line curve showing number of awards for fiscal year 2026 compared to fiscal years 2021-2025 across NSF. The fiscal year 2026 curve lies well below curves for other fiscal years.
NSF Update
Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.
Now by Directorate...
1/11
My team at the Crowd Counting Consortium (@djpressman.bsky.social, Soha Hammam, & Chris Shay) has shared a big data update, covering all recorded US protests through Jan 2026. Some key takeaways π§΅:
(This is from a workshop on Navigating the New Federal Funding Landscape at our university.)
OST/OMB Memo (M-25-34) detailing White House priorities for federally funded research: Critical and Emerging Technologies AI, quantum science, semiconductors, advanced communications networks, future computing technologies, and advanced manufacturing Energy Dominance & New Frontiers Exploration American energy dominance, critical minerals, polar region research, deep ocean exploration American Security Advanced military capabilities, cybersecurity resilience, βGolden Dome,β preparedness and resilience American Health and Biotechnology Health challenges, biosafety and biosecurity, building domestic biomanufacturing capabilities Space Dominance
I wish Social Dominance Theory would stop being so damn topical.
I really want people to think about this. After all the insane lawsuits, all the threats, all the bullshit weve seen from this admin and the targets who kneeled in fear, an average Joe called the president a Pedophile protector to his face and didn't get touched. That's the Power of a union.
π¨ βPerceiving Protestβ by Austin Vo, Katherine Furl (@katherinefurl.bsky.social), Todd Lu, and Neal Caren (@haphazardsoc.bsky.social) is now free to read through the end of March!
Read it now at bit.ly/4kmN2KJ
βWhat we are seeing is the weakness of strong states. Regimes that rely on repression face a challenge: The more force they deploy, the more they risk exposing their own brutality to politically persuadable observers. Overreach doesnβt just project strength; it also undermines legitimacy.β Gift link
1. From lung cancer to climate change, capitalist governments are notoriously slow to recognize and remedy the negative externalities generated by corporate activity.
Generative AI is no exception. Large language models are proving a disaster in numerous spheres of public life.
Parental guidance US parents*, minutes per day spent on child caret, by generation, 1975-2018 Fathers Mothers 160 120 β’ Millennial Gen X Millennial Gen X Silent 80 40 0 Baby-boomer Baby-boomer 20 30 Silent γ 40 Mother's age 40 Father's age 50 60 *Who live with partner and at least one child under 18 *Controlling for children under five Source: American Heritage Time Use Study 20 30 50 60 160 120 80 40 0
Older generations spent a lot less time parenting. Millennial dads spend nearly as much time parenting as Boomer moms did. Millennial and Gen X moms way more.
via The Economist
The new usda food pyramid but the foundation is a lot of beans.
Fixed it!
I think the funniest thing to me is that the people who are working to create an Artificial General Intelligence is that itβs a bunch of libertarians who have never realised that what makes us smart as humans is community, society, empathy. The things they find an anathema.
π§΅New preprint: Adults often agree with their ingroup even when evidence says otherwise. Why?
To find out, we studied kids, who show the same tendency but *before* political identities take hold. With developmental data, we can see the basic psychological ingredients.
doi.org/10.31234/osf...
1/11
Iβm sorry, but it is disgraceful to be an academic who uses this technology to conduct research. It should be prohibited in all of our scholarly institutions, including universities and journals.
Trump Promised Radical Change in His Second Term. Here's What He's Done So Far. President Trump has driven illegal crossings at the border to record lows, helped bring about an uneasy cease-fire in Gaza and upended global trade. 14 MIN READ
This is the @nytimes.com once again whitewashing violence & genocide. He didnβt end βillegal crossingsβ β wtf even is that β he ended asylum. He didnβt broker a ceasefire; itβs genocide by another name. Itβs wild how rotten the storied institutions of this country are showing themselves to be.
No one ever talks about the academic jobs that marginalized folks wonβt apply to because of state or institutional reputation for hostility towards their group. Again, who it really at a disadvantage in any job market? π
