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William Martindale

@wijama.bsky.social

540 followers 840 following 770 posts

Taiwanese-American MCEPA student at UC San Diego. Known as 馬凱威 to the other half of my family. I research conspiracy theories in the Chinese-speaking world. Follow me for bad jokes, stats nerd stuff, and updates on whatever I'm reading.

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William Martindale @wijama.bsky.social · Aug 8

Pleased to share that my undergraduate thesis, "Partisanship, Security, and Global Status: Anatomy of Taiwan’s March 19 Shooting Conspiracy Theories" is now available to read on BYU ScholarsArchive. In it, I examine an understudied conspiracy theory and implications on the field. Here's a summary 🧵

Partisanship, Security, and Global Status: Anatomy of Taiwan’s March 19 Shooting Conspiracy Theories

Previous research has shown how belief in particular conspiracy theories is subject to their salience to believers. Using the example of Taiwan’s March 19 shooting conspiracy theories, I show in this ...

scholarsarchive.byu.edu

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William Martindale @wijama.bsky.social · 9h

oh no these comments are about to be hell

Reposted by William Martindale

Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 13h

After getting zero firm commitments to this point from the first nine invitees, the Trump administration is extending its proposed compact to all colleges. Expect some red-state publics to say yes.

Trump Offers All Colleges Preferential Funding Plan Rejected by MIT

The Trump administration is inviting all US colleges to participate in a compact — initially rejected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — that would grant preferential federal funding in re...

www.bloomberg.com

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William Martindale @wijama.bsky.social · 16h

This reminds me of this very depressing read: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

Reposted by William Martindale

Ian Hussey @ianhussey.mmmdata.io · 1d

Make an effect size prediction!

@jamiecummins.bsky.social and I are replicating Balcetis & Dunning's (2010) "chocolate is more desirable than poop" (Cohen's d = 4.52)

Let us known in the replies what effect size you think we'll find. Details of the study in the thread below.

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Reposted by William Martindale

BeijingPalmer @beijingpalmer.bsky.social · 16h

a lot of people want to read Trump and team's fossil fuel obsession as being about *money* but while there is of course a corruption element, it's primarily pure culture war stuff. even many of the big fossil fuel companies want to get into renewables because it's so obviously the future.

Brandon Bishop @brandontbishop.bsky.social · 16h

Coal production and employment in Wyoming has steadily been declining, much like the rest of the industry in the US.

Coal is a dead industry.

(Chart from here: www.uwyo.edu/cbea/wyoming... )

Graphs showing coal production (left) and employment in coal (right) for the state of Wyoming from 1983 to 2020 from the linked website. Coal production was rapidly increasing until 2008 and has more or less steadily decreased since. Employment in coal likewise rapidly increased until 2009, was stable until 2012 and has rapidly decreased since.

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Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 1d

The US Administration has mounted an unprecedented and unpopular attack on high skill immigration.

It’s working. The world’s best and brightest are starting to understand that the US government considers them an infection.

www.economist.com/science-and-...

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Reposted by William Martindale

China Media Project @chinamediaproject.bsky.social · 1d

This one comes with a nice interactive pulldown table of (partial) pen names used in the CCP's official People's Daily. We aim to serve!

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Reposted by William Martindale

Dominic Meagher @dom-ma.bsky.social · 1d

Biggest overreach in history?

China is demanding every exporter in the world who uses Chinese rare earths (or rare earth tech) apply to it for export licenses, submitting technical drawings of all products & describing how they move through global supply chains.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/12/b...

Cars to Fighter Jets: China’s New Export Curbs May Level a Heavy Blow Worldwide

www.nytimes.com

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William Martindale @wijama.bsky.social · 1d

this is fine

a picture of a very broken map with the southern hemisphere layered on top of the northern hemisphere

Reposted by William Martindale

Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social · 3d

New from me at Cato: I go through the numerous and massive First Amendment and academic-freedom violations of Trump's proffered "compact" with universities and then talk about the mechanism by which it would be enforced, by way of what I describe as a "retroactive push-button guillotine."

