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Stephen Meserve

@smeserve.bsky.social

42 followers 57 following 9 posts

Practicing political scientist, hiker, tabletop gamer, etc in Northern Arizona

Videos

Political science 52%

Computer science 14%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Norbert Schwarz, Robert W. Wallace, Anders Nilsson , and 11 more Norbert Schwarz, Robert W. Wallace, Anders Nilsson, Stephen D. Murphy, Lesley Bartlett, Victor Galaz, Scott A. Imberman, Michael D. McDonald, Jennifer A. Johnson, Andrew Novak, Stephen A. Meserve, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Southern Africa

Amanda Katz @katzish.bsky.social · 1d

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

apnews.com

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Reposted by Melissa Sweet, Stephen A. Meserve

Doug Mack @douglasmack.bsky.social · 1d

the most delightful version of logging on to see what news you've missed

Dr Ramsdell, whose phone had been on airplane mode when the Nobel committee tried to call him, told the BBC's Newshour Programme that his first response when his wife said, "You've won the Nobel prize" was: "I did not."

To which Ms O'Neill replied that she had 200 text messages that suggested he had.

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Stephen Meserve @smeserve.bsky.social · 7d

Beautiful day on campus today, trying to touch a little grass with everything going on.

Picture of university campus with a small bus stop, campus buildings, and many colored desiduous trees.

Brendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 8d

Trump's higher ed ransom note is here - everyone would have to acquiesce to their unprecedented demands or not be "given priority for grants," plus they can demand "reimbursement" for "violations" www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

A mechanism to enforce fealty. An attack on academic freedom and democracy

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Reposted by Stephen A. Meserve

Elizabeth (Bit) Meehan, PhD @elizabethbitmeehan.com · 8d

Here is the January-June 2025 APSA eJobs report for the #polisky people: apsanet.org/wp-content/u...

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Reposted by Michael A. Clemens, Smith, Juan Rocha , and 2 more Michael A. Clemens, Smith, Juan Rocha, Stephen A. Meserve, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Noam Ross @noamross.net · 9d

The Damage Done: @marianneguenot.bsky.social tells the story of clinical trials derailed by the administration's reckless science policy, across kidney disease, HIV, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer. Years of work and money thrown away, at times just short of a cure.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The damage done - Nature Medicine

When clinical trials are suddenly halted by US funding cuts, there are repercussions for investigators and patients, and they do not stop at borders.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Stephen A. Meserve

ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 9d

useful piece. again and again it seems LLMs can be very useful *if you know what you are doing and are familiar with their strengths and limitations* lucumr.pocoo.org/2025/9/29/90...

90%

AI is writing 90% of the code I was in charge of

lucumr.pocoo.org

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Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Jesse H. Kroll, Karen R. Lips , and 3 more Lisa W. Fazio, Jesse H. Kroll, Karen R. Lips, David W. Kerstetter, Zen Faulkes, Stephen A. Meserve

Katie Mack @astrokatie.com · 9d

That's quite the chart annotation.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A chart of "Major concerns of PhD candidates." The top text says, "Financial pressures top the list of concerns faced by PhD candidates, but concerns differ among the sexes. Those studying in the United States rank the political landscape as their main worry." The chart shows that in the full survey, political landscape is the biggest concern for about 20% of students (a bit higher for women than men) but there's an annotation saying "In US PhD students, this rose to 64%". Overall, the highest-rated concern was financial pressures at around 40%.

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Reposted by Stephen A. Meserve

Joel Sievert @jsievert.bsky.social · 9d

Re-reading Skowronek’e “Building a New American State” in 2025 as the administrative state continues to be whittled away is quite the experience.

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Robert C. Richards, David R. Miller , and 9 more Anna O. Law, Robert C. Richards, David R. Miller, Adrian Daub, Aurélien Mondon, Mark Rice, Cullen S. Hendrix, Christina Pagel, Stephen A. Meserve, Manisha Sinha, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Southern Africa

Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 13d

Trump asks Supreme Court to decide whether he can end birthright citizenship www.cnn.com/2025/09/26/p...

Trump asks Supreme Court to decide whether he can end birthright citizenship | CNN Politics

The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to review the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, pushing the issue back bef...

www.cnn.com

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Reposted by Mark A. Lemley, Brendan Nyhan, Eric Goldman , and 3 more Mark A. Lemley, Brendan Nyhan, Eric Goldman, Daniel W. Drezner, Michael D. McDonald, Stephen A. Meserve

Katie Drummond @katie-drummond.bsky.social · 14d

A new senate report is full of *shocking* details about DOGE activities inside the federal government. Including, unfortunately, the disturbing access that DOGE affiliates had to our SSNs:

"One whistleblower noted the possibility that the agency may need to re-issue SSNs to all who possess one."

