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Alex Franks

@amfranks.bsky.social

740 followers 140 following 17 posts

Associate Professor of Statistics afranks.com

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Alex Franks @amfranks.bsky.social · 2d

I've been thinking about developing this course for a little while, and the @chelseaparlett.bsky.social post and reaction may be the tipping point for me to finally take it on: bsky.app/profile/chel...

Chelsea Parlett @chelseaparlett.bsky.social · 16d

Data Science programs often put too little emphasis on causal inference, and it’s hurting their graduates on the job market! The econometrics people are coming for your jobs lol

Alex Franks @amfranks.bsky.social · 2d

Who is teaching causal inference at the undergrad level? What do you cover? Recommended textbooks? Slides you're willing to share? Advice? #stats

Alex Franks @amfranks.bsky.social · Aug 7

Not saying that I totally buy it, but this post outlines an interesting justification based on modeling the half life of a "fatal mistake" using tools from survival analysis: www.tobyord.com/writing/half...

Is there a Half-Life for the Success Rates of AI Agents? — Toby Ord

Building on the recent empirical work of Kwa et al. (2025), I show that within their suite of research-engineering tasks the performance of AI agents on longer-duration tasks can be explained by an ex...

www.tobyord.com

Alex Franks @amfranks.bsky.social · Jul 19

Meant to say AOS.

Alex Franks @amfranks.bsky.social · Jul 19

I do think that stats depts should be doing much more to emphasize data analysis. One of the best ways to generate idea for stats methods research is to be intimately familiar with data analysis and the challenges that come with it.

Alex Franks @amfranks.bsky.social · Jul 19

In general, I think nowadays most departments would be equally happy with an applied statistician publishing in AOAS, JASA A&CS and JCGS as they would publishing in AOS.

Alex Franks @amfranks.bsky.social · Jul 19

What is most valued at tenure time also depends on what kind of department. E.g. as you allude to, a biostat dept will have very different criteria than a stats dept in say, a business school, which definitely skews more toward AOAS style publications.

Alex Franks @amfranks.bsky.social · Jul 19

I like to think of academic statistics on a continuum: applied, methods and then theory. In my opinion, a "strong" stats dept should have faculty at a range of points on this continuum.

Reposted by Alex Franks

Mark D. Levine @marklevinenyc.bsky.social · Jul 6

Congestion pricing by the # ‘s 6 months in:
* 67k fewer drivers entering zone daily
* Delays in Holland Tunnel down 65%
* Traffic deaths down 32% so far in 2025
* $500m projected this year for MTA capital improvements
* B’way attendance +12%
* Subway ridership +7%

So yes this program is a SUCCESS.

Reposted by Alex Franks

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · Jul 3

I don’t think anyone is prepared for what they just did w/ ICE.

This is not a simple budget increase. It is an explosion - making ICE bigger than the FBI, US Bureau of Prisons, DEA,& others combined.

It is setting up to make what’s happening now look like child’s play. And people are disappearing.

Reposted by Alex Franks

Leah Stokes @leahstokes.bsky.social · Jun 14

This is downtown Santa Barbara right now. The No Kings protest stretches for over a mile along the water. The cars who drive by are all honking in support. Probably the biggest protest this community has ever seen.

Reposted by Alex Franks

United Farm Workers @ufw.bsky.social · Jun 11

We feed you.
They hunt us.

Reposted by Alex Franks

Dr Alessio Veneziano @aveneziano.bsky.social · Jun 11

At the risk of sounding like a big nerd, I love when assumed/perceived trends are found to be the result of the Simpson's paradox! Here, the gender-equality paradox is getting fried! 🧪 #science 📊 #stats #equality

Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · Jun 11

“The gender-equality paradox entails that countries with more equality have larger gender differences in behavior. Positive associations between equality & gender differences disappear or reverse when accounting for cultural clusters of countries. The paradox appears to be a methodological artifact”

Simpson’s gender-equality paradox | PNAS

Several cross-country examinations have found larger gender differences in Western countries. More recently, it has been argued, from an evolutiona...

