AI search results are driving me nuts. Two slightly different google queries related to Spearman's rho and Thorndike's case 2 correction give conflicting results, and the AI-linked sources do not address the issue directly; answers kind of just mash text from multiple sources (inc. a racist's blog)

Very glad to see @kmcmanus.bsky.social and Luke Plonsky put AAAL's feet to the fire a bit in their new editorial introducing two new Open Science-inspired article types. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

The racist backlash to Chris Nolan’s Odyssey is a kind of stolen valor, an attempt by the right to claim credit for achievements they had nothing to do with in order to justify racial hierarchy in the present. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The Fear of Black Greeks

White people don’t own the accomplishments of ancient Greece.

theatlantic.com

Pretty wild story - A professor in Korea was sentenced to 3.5 years in jail for making his grad students write a paper (and collect/fabricate data?) for his daughter's college application (alternative path for "special talent"). I'll see if I can find a reputable English version..

제자들 논문으로 딸 서울대 치전원 보낸 성균관대 약대 교수 징역 3년 6개월 확정

자신의 딸을 치의학전문대학원(치전원)에 입학시키기 위해 제자들을 이용한 대학 교수에 징역 3년 6개월의 실형이 확정됐다. 22일 법조계에 따르면 대법원 1부(주심 천대엽 대법관)는 업무방해 등 혐의로 기소된 전 성균관대 약대 교수 이모(67)씨에게 이같이 선고한 원심을

w3.kwnews.co.kr

Very glad to see this study come out - we investigated the degree to which how people speak on TOEFL tasks is similar to how they speak in non-test academic tasks. Generally, we find strong similarities in terms of subjective quality (communicative effectiveness), fluency, and accuracy.

Investigating the Real-World Relevance of an Academic English Speaking Test: Extrapolating Subjective Evaluations and Linguistic Performance Characteristics - Daniel R. Isbell, Dustin Crowther, Jieun ...

To support use of tests in academic contexts, it is critical to demonstrate that test scores and test performances are associated with performance in academic s...

journals.sagepub.com

The claim “RFK Jr. does not fuck chickens” is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that RFK Jr. fucks chickens.

Linguistic accommodation, oftentimes occurring without deliberate effort, is a widely attested phenomenon and likely plays a role in additional dialect acquisition.

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2w ago

People are making fun of AOC for having a slight southern accent while speaking in Memphis but they clearly don’t know the pain of habitually and unconsciously imitating the speaking style of the people around you

When I worked in WaPo Opinions in 2017-2018, senior editors specifically told junior editors not to factcheck Marc Thiessen and other MAGA columnists, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to publish anything by them at all, and “we need them for intellectual diversity.”

John Carl Baker@johncarlbaker.bsky.social · 9mo ago

It’s very telling that opening your publication to MAGA “thought” requires a massive downgrade in quality control.

A reminder that UC _faculty_ and Faculty Associations — not the universities themselves nor their administrators — are waging this battle in court, demonstrating great bravery and moral clarity.

White House admits it used keywords to kill billions worth of California research grants

Federal agencies that terminated more than a thousand research grants at the University of California last year admitted that they used keywords related to diversity, gender, vaccine hesitancy and COV...

apnews.com

New colleague just moved into her office today, so now I am officially not the youngest/newest in the department (after 6 years on the job...)!

Why wasn't RFK Jr the dean of medicine at Johns Hopkins? Liberal bias in academia! See more insights like this in a 10k word Atlantic piece.

mrsomerton@mrsomerton.bsky.social · 2w ago

oh, just you wait- there’s more imaginary friends where that came from

At his next presser, a reporter should ask him what he meant when he drew his firearm and said "I'm not going to be a Charlie Kirk". He will most likely point out the misquote, at which point the follow-up should be "What's the difference?"

Shannon Watts@shannonrwatts.bsky.social · 3w ago

Norman drew his weapon after a conversation about domestic abuse legislation turned to a debate over gun violence prevention policies. He laid the gun on the table for about 5-10 minutes, stating, "I'm not going to be a Gabby Giffords.” abc7news.com/post/congres...

