Saturday reading sorted! A massive list for Grad students with many I hadn’t come across before #EconSky

Citation (link found with help from ChatGPT, double-checked by yours truly)

TIL that the occupation of "Data Scientist" was only added to the US Census in 2018!

The letter reads: Dr. Sweet, As you may have noticed, I believe it is important to document that philosophy professors at Texas A&M University are not permitted to teach Plato at their own discretion. To comply with the new censorship requirements, I have replaced the affected module with lectures on free speech and academic freedom. The censored material is marked in red in the attached document. The required text for the new module is: Texas A&M, Under New Curriculum Limits, Warns Professor Not to Teach Plato”, The New York Times, January 8, 2026. Texas A&M Warns Professor Not to Teach Plato Because of Gender Rules - The New York Times. Respectfully, Martin Peterson

Some have pointed out that the whole letter would have fit in the alt text window, so here is a version with the whole letter in alt text.

The death of Brigitte Bardot necessitated the update of this marvelous chart. Only three people mentioned in Billy Joel's banger "We Didn't Start The Fire" are still alive. Source: buff.ly/cWkphRB

Love this! Why we need art AND science

Made me smile

Traditional red British telephone box, filled with flowering plants

Made me smile

Some really helpful (and doable) ideas here. I especially love ‘Maintain one “competence activity” outside your PhD.’ Mine is gardening. #phdsky

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“How is this economics?”

Ticket for Topkapi Palace (price 2,400 Turkish lira) on top of guidebook with highlighted price of 65 Turkish lira

I hadn’t realised that Turkey had such high inflation rates.

Striking example:
2021 guidebook ticket price for Topkapi Palace, Istanbul was 65 Turkish lira.
Today tickets cost 2,400 lira!
#economistabroad #lonelyplanet
www.statista.com/statistics/2...

Some good vaccine news!

Pyracantha shrub with bright red berries

It’s Back-To-School Season and the pyracantha has turned. Definitely Autumn vibes. But for some reason my current earworm is ‘Summer is A Coming In!’

Have you tried Kool-Aid? - I think it's the closest the US gets (and by closest I mean the way US sausages are close to UK ones 😆)

Thanks for the link to the Think Check Submit tool - I don't think I'd seen that before.

In the video below, Dr Joanna Clifton-Sprigg discusses the changes needed to the UK's #ParentalLeave system. You can read her recent policy brief (co-authored with Dr Alistair Hunt, Lily Zelezetskii and James Bailey) on our website: www.bath.ac.uk/publications...

Casual inference pop quiz!

Can you think of ANY confounders in this relationship?

H/t @chloergibbs.bsky.social

www.aei.org/wp-content/u...

Here Is All the Science at Risk in Trump’s Clash With Harvard (Gift Article) More than 900 research grants worth $2.6 billion are in jeopardy. So is the 80-year-old model of American science.

The NYT put together a comprehensive inforgraphic on lost federal funding for research at Harvard

I leanrned a lot about what my colleagues are doing!
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Me: wearing an apron, standing behind a plate of flapjacks.

Highlight of the week: ‘Bake Your Doctorate’ competition. Talking about my research on early years parenting and social mobility - how families pass down economic and social status. Flapjack Recipe ‘passed down’ from my father-in-law.

Sweet peas in varying colours and shades (pink, purple, red, white) in a vase

Went away for two days and came home to this! After years of trying, finally a decent crop of these beauties. h/t to @higgledygarden.bsky.social for the seeds (and DH for watering 😀)

Recommend: @bookmarkit.bsky.social

Quince: Easy Peeling and Cutting Tips — Chef Heidi Fink Quince have a wonderful flavour, but a very hard texture. Read on for a quick kitchen tip that makes quince easy to peel and cut!

TIL that there's an easy way to peel and cut quince. TLDR: bake them for 20 minutes first!

Going PT after FT will likely be easier as you have already established yourself in the department. I’d say one thing to watch out for is people forgetting you are PT - you’ll have to remind them (and yourself 😁) that you will take twice* as long, as they will forget. *assuming 0.5FTE

Be the Chancellor | Institute for Fiscal Studies Our interactive tool lets you be the Chancellor. Change spending plans, set tax policies and see how your choices impact borrowing and debt.

Ahead of a big Spending Review and a big Budget, we’ve updated and revamped our ‘Be the Chancellor’ tool. It’s got new features, new charts, new fiscal rules, and new policy options.

Have a look and share with the fiscal nerds in your life (it works best on desktop):
ifs.org.uk/be-chancellor

On Friday, my son stayed home from school because he had a sore throat and wasn’t feeling well. He went with my husband to his office for the morning while I handled our daughter. When he came back at lunch, he was not interested in eating, saying his throat hurt too much. 1/n

Putting in patent application for BackChatGPT that just says “do your own research” in response to every question.

Photo by unsplash.com/@lmoss_photo on unsplash.com

Beach with tide far out, silhouettes of people walking towards the sea. Jersey, Channel Islands

Accidentally spent the morning doing a deep-dive into childcare policy on Jersey. Anyone else gone down a rabbit hole today?! #phdsky

This is wonderful commitment to a 'bit' - top work 😂

Trump Administration Will Freeze $2 Billion After Harvard Refuses Demands Federal officials said they would freeze the money after Harvard said it would not submit to requests to overhaul hiring and report international students who break rules.

I have complained about both of my alma maters frequently so I want to share praise where praise is due.

I'm proud of Harvard for finding their backbone. It's a big deal because everyone else looks to them. And godspeed to them in fighting this shakedown bullshit from the Trump administration.