Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 12m

"No, you're teaching today"

Nico Trajtenberg 🐝 @nicotrajtenberg.bsky.social · 28m

Essays/assignments ready for marking

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 9h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 2h

Better than

"Statistical analysis used vibes"

'cos that's still a thing too!

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Grodaeu @groda.eu · 4h

Media polls in Sweden. Basically *no one* except journalists and politicians is using X

Fredrik @fredrikwass.bsky.social · 4h

Det här kändes uppenbart redan innan den senaste Maktbarometern presenterades. En av mina tankar efter Svenskarna och internet veckan innan dess.
open.substack.com/pub/fredrikw...

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Tom Joscelyn @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social · 4h

“I spent three nights and three days in federal custody. During that time, I was never told what I was charged with, was not allowed to shower despite being covered in tear gas and pepper spray, had no phone call to my family, and no access to an attorney.” - George Retes, U.S. citizen and veteran.

I’m a US citizen and a veteran. ICE arrested me for no reason.

Jailed for three days without an explanation or ability to notify anyone, George Retes argues the only path to healing starts with the government taking accountability for its actions.

newsletter.ofthebrave.org

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 2h

a baby is walking on a wooden floor while holding a piece of toilet paper .

ALT: a baby is walking on a wooden floor while holding a piece of toilet paper .

media.tenor.com

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Meera Sundaram @meera-sundaram.bsky.social · 3h

Basic, curiosity driven, sometimes very exploratory, research is the seed corn that leads to the biggest scientific advances
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/s...

Nobel Prizes This Year Offer Three Cheers for Slow Science

www.nytimes.com

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 3h

Full [ethics review/data-sharing agreement]* required

*Delete as appropriate

Seema Jayachandran @seema.bsky.social · 3h

Congratulations, you're department chair.

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 9h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

George Davey Smith @mendelrandom.bsky.social · 29d

"Triangulation: moving from correlations to causation", Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine Distinguished Lecture 2025, Thursday, October 16th, 5pm, in person or online
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/school-of-...

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 9h

87 twin pairs...is that, good for a twin study? It doesn't seem anything like enough to be challenging decades of research??

Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 19h

Carter F*ck for the Private Eye punk band

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 23h

Implicit bias training...

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 1d

That eyebrow raise has got GAME.

Citizen.Coping @propcazhpm.bsky.social · 2d

In 1857, Thomas Howland became Providence, RI's first Black elected official.

Later that year, he decided to emigrate to Liberia with his wife & daughter after the Dred Scott case denied Black people protections of U.S. citizenship. He was denied a passport.

Thomas Howland, 1856
John Blanchard

Portrait of a distringuished Black man from the 19th centrure wearing fine clothes, including high collar and tie of the day.
Museum Text:
Thomas Howland, the subject of this unusually expressive portrait, was a dock worker in Providence, Rhode lsland, In 1857 he became the city's first Black elected oficial when he was amed warden of its Third Ward. However, that same year he decided to emigrate to Liberia with his wite and daughter, perhaps in response to the recent Supreme Court decision in the Dred Scott case that denied African Americans the protections of U.S. citizenship. Because of this decision, Howland's application for a passport was denied, despite his status as a free man with the right to vote in his home state (he did eventually make it to Liberia). Howland's confident posture echoes that of the earlier Portrait of a Gentleman shown nearby, the fashionable attire of both sitters serving to reinforce thelir self-possession.

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 1d

Yep.

And if we don't train future statisticians, hell, future "people who do numbers", there will be noone to spot when things have gone wrong.

Just like with software etc when junior roles are threatened by AI.

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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 1d

Nik Storonsky, the founder of Revolut, has left the UK and become tax resident in Dubai - escaping more than £3bn of UK tax.

Could we have stopped him leaving? Either with the carrot of a more competitive tax system, or the stick of an exit tax?

Some thoughts:

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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 1d

Every developed country in the world has an "exit tax" - you leave with unrealised capital gains, and you're taxed on them.

Except the UK and Italy:

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 1d

Probably too good...until the bubble pops then it'll be someone else's fault

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A tangled web of deals stokes AI bubble fears in Silicon Valley

Some are worried that the rapid rise in the value of AI tech companies may be a bubble waiting to burst.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Prof Penny Endersby @pennyend.bsky.social · 1d

Oh my goodness! We’ve been discussing using gracehopper chips in our next supercomputer but I didn’t know! Respect!

Wyrd Women @wyrdwomen.bsky.social · 1d

Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. She was a pioneer of computer programming who was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages.

#COBOL
#FLOW-MATIC
#WomeninSTEM
#WyrdWomen

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 1d

Really good post and another set of reasons to resist using AI all the time for everything.

(And I always hated Teams and thought it bloated, but 100% CPU usage is just really bad software)

Richard Bown @bownie.bsky.social · 1d

"Normalized incompetence" seems to sum up my day-to-day!

Frans Bouma @fransbouma.com · 1d

This was a great read. No idea how to get on top of this, perhaps pulling random people away from keyboards? Who knows!
techtrenches.substack.com/p/the-great-...

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Rob Manuel @robmanuelyeah.bsky.social · 1d

Some people say, ok AI is 80% right and 20% hallucinations, and if you know that then you can work with it.

Out of curiosity I asked AI to summarise the last b3ta newsletter & every single bit of this, other than the title, isn't true. Not just a distortion, but absolutely untrue. Pure fantasy.

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Anna Dent @annadent.bsky.social · 1d

ICO orders DWP to

"disclose the list of all AI tools DWP plans to place on the Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standards Hub"

I.e. publish details of all the AI they are using unless there is a valid reason to keep it secret

h/t @rightsnet.org.uk

Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

ico.org.uk

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Reposted by Alex Sutherland

Nuffield College Library @nuffieldlibrary.bsky.social · 2d

Also:
Tradecraft: writers on John le Carré edited by @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social Senior Research Fellow Federico Varese
Find out more about this tie-in with the @bodleian.ox.ac.uk exhibition here:
visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/lecarre

Book cover showing a close up photograph of a late middle-aged man's face

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Jason Furman @jasonfurman.bsky.social · 2d

The other day a student asked me about the prevalence of insider trading in prediction markets. I now have an answer.

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Alex Sutherland @criminologist.bsky.social · 2d

Soooooo wrong. But very funny.

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John Horgan @johnhorgan.bsky.social · 2d

"He was looking for a way out. She was looking for a way in."

The most romantic film of the year.

The Silence of the Lambs.

youtu.be/HCoTiU0S85Y?...

The Silence of the Lambs as a Romantic Comedy - Trailer Mix

YouTube video by CineFix - IGN Movies and TV

youtu.be

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Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 2d

Boring Company cited for almost 800 environmental violations in Las Vegas

Violations include digging without permits and dumping wastewater into storm drains.

arstechnica.com

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