Rob Arthur
@robarthur.bsky.social
Data journalist, data scientist, freelancer published many places: WSJ, NYT, the Atlantic, the Guardian, etc. Before that: staff at FiveThirtyEight Before that: an evolutionary geneticist.
they tried forcing science to align with ideology in the USSR. It didn't go well. www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...
The Soviet Era's Deadliest Scientist Is Regaining Popularity in Russia
Trofim Lysenko’s spurious research prolonged famines that killed millions. So why is a fringe movement praising his legacy?
theatlantic.com
Dr. Lucky Tran@luckytran.com · 3d agoThere is no such thing as “conservative-based” science. If you’re not doing evidence-based science, you are making up fairy tales.
We'll be converting all ticket sales to *late registrations* (at a higher fee) soon. Buy your tickets now! events.ticketleap.com/tickets/sabe...
Saberseminar 2026 - At Illinois Tech
Sabermetrics, Scouting, and the Science of Baseball is the premier baseball analytics event. We get front office insiders, scientists, scouts, and sabermetricians into the same room and have them talk...
events.ticketleap.com
Excited about Saberseminar but not able to make it this year? Always wanted to buy a sweatshirt, mug, or hat with the logo? Check out our online store for another way of supporting the event. If there's any particular color/item combo you want, let us know. www.bonfire.com/store/sabers...
Saberseminar | Official Merchandise | Bonfire
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Using the DOJ's own data, I found that they're pursuing fewer criminal charges that aren't related to immigration. They're winning the cases they are pursuing less often, and at least in DC, it looks like they are declining to charge some serious offenses. no-little-plans.ghost.io/trumps-doj-i...
Trump’s DOJ Is Pursuing Fewer Non-Immigration Criminal Charges
The Department of Justice is the federal government’s main law enforcement apparatus, and it has shed thousands of personnel since the beginning of Trump’s second term. There are fewer ATF (Alcohol, T...
no-little-plans.ghost.io
An underappreciated aspect of Trump's immigration crackdown is that the DOJ has a lot less time to spend on what it used to do--prosecuting more serious crimes. We're starting to see the first impacts: a reduction in non-immigration-related charges. no-little-plans.ghost.io/trumps-doj-i...
Trump’s DOJ Is Pursuing Fewer Non-Immigration Criminal Charges
The Department of Justice is the federal government’s main law enforcement apparatus, and it has shed thousands of personnel since the beginning of Trump’s second term. There are fewer ATF (Alcohol, T...
no-little-plans.ghost.io
1. A bit of evolutionary biology. I'm really intrigued by a new perspective piece from Steve Frank that explores connections between how natural selection creates systems that generalize and recent work in machine learning about the surprising capabilities of massively overparameterized systems.
Generalization as the great leap in evolvability: insights from machine learning
Abstract. Natural selection encodes learned information in the genome. Learned solutions may be tuned specifically to past challenges, failing in altered e
academic.oup.com
1/ I looked at 20 years of Supreme Court decisions and found that for the first time, all nine justices decided more cases by secret ballot — aka the “shadow docket” — than it did for cases argued in open court last term. 🧵:
this is such great work from @bwd.bsky.social. He was kind enough to share some other emails where Sword et al. discussed my work, which was funny. Major props to Bradford for thinking to use public records law to get at some of this correspondence.
Bradford William Davis@bwd.bsky.social · 2mo agoIn 2019, an MLB exec told Rawlings the league wanted its baseball to perform to what he called a ‘target leaguewide home run rate’ The next year, MLB started making and using two baseballs in at least three consecutive seasons. What could this mean for the 2026 rocket ball? issa new [eyeblack]
This passage from @davidlat.bsky.social perfectly captures the false dichotomy you see so often from the Supreme Court's defenders: The Court is held out as "independent" because it doesn't *always* rule for Trump. That whitewashes (1) how often it *does*; & (2) its bad behavior in non-Trump cases.
In 2019, an MLB exec told Rawlings the league wanted its baseball to perform to what he called a ‘target leaguewide home run rate’ The next year, MLB started making and using two baseballs in at least three consecutive seasons. What could this mean for the 2026 rocket ball? issa new [eyeblack]
Did you know about MLB's dinger quota?
eyeblack found a league executive's instructions to achieve a 'target leaguewide homeun rate.' Here's what it says about 2026's Juiced Ball 2.0
readeyeblack.com
The weather in this afternoon's game between France and Paraguay in Philadelphia will be interesting, so I made a video about it for the brand new @weatherapplied YouTube Channel. If you want to see us make more such videos, subscribe to the channel. www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRA5...
WAM Weather Impact Preview: France v Paraguay, Philadelphia Stadium, July 4, 2026
YouTube video by Weather Applied Metrics
youtube.com
In other "excellent news from religious bodies", the US Presbyterian General Assembly has formally voted to start the process to (correctly) declare white Christian nationalism a theological error incompatible with the teachings of Jesus: pres-outlook.org/2026/07/pcus...
PC(USA) labels White Christian nationalism "Theological Error"
Calling White Christian nationalism incompatible with the teachings of Jesus, commissioners approved a proposed constitutional amendment and a new policy statement opposing the ideology.
pres-outlook.org
Movie stars are looking younger and younger relative to their actual age, and this trend has been going on since at least the 1970s. no-little-plans.ghost.io/the-top-10-e...
The Top 10% Effect: Why Movie Stars Are Aging More Slowly
I’m going to show you some pictures of famous actors and ask you to tell me what each pair has in common. Pretend you didn't just read the title. Ready? Go. Pair 1 Pair 2 And for some men: ...
no-little-plans.ghost.io
Movie stars are looking younger and younger relative to their actual age, and this trend has been going on since at least the 1970s. no-little-plans.ghost.io/the-top-10-e...