Reposted by Alex Franks

Elizabeth Stuart @lizstuart.bsky.social · Jun 5

@noahgreifer.bsky.social was my post-doc and I cannot recommend him more highly if you need a super smart statistical consultant / programmer. He is the force behind MatchIt, cobalt, and other packages, and is also just a fantastic team member.

Noah Greifer @noahgreifer.bsky.social · Jun 4

Starting to look like I might not be able to work at Harvard anymore due to recent funding cuts. If you know of any open statistical consulting positions that support remote work or are NYC-based, please reach out! 😅

Reposted by Alex Franks

Richard Van Noorden @richvn.bsky.social · May 2

Trump proposes unprecedented budget cuts for US science in next fiscal year
NASA cut by 24%
NIH cut by 40%
EPA cut by 55%
NSF cut by 56%
Analysis from @maxkozlov.bsky.social @dangaristo.bsky.social @alexwitze.bsky.social and @nature.com team
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Trump proposes unprecedented budget cuts to US science

Huge reductions, if enacted, could have ‘catastrophic’ effects on US competitiveness and the scientific pipeline, critics say.

Reposted by Alex Franks

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · Apr 29

The man at left separated the mother and baby at right. The mother is now in Venezuela. Baby daughter, in foster care in the US, exact location unknown.

Dad? He's in CECOT prison without trial — because he had tattoos.

Stephen Miller

Mother and young baby wearing a pink hat

Reposted by Alex Franks

Prof Christina Pagel @chrischirp.bsky.social · Apr 29

🧵In March I wrote about how Trump's attacks on science & universities followed the authoritarian playbook & set out Qs as warning signs for escalation.

🚨 THESE ARE NOW HAPPENING

This 🧵is on how those warning sign Qs have been realised

full post:
christinapagel.substack.com/p/warning-si...

1/15

Reposted by Alex Franks

Nick Harkaway @nickharkaway.com · Apr 25

Wow. Randall Monroe is not fucking around *at all*.

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Apr 25

PhD Timeline xkcd.com/3081

Reposted by Alex Franks

Karyn @karynregal.bsky.social · Apr 12

“When the men approached me, my first thought was that they …. wanted to harm me.”

As a woman who spent a career working alone in weird and dangerous situations, my first concern was being hurt.

Thanks, @cambridgeday.bsky.social for being one of the few news outlets to capture that.

Cambridge Day @cambridgeday.com · Apr 11

In her own words, Tufts grad student Öztürk describes her capture and federal detention

Rumeysa Ozturk’s attorneys filed new briefing for the federal district court in Vermont’s 5 p.m. deadline Thursday, including her own recounting of her capture and subsequent captivity.

Reposted by Alex Franks

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Apr 12

She is still in custody www.wbur.org/news/2025/04...

Tufts student details harrowing transport by ICE, lack of food and medical care in detention

Rümeysa Öztürk's sworn statement was filed alongside a motion from her attorneys seeking her immediate release from detention while they fight the revocation of her visa.

Reposted by Alex Franks

Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · Mar 28

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs.

Find out how your community may be impacted.

Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org

a 🧵

US map via scienceimpacts.org visualization of economic loss due to IDC cuts to 15% as part of Feb 7, 2025 executive order, with shading denoting intensity of cuts.

Reposted by Alex Franks

Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · Mar 27

What people in every part of higher education need to understand is that Republicans now want to do to universities what they’ve tried to do to labor unions: erase them from the institutional landscape. The question is how much you want to collaborate in your own destruction.

Reposted by Alex Franks

Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · Mar 26

This is completely terrifying, a huge violation of the first amendment, and part of the coopting of a distorted version of anti-semitism to justify persecution of people speaking out against Israel's genocide. And the broader pursuit of a police state.

Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · Mar 26

Not sure if this has been shared here yet, but this is video of Rumeysa Ozturk's arrest posted by WCVB. It's terrifying.

Reposted by Alex Franks

Rachael Sirianni, PhD @docsirianni.bsky.social · Mar 15

This is horrible to post, but I may as well post it. We are essentially shutting down research operations in my group, which is focused on treatments for pediatric brain cancer. I’m a well funded investigator, and there’s no choice. Science can’t function without the stability of NIH