Universities Must Defend Their Independence by Rejecting Trump's "Compact"

The Trump administration has proffered a “compact” to universities that would require them to surrender their independence and academic freedom. How many First Amendment violations can we identify in ...

www.cato.org

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Reposted by William Martindale

Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 3d

I googled “patron saint of frogs” for a bit and then immediately abandoned the bit because I would so much rather actually talk about St. Ulphia the 8th century hermit who cursed her local frogs for keeping her up at night and making her sleep through church

Her hermitage was located in a marshy wetland, inhabited by frogs whose loud croaking kept her up all night. One day, she was so tired that she slept through when Domitius knocked at her door, and he, thinking she had already gone on ahead, left without her. Legend states that Ulphia placed the frogs in the area around her under interdict as a result of their loud croaking, which kept her awake at nights.
A 19th century hagiographer noted that the frogs in the area around the oratory of Saint Ulphia were, indeed, very quiet. However, if these frogs were taken elsewhere, they became boisterous once again.
At the end of her life, she formed and directed a community of religious women at Amiens.
In iconography, she is depicted as a young nun seated in prayer on a rock with a frog in the pool near her.

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Reposted by William Martindale

Senate Judiciary Democrats 🇺🇸 @judiciarydems.senate.gov · 3d

BREAKING: Sens. DURBIN, DUCKWORTH were just denied entrance to the Broadview ICE Facility in Illinois, unable to conduct constitutional role of oversight.

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William Martindale @wijama.bsky.social · 3d

If I was Lecornu I would instantly resign again

William Martindale @wijama.bsky.social · 3d

He was right omg www.bbc.com/news/article...

William Martindale @wijama.bsky.social · 3d

You really really won't believe who the new French PM is then

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 4d

they can see the polling

Alex Wayne @aawayne.bsky.social · 4d

“Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.”

The Republican chair of the National Governors Association breaks with Trump.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/u...

Oklahoma’s Republican Governor Criticizes National Guard Deployment in Chicago

www.nytimes.com

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Sarah Posner @sarahposner.bsky.social · 4d

These are terrible numbers for Trump (via @pewresearch.org)

www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

"Majorities say trump has used his office improperly; fewer say he has improved government, U.S. standing" (graphs via Pew Research)

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Reposted by William Martindale

Mark Joseph Stern @mjsdc.bsky.social · 4d

It is pretty galling that the Supreme Court spent four years telling Biden "you can't do that without Congress" then allowed Trump to seize a once-unthinkable amount of power from Congress within nine months and concentrate law-making authority almost entirely in the executive branch.

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William Martindale @wijama.bsky.social · 5d

I'm learning QGIS for a class and it is a very frustrating experience. Doing anything requires 400 clicks. Whenever I use it I just wish there was a program that let you just type what you want and get a map out. They could integrate it with a statistical program and call it ggmap

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Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 5d

Good lord.

@apnews.com

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Danielle Froom 🏳️‍🌈 @danifroom.bsky.social · 14d

I don't think we'll ever get another sentence which sums up everything the New York Times embodies quite like "Some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily kill civilians".

Matt Cameron @mattcameron.bsky.social · 14d

hey @nytimes.com: there is no counterpoint here. There are no credible legal experts who would EVER say that the US military has any right or authority to blow civilian craft out of the Caribbean and kill their crews from afar without any provocation. There is no other side to this question.

"Some legal experts have called it a crime to summarily kill civilians not directly taking part in hostilities, even if they are believed to be smuggling drugs."

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William Martindale @wijama.bsky.social · 6d

I'll have to try this, salmon skin is so good omg. A sushi place near where I grew up has an incredible salmon skin roll that I always get when I come by because it's so good.

William Martindale @wijama.bsky.social · 6d

the fried skin of, like, any animal. I used to get meat skin-on just so I could make my own fried chicken skin or pork rinds or whatever. these days it's usually too much trouble for me but man I love eating skin

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 7d

What foods do you love that you fully acknowledge make you a pervert for loving them?

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Reposted by William Martindale

George Pearkes @peark.es · 6d

It's black letter, can't get more explicit, printed in US code you ignoramus. 31 U.S. Code § 1341 (c)(2)

*JOHNSON: SOME LEGAL ANAYLYSTS DON'T BELIEVE IN SHUTDOWN BACKPAY

(2)Each employee of the United States Government or of a District of Columbia public employer furloughed as a result of a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for the period of the lapse in appropriations, and each excepted employee who is required to perform work during a covered lapse in appropriations shall be paid for such work, at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends, regardless of scheduled pay dates, and subject to the enactment of appropriations Acts ending the lapse.

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Ulrike Franke @rikefranke.bsky.social · 7d

And here we go. I never wrote this article, and yet it is cited here.

www.liberalbriefs.com/geopolitics/...

And of course, it sounds so plausible, I seriously checked whether I had forgotten it, or the footnote was slightly wrong.

#AIisnotresearch

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