Armed Guards and Muscle Milk: Senate Investigation Reveals DOGE Takeover Details

A new Senate report claims DOGE put every American's Social Security number at risk—and that officials at federal agencies essentially obstructed an investigation, all but denying DOGE even exists.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Stephen A. Meserve

ryan cooper @ryanlcooper.com · 17d

"Student arrivals to the US dropped 19% in August year-on-year to just over 313,000 – a fifth consecutive month of declines" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

US Student Visa Arrivals Fall to Four-Year Low, Led by Asia Drop

Visitors to the US arriving on student visas hit a four-year low in August, portending a grim trend for the nation’s education sector.

www.bloomberg.com

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Gergely Orosz @gergely.pragmaticengineer.com · 19d

Those on an H1B cannot return to the US from tomorrow (Sunday) unless paying $100K. This is an out-of-the blue presidential action. We’ll see software engineers stranded abroad.

One easy to predict outcome: those on US visas will travel less… for work, for conferences etc.

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Reposted by Stephen A. Meserve

Nathan Kalmoe (he/him) @nathankalmoe.bsky.social · 21d

Ah, the well known “efficiency of operations” exception to the guarantee of speech free from punishment by the government.

“It adds the university's interest in the efficiency of operations may outweigh an employee's rights of free expression.”

krcgtv.com/news/local/m...

MU warns staff about social media, says employees 'do not have unlimited rights to speak'

As controversy around free speech and personal social media use swirled in the wake of Charlie Kirk's death, Mizzou clarified its stance and expectations.

krcgtv.com

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Reposted by Katharine Hayhoe, Lisa W. Fazio, Stephen A. Meserve

Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 24d

New work about how perceptions of social consensus shape belief. My sense is that the design of social media, w/ signals of engagement on top of massive attention flows, shapes social consensus… a key factor (IMO ) of information disorder.

Timothy Caulfield @caulfieldtim.bsky.social · 24d

New evidence for the Gateway (mis)Belief Model: Perceived consensus shapes climate beliefs www.psypost.org/new-evidence...

“…misinformation about climate change can reduce people’s perceptions of scientific consensus, which in turn tends to lower belief in human-caused climate change…”

New evidence for the Gateway (mis)Belief Model: Perceived consensus shapes climate beliefs

New research suggests that even brief exposure to climate misinformation can distort how much scientific agreement people think exists, and this shift tends to lead to less worry and lower support for...

www.psypost.org

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Reposted by Stephen M. Walt, Lisa W. Fazio, Brendan Nyhan , and 6 more Stephen M. Walt, Lisa W. Fazio, Brendan Nyhan, Joshua S. Weitz, Scott L. Greer, David Johnson, Smith, Rebecca M. Bratspies, Stephen A. Meserve

Anthony Michael Kreis @anthonymkreis.bsky.social · Sep 9

One of Bari Weiss’s reporters over at the Free Press was shocked to discover what Columbia students are reading in class:

lol wat

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Reposted by Stephen A. Meserve

Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · Sep 3

Cannot recommend enough the @bretdevereaux.bsky.social series on what Sparta was actually like, deep and accessible dive into a monstrous society that built an outsized reputation on a fragile system of pure cruelty and ho-hum but ultimately fleeting military success

acoup.blog/2019/08/16/c...

Collections: This. Isn’t. Sparta. Part I: Spartan School

This is Part I of a seven part series (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, Gloss., Retrospective) comparing the popular legacy of Sparta (embodied in films like 300) with the historical ancient state. Toda…

acoup.blog

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Reposted by Anna O. Law, Colin F. Camerer, Will Jennings , and 12 more Anna O. Law, Colin F. Camerer, Will Jennings, Steve Peers, Michael A. Clemens, Mark D. White, Rosemary A. Joyce, Anders Nilsson, Robert Black, Trevon D. Logan, David R. Miller, Michael D. McDonald, James Goodwin, Stephen A. Meserve, Francesco Nicoli

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · Aug 31

This “explicit” is a weird editorial choice. The constitution gives the president no power over this at all. It’s not ambiguous.

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Reposted by Stephen A. Meserve

Kelsey Atherton @atherton.bsky.social · Aug 30

Nothing but respect for my Burning Man

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Reposted by Elizabeth Stokoe, Justin H. Kirkland, Julian Webb , and 6 more Elizabeth Stokoe, Justin H. Kirkland, Julian Webb, Rebecca Sear, Scott Clifford, Melanie C. Green, Georg Weizsäcker, Juan Ramón, Stephen A. Meserve

Tanay Katiyar @adigitaltanay.bsky.social · Aug 29

On Prolific, "we estimate that about 34% of online study participants use LLMs to answer open-ended questions atleast some of the time..."

Seems like a very timely paper for behavioural scientists using online samples: osf.io/preprints/so... ;

We really need more papers on this issue

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Reposted by Michael D. Green, Daniel W. Drezner, Smith , and 5 more Michael D. Green, Daniel W. Drezner, Smith, Lauren Hersch Nicholas, Dean Eckles, Lisa Diedrich, Holland, Stephen A. Meserve

Maggie Astor @maggieastor.bsky.social · Aug 29

NEWS: CVS, the largest pharmacy chain in the country, is currently not offering Covid vaccines in 16 states and DC — even to people who meet the new FDA criteria — because the CDC hasn't signed off and isn't expected to do so (if it does so) for at least three weeks.

CVS Holds Off on Offering Covid Vaccines in 16 States

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Steven Van de Walle, Mark Rice, Stephen A. Meserve , and 1 more Steven Van de Walle, Mark Rice, Stephen A. Meserve, Southern Africa

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · Aug 27

A century to build the expert civil service, a few months to burn it down for generations

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Reposted by Henry Farrell, Stephen A. Meserve

Abe Newman @abenewman.bsky.social · Aug 26

I hate to say I told you so but...centralizing government data infrastructures and turning them over to inexperiences actors generates big risks to society. We are starting to see the first consequences for social security. Others will follow.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/u...

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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · Aug 26

Trump posts a letter stating that he is removing Fed Governor Lisa Cook

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Stephen Meserve @smeserve.bsky.social · Aug 21

another orientation, another banner year of "strategic finance."

Reposted by Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Brendan Nyhan, Scott L. Greer , and 9 more Suresh Venkatasubramanian, Brendan Nyhan, Scott L. Greer, Awais Aftab, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Alan Richardson, David Higgins, Kate Starbird, Alessandro Rigolon, Greg Linden, Schools, Stephen A. Meserve

Megan Ranney MD MPH @meganranney.bsky.social · Aug 19

A must-read, must-share piece - clearly deconstructing the shoddy science of the Geiers (who are inexplicably in charge of studies at HHS).

Consider this an early warning for what lies ahead. 🛟🩺🧪

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Opinion | The Playbook Used to ‘Prove’ Vaccines Cause Autism (Gift Article)

Data can easily be manipulated to show a causation that doesn’t exist.

www.nytimes.com

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Reposted by Michael D. Green, Stephen D. Murphy, Stephen A. Meserve , and 1 more Michael D. Green, Stephen D. Murphy, Stephen A. Meserve, Jeff Carter

Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social · Aug 19

Notable that AI tools could not even generate accurate meeting summaries beyond “a couple hundred words.” That’s useless for minutes.

And for lit review they *completely* shit the bed.

But these aren’t people’s favorite tasks & AI is way quicker, so many will keep using them, truth be damned.

I Tested How Well AI Tools Work for Journalism

Some tools were sufficient for summarizing meetings. For research, the results were a disaster.

www.cjr.org

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Damnèd Screamvens @thehighsign.bsky.social · Aug 13

Wow. The University of Chicago, a world-class institution whose humanities faculty in the past has included Homi Bhabha & Lauren Berlant & Ralph Ellison & Hannah freaking Arendt, is getting rid of basically every graduate department involving the acknowledgment that other cultures & languages exist.

Quote from a story on changes at the U of Chicago that notes they are "pausing" doctoral eduction in Classics, Comp Lit, Germanic studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Romance languages and literatures, and South Asian Studies.

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Reposted by Stephan Lewandowsky, Gavin A. Schmidt, Richard Betts , and 3 more Stephan Lewandowsky, Gavin A. Schmidt, Richard Betts, Families, David Johnson, Stephen A. Meserve

Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · Aug 7

RFK Jr. defends $500M cut for mRNA vaccines with pseudoscience gobbledygook

He clearly has no idea what antigenic shift means.

arstechnica.com

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