The Top 10% Effect: Why Movie Stars Are Aging More Slowly
I’m going to show you some pictures of famous actors and ask you to tell me what each pair has in common. Pretend you didn't just read the title. Ready? Go. Pair 1 Pair 2 And for some men: ...
no-little-plans.ghost.io
We had a really mean python at work and I gave him back to his owner and was like “he was trying to kill me” and his owner said “well, he only has so many ways to interact with the world. All he has is a face” and it Moved Me
I just bought my saberseminar ticket!
Saberseminar@saberseminar.bsky.social · 2mo agoExcited to announce that general ticket sales for Saberseminar 2026 are open now! We've got a great lineup of speakers that we'll reveal soon, but you can expect more of the fantastic research and discussions we've had in past years. events.ticketleap.com/tickets/sabe...
Unfortunately I'll not be attending this year due to a conflict. But I encourage all my baseball followers out there to attend. Saberseminar has always been one of the great forums for learning about the latest baseball research and connecting with other like-minded people. Do not miss it!
Saberseminar@saberseminar.bsky.social · 2mo agoExcited to announce that general ticket sales for Saberseminar 2026 are open now! We've got a great lineup of speakers that we'll reveal soon, but you can expect more of the fantastic research and discussions we've had in past years. events.ticketleap.com/tickets/sabe...
This is exactly why DEI efforts are not anti-meritocratic, as some critics claim. The base playing field is *severely* tilted against people of color, so efforts to push against that preexisting bias effectively just make promotions more fair and more meritocratic. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/u...
Secret Vetting and Blocked Promotions: Inside Hegseth’s War on Diversity
nytimes.com
Excited to announce that general ticket sales for Saberseminar 2026 are open now! We've got a great lineup of speakers that we'll reveal soon, but you can expect more of the fantastic research and discussions we've had in past years. events.ticketleap.com/tickets/sabe...
Saberseminar 2026 - At Illinois Tech
Sabermetrics, Scouting, and the Science of Baseball is the premier baseball analytics event. We get front office insiders, scientists, scouts, and sabermetricians into the same room and have them talk...
events.ticketleap.com
That's a shame. There was a lot of really good, sometimes academic-quality research on the site. (There was also some terrible stuff.) There's nothing to be gained by taking it offline.
Nathaniel Rakich@baseballot.bsky.social · 4mo agoABC News has now taken all FiveThirtyEight articles completely offline. They now redirect to abcnews dot com.politics. A needless erasure of thousands of pages of knowledge.
This is free to read, but if you enjoy reading it, you may also want to consider subscribing. Got some cool stuff coming up, some baseball, some more movies, some politics, and more.
Rob Arthur@robarthur.bsky.social · 4mo agoIn my last post, I looked at how Hollywood discriminates severely and unreasonably against older actresses, in particular. In this post, I look at how actresses fight back: they look much younger than their chronological age. no-little-plans.ghost.io/for-hollywoo...
In my last post, I looked at how Hollywood discriminates severely and unreasonably against older actresses, in particular. In this post, I look at how actresses fight back: they look much younger than their chronological age. no-little-plans.ghost.io/for-hollywoo...
For Hollywood Actresses, Looking Younger Pays Off
Every year they can shave from their appearance equates to millions of dollars in career earnings. I recently wrote about the blatant bias against aging female stars in Hollywood. I found that Hollyw...
no-little-plans.ghost.io
Just 3 DAYS LEFT to submit your abstract for Saberseminar 2026! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Saberseminar Abstract Submission Form
Thank you for considering presenting your work at Sabermetrics, Scouting, and the Science of Baseball 2026. Because of your efforts, we have grown to be a national meeting known for showcasing new, or...
docs.google.com
Still feel like "Musk and his crew of incels destroyed a bunch of stuff they didn't understand and thereby hastened the deaths of millions of children" did not get the public attention it warranted.
USAID Whistleblower Says It Was Even Worse Than People Knew
Political appointees wanted a quiet drawdown, the whistleblower says. DOGE wanted an execution.
wired.com
The acting head of the CDC has canceled the publication of a study that found that the Covid vaccine sharply cut the odds of hospitalizations and emergency visits last winter, a Health Department spokesman said.
C.D.C. Cancels Publication of Study Showing Benefits of Covid Vaccines
The report found that the shots cut the likelihood of hospitalizations, but the agency’s acting head said it gave an inaccurate picture of the vaccines’ effectiveness.
nyti.ms
Which of y'all are submitting something for Saberseminar this year? Which of y'all are attending? Which of you hate baseball and knowledge and good hangs? docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Saberseminar Abstract Submission Form
Thank you for considering presenting your work at Sabermetrics, Scouting, and the Science of Baseball 2026. Because of your efforts, we have grown to be a national meeting known for showcasing new, or...
docs.google.com
a little while back, I started a blog, except I guess blogs are called newsletters now. (Apparently I'm sufficiently old to have reached the stage of "that thing I called X is now called Y and I'm mad about it.")
sure, it's well known that all doctors emanate glowing radiance from their hands
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 5mo agoQ: Did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ? TRUMP: I did post it and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do Red Cross. Only the fake news could come up with that one.
Reminder: abstract submissions are open for Saberseminar 2026. We always aim for a mix of talks on a wide variety of subjects, from established professionals to hobbyists to students looking to get a foot in the door. Submit your abstract ASAP! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Saberseminar Abstract Submission Form
Thank you for considering presenting your work at Sabermetrics, Scouting, and the Science of Baseball 2026. Because of your efforts, we have grown to be a national meeting known for showcasing new, or...
docs.google.com
