Are you looking for more than just a line on your resume?

At the Societal Analytics Lab, we’re looking for ambitious, curious, and driven students/recent grads to join our Internship Program!

📍 Location: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
🔗 All information here: societal-analytics.nl/services/int...

Next March 10th, we will be hosting the Film Club, a montly event to watch research-related movies and discuss them with pizza and drinks 😉 🍕 This time, we will be watching "The Thinking Game".

📍 Who can join? VU Amsterdam researchers.
📝 Register here: forms.office.com/e/AMhWei8365

See you there!

This is taking place on Monday with colleagues from the @univie.ac.at @anniewald.bsky.social @societal-analytics.nl @sof14g1l.bsky.social and The Atlas Social Media Listening Lab at @ufjschool.bsky.social @n8carp.bsky.social @jieunshin.bsky.social

Thanks for organizing! 🫶

Today I presented my work on "Climate Change narratives in Mexico" at @etmaal2026.bsky.social .

Thanks everyone for the positive comments. I had a great time.

Our king, priest and feudal lord – how AI is taking us back to the dark ages | Joseph de Weck Since the Enlightenment, we’ve been making our own decisions. But now AI may be about to change that, says Joseph de Weck, a fellow with the Foreign Policy Research Institute

"The German philosopher Immanuel Kant famously defined the Enlightenment as 'man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.' Immaturity, he wrote, 'is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another'."
#AI

Into the void: how Trump killed international law The rules-based global order, its institutions and value system face a crisis of legitimacy and credibility as the US turns away

"The sanctions have changed every aspect of his daily life. Guillou explained: 'All my accounts with American companies, such as Amazon, Airbnb, PayPal and others, have been closed.'"

Something gnawed your oak tree? Sink hole in your road? How Zurich’s beaver hotline is reassuring residents As the number of the semi-aquatic creatures soars so can tensions. But the Swiss have a tried and tested system to calm the neighbours and restore harmony

"The biologist believes animals such as beavers, wolves and lynx should not be reintroduced without a system to deal with conflicts that inevitably arise. 'If you say ‘deal with it yourself’ that is when illegal shooting happens.'"

As dangerous eugenic ideas spread, NIH falls silent Federal research agencies are pulling back from fostering public discussions about science after the hollowing out of government communications offices.

Highly recommended read about the politicisation of science in the US and how this will help the resurgence of eugenic ideology and scientific racism.

“For the first time, there is a political appointee in the NIH communications operations”

www.statnews.com/2025/12/18/t...

Come and learn what the Lab achieved during 2025. But hey, a celebration is not complete without some fun activities! So, we will also screen the movie “Coded Bias” and finalize the event with drinks.
When: February 10th between 15:00 and 18:00 hrs.
All info: societal-analytics.nl/events/20251...

Hi. I just tried to send a workshop proposal to the email you provided, but wasn't delivered. The reported error is "the recipient's domain does not exist".

The Call for Papers and Panels for #COMPTEXT2026 in Birmingham (23-25 April) is out; feel free to circulate: shorturl.at/gRg0p!
Deadline: January 16!

Print featuring three hares in snow below small birds in a tree.with red berries and a larger black bird

'Winter hares in conversation' by UK contemporary printmaker Angela Harding #WomensArt #ArtAdvent

This is just so sad to see. The societal returns on "AI" investment are still minimal and solving made-up problems – while causing new ones.
Just imagine all that money having gone into alternative/sustainable energy... But that just how it is.

Are you an academic working at FSW, @vuamsterdam.bsky.social ? Do you want to learn to use R for data managing, visualization, and analysis?

Then, you may want to enroll to our R-Workshops. We only have 15 places. 👇🏽

All info here: societal-analytics.nl/events/20251...

I just got my work accepted for at @etmaal2026.bsky.social !

I've heard many good things about this conference. So. I'm very much looking forward to presenting "What shapes the #ClimateChange narrative in #Mexico? An exploration of #Facebook energy related ads".

In light of record submission rates and a large volume of AI-generated slop, SocArXiv recently implemented a policy requiring ORCIDs linked in the OSF profile of submitting authors, and narrowing our focus to social science subjects. Today we are taking two more steps:
/1

After a long time in development, {traktok} #rstats is now finally on CRAN!

Whether you have access to the Research API or just want to scrape some pages, traktok has you covered

jbgruber.github.io/traktok/

How radical gardeners took back New York City YouTube video by Vox

Since last year, I have been planting local flowers in my neighborhood. 🌱🌻

It is so nice them bring life back. 🐞🐝🦋🪲

#GuerillaGardening

Thanks for the invitation!
I’m looking forward to being part of this event. 🤩

I just finished reading #Supremacy by @parmy.bsky.social .

A great book that summarizes the #AI race and the roles Demis Hassabis and Sam Altman play in it!

I received the results from this campaign. We collected 7500EUR to perform my research! 🙌🏽🤓

I am very happy that the community finds my research relevant. I will definitely keep you up-to-date on the progress and outputs that will come.

Talk recordings and workshop materials from posit::conf(2025) - Posit 2500+ hours of posit::conf content just landed on YouTube.

Have some free time this weekend? How about 2,500 hours?

The recordings from posit::conf(2025) are now online!

Learn about the innovations and insights from conf. We celebrated #RStats and #Python, with a focus on next-gen tools & #AI integration.

See the info here: posit.co/blog/talks-a...

University of Birmingham photo

SAVE THE DATE! We are pleased to announce that the 8th COMPTEXT Conference will take place at the Institute of Data and AI (lnkd.in/ebN7za_Q) of the University of Birmingham, 23-25 April 2026, with @chrisguarnold.bsky.social serving as the lead local organiser. Call for Papers coming soon!

a cartoon character is wearing headphones and holding a cassette player ALT: a cartoon character is wearing headphones and holding a cassette player

Sometimes #music is all what you need.

Ooh well, it seems students do not like my way of teaching...
There are days when academia is tough.

10 Years of Data Science Tools...and What Happens Next (Jonathan McPherson) | posit::conf(2025) YouTube video by Posit PBC

My keynote about data science tools at posit::conf is now online! I originally meant it to be a talk about Positron, but as I was writing it, it took a left turn through the history of RStudio and into the philosophy of tool design & how to build stuff for people.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGre...