I want to make a joke about why anyone would choose to be a sprinter when clearly that's not our species comparative advantage, but uh... I'm en route to Louisiana for my dad's track meet and his primary event is the 200-meter.

Thorne 🌸 - Play Cozysters!@ens0.me · last wk.

Humans are slower than a lot of animals, but we can run a LOT longer than basically any other animal. The fact we are capable of running marathons is kind of ludicrous when viewed in the context of other animals.

I was just canvassed about turning out to vote!!! Love this for me. In fact, I may have been more enthusiastic about the conversation than the volunteer from the NYS Dems...

Nick Ottone @nottone.bsky.social's handle did not link properly, but huge shout-out to the best coauthor ever :)

Amanda Weiss@amandaweiss.bsky.social · 3w ago

🚨 New Working Paper! 🚨 Do voters *like* local prisons? Are prisons that good for the economy? After years of data collection (+ using a novel estimator?!), @nottone & I find new prisons: • Reduce Republican incumbent vote shares 1-3pp • Decrease per cap. incomes >$2,500 osf.io/dnwke 🧵👇

🚨 New Working Paper! 🚨 Do voters *like* local prisons? Are prisons that good for the economy? After years of data collection (+ using a novel estimator?!), @nottone & I find new prisons: • Reduce Republican incumbent vote shares 1-3pp • Decrease per cap. incomes >$2,500 osf.io/dnwke 🧵👇

Did @bsky.app introduce the thread length counter so that we could all see just how many ways @kevinmkruse.bsky.social had found to roast His Man?

Kevin M. Kruse@kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 3w ago

My man looks like a character in “Hamilton” whose lines are all delivered in the style of Kid Rock

I feel like my Bluesky content is very anti-AI. I am actually not globally opposed to AI! Just sometimes people adopt a new method and forget that new methods create new problems. (You know. Like when we all got excited about modern DID point estimation and forgot to think about inference.)

Amanda Weiss@amandaweiss.bsky.social · 4w ago

Yet another reason to be REALLY, REALLY CAREFUL about using AI to label and analyze qualitative data.

Yet another reason to be REALLY, REALLY CAREFUL about using AI to label and analyze qualitative data.

404 Media@404media.co · 4w ago

EXCLUSIVE: Humans are reading ChatGPT users’ prompts to improve OpenAI’s models, and those chats can include sensitive, personal information, according to leaked internal documents and real prompts seen by 404 Media.

This is, in fact, a real email that we received.

Jake Anbinder@jakeanbinder.bsky.social · last mo.

🤔

Okay, for context, the dog is very entertaining. I too have to resist being entertained when such a big noise emerges from such a small creature. But still. Deer are not supposed to be entertained by nominal predators.

Amanda Weiss@amandaweiss.bsky.social · last mo.

I am from Indiana, which has a lot of deer. Upstate NY deer are on a whole different level. I was walking the dog and we saw a deer. The dog started barking at the deer. And the deer CAME CLOSER. I think it was ENTERTAINED. And, sure, the dog is not very scary. But the deer is a WILD ANIMAL.

I am from Indiana, which has a lot of deer. Upstate NY deer are on a whole different level. I was walking the dog and we saw a deer. The dog started barking at the deer. And the deer CAME CLOSER. I think it was ENTERTAINED. And, sure, the dog is not very scary. But the deer is a WILD ANIMAL.

So this is an example of why I am skeptical of AI for peer review. It's like improv where the answer is always "Yes, and..." Chat responses are - beyond just being positive(!) - natively structured by existing claims.

Ashley@ashleysays.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Chefs kiss

We *are* quite delightful. But actually though - lovely faculty community, great students, gorgeous gorges... What more could any prospective assistant professor of public law want? academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32519

Moira Rose: Won't You Join Me? (Schitt's Creek)

ALT: Moira Rose: Won't You Join Me? (Schitt's Creek)

static.klipy.com

Josh Chafetz@joshchafetz.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Cornell Government Department hiring an assistant professor in American politics; looking for a public law specialty, with a preference for LPE ... academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32519

You know, I always thought that I was a Reviewer No. 1... But my last two reviews were each like 5 pages single-spaced (I *am* now on the record saying I like reviewing 😬). I'm starting to worry that I am Reviewer No. 2.

Jo Wolff@jowolff.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Just as some hotels don’t have a Floor 13, journals shouldn’t have Reviewer no 2.

Ofc I say this and personally put WAY too much effort into reviews. And then I die inside when my papers spend six months under review or get torpedoed because someone was not on board with my type of paper existing or are evaluated by someone who doesn't know how math works. So there's that...

Amanda Weiss@amandaweiss.bsky.social · 2mo ago

But that's not my only concern. A big issue with AI reviews IMO — hot take 🚨, maybe big Assistant Professor Energy — is that reviewing is good for reviewers. Like it's good to see new scholarship and know what is being submitted in your field! And good to keep sharp by doing constructive critique!

