One cannot argue against that, for sure :-) As a policy though, I wish granting agencies redistributed their funds so that there was maybe a 35+% success rate for larger grants.

I guess that is an important variable. In Canada we usually have higher success rates, and a lot of the kind work in putting together proposal actually involves commitments from partners Etc

A good idea for smaller grants but for the bigger ones, the grind of having to put together a detailed proposal is actually very helpful in sharpening the project and getting various stakeholders on board. HT @rafmbatista.bsky.social

They said "doesn't matter" while simultaneously waving me in. @leftbobgolfer.bsky.social

I went to the library to get a book on Pavlov's dog and Schrodinger's cat.

The librarian said that she thought it rang a bell but wasn't sure if it was there or not!

If we made the green energy transition this war would be unthinkable and these authoritarians wouldn’t be in power — not in the US, not in Iran, not in Saudi Arabia, not in Russia. Hydrocarbons are killing our freedom and just plain killing us.

Iran’s people were facing a horrible shortage of water before the war began. If we are destroying desalination plants and setting fire to Teheran we are committing unfathomable crimes.

I also see that no region has been assigned the highest probability colour, perhaps a nudge to make the worst-affected people feel that they're not the worst?

I logged in immediately on reading this but my months are not cool. I guess there is an element of personalization as well? :-)

Nudge!

All this while I've been thinking it's a mischievous rabbit!

A workshop on making events more equitable and inclusive. In-person only.

What an amazing paper and I need finding!

People are swayed by AI-generated videos even when they know they're fake, study shows Generative deep learning models are artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can create texts, images, audio files, and videos for specific purposes, following instructions provided by human users. Over ...

AI deepfakes affect people even if they know the videos are fake: nice media coverage here of phys.org/news/2026-0... one of our recent studies. 1/2
1/2

Wait what, you actually *speak* on the phone!?

No.

Brilliant work as always!

The Hidden Imran • EQUATOR The cricketing legend is Pakistan’s most famous man. Can the state make him vanish?

After jailing Imran Khan two years ago, Pakistan’s military establishment has tried to erase him from public life. @osmansamiuddin.bsky.social travelled to Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore to report on this bizarre effort to disappear the country’s most famous man.
www.equator.org/articles/the...

I miss the days when we criticized Presidents for relative peccadillos like starting wars without evidence!

Last minute strategic pivot :-)

Trump's Davos speech is an embarrassing ramble. America, humiliated.

This is the best speech, just from a pure rhetoric perspective - its sophistication and persuasiveness - that I've seen a politician deliver in a good long while. Really recommend watching or reading the whole thing.

Texas A&M Bans Plato - Daily Nous Drop the race and gender material from your course and the Plato readings, or teach a different course. You have a day to decide. That's a paraphrase of what Martin Peterson, professor of philosophy a...

"I’m going to pause here just to review: an institution that purports to be a university has told a philosophy professor he is forbidden from teaching Plato."

surreal times

dailynous.com/2026/01/06/t...

Neat trial building on earlier work by @jiayingzhao.bsky.social and colleagues! @nealemahoney.bsky.social @katymilkman.bsky.social @erikbryn.bsky.social @casssunstein.bsky.social

Saying that "on average, nudges [or insert any other intervention here] aren't very effective" is a bit like saying that "on average, vehicles are not very fast".

DOGE was A LOT less likely to cancel contracts from companies that donated money to Republicans than companies that donated to Democrats.

This is amazing!

Birth Lottery If you were reborn today, where would you land? And how would that change your life?

Brilliant little online tool: Spin the globe and see what your life would have been like had you gotten a different draw in the place-of-birth lottery

h/t @leightjessica.bsky.social on LinkedIn

In hindsight, Australia's depth in their reserves really shone through!