Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 3h

Sure it's just one word in the README, but still did something to help ghostty - ghostty.org - the best terminal emulator out there!

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Reposted by Rohan Alexander

Sean Kross @seankross.com · 5h

“People should learn what selection bias is.”

“Would you Quintus? Would I?”

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 1d

Great book 🇨🇦🥅🍁

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 1d

Fall's here

Reposted by Rohan Alexander

Monica Alexander @monjalexander.bsky.social · 3d

The Toronto Population Network is holding a conference on 6 November at Hart House at UofT. Keynote from @ridhikashyap.bsky.social! If you're in Toronto come along and help us build the community of demographers and population researchers here! Registration: www.eventbrite.com/e/toronto-po...

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 3d

This is wonderful. Congratulations on the launch!

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 3d

IDK if maybe not statistical enough for your students, but The Effect and Mixtape are both good in the social sciences: theeffectbook.net
mixtape.scunning.com

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Reposted by Rohan Alexander

Thomas Davidson @thomasdavidson.bsky.social · 3d

There is one week left to apply to join us at Rutgers! We're hiring an Assistant Professor in Computational Sociology as part of a cluster of new hires in data science and AI.

Applications are due next Wednesday, 10/15.

Assistant Professor in Computational Sociology

The Department of Sociology at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, seeks applications for a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level specializing in Computational Sociology. The search i...

jobs.rutgers.edu

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 3d

Yeah it's sad that pedagogy innovation this fall basically means "I brought back in-person exams".

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 3d

October baseball and the jays won!

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 3d

Hilariously the senate and the reps disagree on when Richard Hartley Smith Abbott died! And you people wonder why I have data trust issues.

Screenshot showing Senate saying he died on 28 Feb and the reps saying he died on 27 Feb.

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 3d

Updated Australian Hansard data (1998-2025) thanks to the incredible work of Lindsay Katz!
zenodo.org/records/1729...

A new, comprehensive database of all proceedings of the Australian Parliamentary Debates (1998-2025)

This database contains data on the proceedings from each sitting day in the Australian Parliament by the House of Representatives from 02 March 1998 to 31 July 2025, in parquet form. These data were p...

zenodo.org

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 4d

Sure you might be a pedant, but are you a "finds mistakes in Hansard" level of pedant? (Feeney wasn't in parliament on this day). Lindsay Katz FTW!

Screenshot of Hansard, with "Mr Feeney interjecting" highlighted

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 5d

"Overcome Imposterism" "Manage Procrastination" "Tame Perfectionism". Real "tag yourself" moment in terms of which workshop you sign up to.

A list of four academic workshops under the heading “Workshops.” The sessions include: “Give Effective Academic Presentations” on Monday, October 6, from 4:00–5:30 pm; “Build Academic Confidence and Overcome Imposterism” on Thursday, October 9, from 12:00–1:15 pm; “Manage Procrastination” on Monday, October 20, from 12:00–1:15 pm; and “Tame Perfectionism” on Thursday, October 23, from 1:00–2:15 pm. Each workshop title is a blue, underlined link.

Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 6d

Rowing is very much the best sport!

Ryan Briggs @ryancbriggs.net · 6d

If you don’t yet exercise, strongly consider starting regular indoor rowing. It’s not fun, but:
1. It’s a full body workout, muscle and cardio
2. It can be done in about 20 min/day
3. It’s not so hard to fit a C2 erg in many homes
4. It’s low impact and your chance of injury is low

essencesimmone.blacksky.app @essencesimmone.blacksky.app · 9d

Those who are 35+, what advice do you have for people just entering their 30s?

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 7d

Data scientists: “OMG we had to learn a new programming language for this project”
Anthropologists: “We literally learnt two languages”

Photo of a book with the following quote circled:
“Learning to speak !Kung was a laborious task. No !Kung-English speaker was available, so one had to work with two interpreters. Onesi-mus Mbombo translated my questions from English to Setswana, and Gakekgoshe Isak (the son of Headman Isak and a fluent !Kung speaker) from Setswana to !Kung. The answer came back like a broken telephone from Kung to Setswana and Setswana to English. This cumbersome system spurred me on to learn! Kung quickly, but in fact during the early months I learned more Setswana than !Kung. By March 1964 I could use Setswana in interviews and to elicit more !Kung vocabulary. The !Kung word can be described as an explosion of sound surrounded by a vowel.
The bundle of clicks, fricatives, and glottal stops that begins most words makes !Kung a difficult language to record, let alone learn to speak; and the difficulty is compounded by the extremely rapid-fire delivery of !Kung speakers. Nevertheless, month by month my facility progressed until it was possible to dispense with the services of the English-Setswana interpreter a year into the fieldwork.”

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 8d

Some nice examples for data science ethics classes: blog.pragmaticengineer.com/asked-to-do-...

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 9d

OMG it's @statisticalsam.bsky.social on BlueSky!

Sam Caetano @statisticalsam.bsky.social · 9d

The International Day of Women in Statistics and Data Science (IDWSDS) takes place on October 14. Lots of great talks, including session "S314 - Florence Nightingale Day - Lessons on Longevity" at 14:00 EST about stats outreach events for highschool girls.

Full conference info here: www.idwsds.org

Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 9d

New faculty website profile!

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 9d

This is super nice. (although “the universe” == the US in this case ;) ). Had been looking for something like this to use to code some Hansard speech and looking forward to trying your ensemble approach. Thanks for setting out the approach so clearly.

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 10d

That's incredible. I had no idea.

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 10d

I was against this policy 20 years ago - rohanalexander.com/blog/blog-20... - and I remain against it.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...
(Sadly, I don't have a photo of the print original, although I'm sure Mum does.)

Fears the expanded Home Guarantee Scheme will send property prices into overdrive

Sarah Ferguson presents Australia's premier daily current affairs program, delivering agenda-setting public affairs journalism and interviews that hold the powerful to account. Plus political analysis...

www.abc.net.au

Reposted by Rohan Alexander

Paul Hünermund @p-hunermund.com · 14d

Two more days to submit! 🚨 Please share if you can! 🙏 #CDSM2025

Paul Hünermund @p-hunermund.com · 19d

🚨 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 – One Week Left to Submit: #CDSM2025 🚨

📅 𝗡𝗼𝘃 𝟭𝟮–𝟭𝟯, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 (Virtual)
📥 Submission Deadline: 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁 𝟯𝟬, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱

We welcome:
✅ Presentation proposals
✅ Extended abstracts
✅ Full papers

📧 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼: [email protected]
🌐 Register or learn more: www.causalscience.org

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Rohan Alexander @rohanalexander.bsky.social · 16d

This was really interesting. Thanks for writing/sharing it. The history bit was fascinating.

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Reposted by Rohan Alexander

Investigative Journalism Foundation @theijf.org · 16d

When you buy an Edmonton Oilers 50/50 ticket, how much money ends up with charity? Check out our investigation to find the answer.

zurl.co/5aL6i

#abpoli #hockey

Oilers 50/50 raffle has paid $81M to company owned by hockey group over 4 years, documents reveal

Financial statements show percentage of ticket sales available for charity has declined since raffle moved online

zurl.co

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