Optimist: The cup is half full. Pessimist: The cup is half-empty. Political methodologist: The cup is the convex hull of the treated group's covariate values.

Jason Moore@moorejh.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Optimist: The cup is half full. Pessimist: The cup is half empty. Reviewer #2: You are using the wrong cup and your water is from the wrong source. Further, you are not qualified to handle cups or drink water.

As a practicing political methodologist, I maintain a list of well-identified causes of Republican electoral success. The list includes: * Racist backlash. * Eating chips rather than Cheez-Its at your election night watch party. * David Froomkin predicting a Democratic landslide.

David Froomkin@dfroomkin.bsky.social · 2mo ago

My wife says I'm not allowed to predict a Democratic landslide in 2026, because the last time I did that was in 2024.

This exactly. In fully-automated luxury gay space communism, you will be able to *choose* between making spreadsheets with your artist commune polycule and being down bad in your castle.

@lastpositivist.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I think this is too clever by half - enjoy making the spreadsheet for who's doing the dishes in your artist commune polycule with 7 guys defined by one personality trait, meanwhile I'll be crying into my luxurious poster bed while living in a castle.

Also I'm SO PUMPED to be a non-presenting coauthor. 🙏 I like the sound of my voice as much as the next academic, but I did 5 conference presentations on other papers earlier this summer and I am now in my couch potato era. Until APSA.

Amanda Weiss@amandaweiss.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I'm so proud of this paper that @nottone.bsky.social and I did on prisons... massive data collection! the political economy of criminal legal system! jackknife standard errors!

I'm so proud of this paper that @nottone.bsky.social and I did on prisons... massive data collection! the political economy of criminal legal system! jackknife standard errors!

Consortium on the American Political Economy (CAPE)@cape-team.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Live Soon: The Second day of the #APE conference, today at noon ET! Register (yale.zoom.us/meeting/regi...) to join today's events 👇

I’m looking forward to presenting really exciting work (co-authored w/ @amandaweiss.bsky.social) and learn about other great work at @cape-team.bsky.social Annual Research Conference — mine’s tomorrow, 1:30pm ET It’s virtual and everyone is welcome — register here: yale.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: The 2026 APE Research Conference . After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

To register for the 2026 APE Annual Research Conference, please complete the form below. You will receive a unique link which you will use to log in for the duration of the conference. The first day...

yale.zoom.us

The Overton window has always struck me as conceptually under-determined. But how else to describe elite movement on court packing? In fact, court packing has made me shift my Overton window on the Overton window.

Noah Rosenblum@narosenblum.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Everyone is saying it

Right back at you ❤️@dfroomkin.bsky.social

David Froomkin@dfroomkin.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Just married energy. I love you so much @amandaweiss.bsky.social

I'm lucky to have such an accomplished coauthor. 😉😊 Congratulations @nottone.bsky.social!!!!

Nick Ottone@nottone.bsky.social · 5mo ago

But I'm also very excited to begin as a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford in August! Looking forward to working with @tomsclark.bsky.social and meeting some wonderful people in the Bay Area. On to the next chapter!

Hell yeah! Though after spending 5 minutes explaining what a blue book is to my students, I discovered that Cornell's blue books are custom-branded and actually white...

ae@aelkus.bsky.social · 5mo ago

LLMs are going to force teachers to bring back

I'm a quant methods professor and a millennial, I need someone to save me from myself.

Amanda Weiss@amandaweiss.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Y'ALL I was reading up on the history of the Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, which is already wild. Then I discovered that THIS is how young Evelyn became Mrs. Kitagawa (even before becoming Dr. Kitagawa).

Y'ALL I was reading up on the history of the Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, which is already wild. Then I discovered that THIS is how young Evelyn became Mrs. Kitagawa (even before becoming Dr. Kitagawa).

This is a highly specific response and I'm cackling. Also I'm amazed that one of Edith Wharton's non-Age of Innocence works was assigned in the course of anyone's schooling...

Faine Greenwood@faineg.com · 5mo ago

Ethan Frome fostered in me a lifelong distrust of New England

I had a lot of fun the other day giving a workshop on the modern DID revolution at Syracuse University's Maxwell School — thank you @adam42smith.bsky.social for hosting! I have posted the slides to my website at amandakweiss.com/did if anyone is interested.

I made an over-engineered Qualtrics survey to handle my wedding RSVPs (name look-up, custom font packs, etc.) Now I'm like, Should I think of a survey experiment to run on family and friends?!

I just found out, via reviewer request, about AJPS' new submissions stream for reanalyses. I'm intrigued. Philosophers have written about creating groups of dedicated replication scientists (see, e.g., work by Felipe Romero) and I've wondered about how that model would work in poli sci.