New paper! Values such as openness, transparency, collaboration, clarity about conflict of interests have been promoted by women for *decades*, and now we have reframed this around the branding of 'open science' that we start to take them seriously. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Women as the First Open Scientists: Five Stories of the Neglected Contributions of Women in (Social) Science Reform History - Madeleine Pownall, 2026

Recent years have seen growing emphasis on “Open Science,” a movement to enhance research transparency, robustness, and accountability. Prompted by concerns ove...

journals.sagepub.com

Someone just sent me this photo from Chicago, unbelieveable

One of my better attempts at collocateswordgame.com : verbs that come before the noun "text"

Good to see folks pushing back against pay-to-publish models. “In our field, it doesn’t make sense to pay for OA, since our papers are available on arXiv for free and the arXiv version is always very close to the journal version.” Robin Ryder, resigning AE at Statistics and Computing

‘The exploitation still remains’: Stats journal associate editors resign over $3,000 publishing charge

Eighteen associate editors of the journal Statistics and Computing have announced they will resign after Springer Nature announced the journal would require a fee to publish.  In a July 8 stat…

retractionwatch.com

Le Guin on the idea that there is a secret to getting good at writing.

100% chance that there are departments short on lab space or offices for GAs/lecturers.

Os Keyes@okeyes.bsky.social · last mo.

Visiting my university’s new, expensively-refurbished space for startup incubators and senior management and cannot imagine a better illustration of the American university at this moment in time than a breathlessly press-released “collaboration room” featuring a single desk and chair.

Visiting my university’s new, expensively-refurbished space for startup incubators and senior management and cannot imagine a better illustration of the American university at this moment in time than a breathlessly press-released “collaboration room” featuring a single desk and chair.

Not good news: 11% drop in PhD admissions linked to instability of federal research funding. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/06/u...

Decline of Ph.D. Admissions Could Imperil a ‘Generation of New Talent’

nytimes.com

Came up on my photo app memories today from a couple years ago in South Korea... "A special meal for you" is one way to describe what one would think a restaurant called "Roast Child" might serve.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito took a luxury fishing trip to Alaska with billionaire Paul Singer, whose hedge fund then had repeated business before SCOTUS over the years that followed. Alito never disclosed the trip or recused himself from Singer's cases. (Published June 2023)

Justice Samuel Alito Took Luxury Fishing Vacation With GOP Billionaire Who Later Had Cases Before the Court

In the years after the undisclosed trip to Alaska, Republican megadonor Paul Singer’s hedge fund has repeatedly had business before the Supreme Court. Alito has never recused himself.

propublica.org

Very interesting article on Japanese language teaching for foreign residents. Growing need for accessible and high quality instruction highlights problems with Japanese language teaching historically not seen as a profession.

Japanese-language education is at a turning point

Once volunteer-based, the system is shifting toward shared responsibility between local governments and trained professionals.

japantimes.co.jp

Imagine if they instead just spent 12 years helping with homework, encouraging extracurricular reading, and socking gas money and league/equipment costs in a college savings account.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last mo.

Gluesenkamp Perez: "At town halls, what I saw was the people who were the most upset had spent the last 12 years driving their girls to sports practice & they view their best shot of their student going to college as an athletic scholarship. So when we rush to moralize we miss some of the nuance."

How is the first major policy proposal not an anti-corruption campaign? Or court expansion? Or codifying Roe, restoring VRA, ending citizens united? Christ get it together Dem leadership.

alpha @omarsbigsister.bsky.social · last mo.

Dems' "Project 2029" first major policy proposal: an online child safety plan — narrowing Sec. 230, banning social media for kids under 16, promoting phone-free childhoods and more. Already backed by Cory Booker, Mikie Sherrill, Randi Weingarten + Jonathan Haidt. LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Having kids in grad school comes with more costs for women than men. "Citation scores for women who started to have children before the age of 30 were 14% lower than comparable men and 21% less than women who waited until their late 30s to start having children." www.science.org/content/arti...

Having a child during grad school is especially hard on women

New study highlights the need for more institutional support for parents

science.org

Lots of good stuff here, but I want to highlight the call for AAAL to start a diamond OA journal and other publishing/research dissemination venues. Making excellent applied linguistics research more accessible supports equity and will also demonstrate the value of the discipline more broadly.

On the topic of GenAI for essay/spoken response rating in language tests: Based on several studies of AI rating focused on consistency and agreement with humans that show middling results, my hunch is that AI have a central tendency bias and little consistency in assessing a construct.

I support Wikipedia, where information is still human-created, fact-checked, and 100% free. Join me! donate.wikimedia.org

Good to see the NYT call the Iran war a loss, but I'd like to also see headlines along the lines of: THE ART OF SURRENDER Make it really sting.