A color, macrophoto of a Robin perched on a branch in Virginia, during late April, 2026. The capture was taken during rain and the photographer snapped the photo at the split second a raindrop fell on the top of the bird's head, making it appear like a "natural" crown. 📸 Dawn Denise Boyer of Gloucester, Virginia

#WonderfulBirdWednesday

Right in the middle of rain, the photo was captured the split second a droplet of water landed on the #Robins head like a crown! 👑
04/2026

#Birds #Nature
#FlawlessTiming 🌟
#FMSPAD
#SomethingThatFlies
#Birdsky #Wildlife
#Photography
#BirdPhotography
#Macrophotography

Does this work for other LMS?

fixest is an R package for fast and flexible econometric estimation. It provides a unified framework for applied research, with comprehensive support for a diverse class of models: ordinary least squares, instrumental variables, generalized linear models, maximum likelihood, and difference-in-differences. The package particularly excels at fixed-effects estimation, supported by a novel fixed-point acceleration algorithm implemented in C++. This algorithm achieves rapid convergence across a variety of data contexts and enables efficient estimation of complex models, including those with varying slopes. An expressive formula interface facilitates multiple estimations, stepwise regressions, and variable interpolation in a single call. Users can adjust inference strategies on the fly, choosing from an array of built-in robust standard errors. The package also provides methods for publication-ready regression tables and coefficient plots. Benchmarks demonstrate that fixest offers best-in-class performance against leading alternatives in R, PYTHON, and JULIA.

arXiv📈🤖
fixest: A fast and feature-rich framework for econometric estimations in R
By Berg\'e, Butts, McDermott

I used to write the WaPo editorials on US-Africa policy, as well on as human rights and politics on the continent.

To describe hundreds of thousands of deaths on the continent as “messy” is an absolute abomination.

disappointing that many reposts doesn't = many messages in my inbox! i know it's a tough ask. i'm trying to reach a relatively small group of ppl who feel v. vulnerable rn, might be nervous talking to a journo they don't know...anyway, share widely elsewhere if u think it might reach the right ppl!

Call for Papers: Fourth Women in Central Banking Workshop
invites submissions from female PhD and postdoctoral students.

Mexico City | November 6–7, 2026
Deadline: July 3, 2026
Submit to: wicb2026@banxico.org.mx

Travel and accommodation for presenters will be covered, subject to a cap.

I quote-tweeted this without even noticing that one of the authors was a doctoral advisee from UMich Econ

Congrats, Josh!

The Daily all episodes in one place

Another unfair story about discrimination #Deezer link.deezer.com/s/32HeUYQ9U0...

First 6 Days of Iran War Cost U.S. $11.3 Billion, Pentagon Says

That's about half of what it cost for USAID for a whole year www.nytimes.com/live/2026/03...

Nature Report, Killed by Trump, Is Released Independently

Nature Report, Killed by Trump, Is Released Independently www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/c...

The IRS broke the law by disclosing confidential information to ICE 42,695 times, judge says A federal judge said that the IRS broke the law by illegally sharing thousands of taxpayers’ addresses with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

apnews.com/article/irs-...

This is a dangerous escalation by DHS.

Since this will likely come up in the SOTU: Yes, US stock markets are up since Trump took office (14%).
But in the rest of the world, markets are up WAY more. Cumulative market gains are more than triple ours (43%)

until recently, you could tell cheaters apart because they used the open internet rather than the closed intranet

The political effects of X’s feed algorithm - Nature Among users initially on a chronological feed, 7 weeks of exposure to X’s algorithmic feed in 2023 shifted political attitudes and account-following behaviour in a more conservative direction compared...

Brainwashing, 2026 edition. This paper shows how X's algorithmic feed shifts people's views rightwards. It's a sophisticated, highly effective form of reorientation. And it is utterly chilling.
If you're still on that platform, unhook yourself now.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Man linked to international sex trafficking ring finally arrested for improper email forwarding

“In the criminal justice system, some offences are considered especially heinous" chaser.com.au/world/man-li...

bsky.app/profile/lars...

A line curve showing number of awards for fiscal year 2026 compared to fiscal years 2021-2025 across NSF. The fiscal year 2026 curve lies well below curves for other fiscal years.

NSF Update

Funding curve overall. A little bit of progress in the past week, but only a little bit.

Now by Directorate...

1/11

I started making this R package 6 years ago. I finally have it in a state I'm happy with, thanks to Claude Code #Rstats github.com/MattCowgill/...

Abstract Academic freedom is an unusual and complex set of norms and practices. It arises out of the combination of the corporate self-governance of medieval universities and the spirit of disciplinary scientific inquiry in modern research universities. It combines a principle of antiorthodoxy as to conclusions with the robust associational self-governance of scholarly communities whose members evaluate one another as participants in that shared enterprise. It has never been easily or wholly embraced by wider societies; today it is under wholesale attack. This article combines conceptual, normative, and historical analyses of academic freedom as a general norm with attention to conflicts over it in the mid-to-late 2010s and early 2020s. Some genuinely hard cases and questions tested the meaning of academic freedom and university values well before the current crisis.

Now posted ahead of print:

"Conceptualizing Academic Freedom," forthcoming, Annual Review of Political Science.

(Uncorrected proofs, so a few minor edits different from the version that will be published in June.)

doi.org/10.1146/annu...

Professors in the Epstein files say they hoped friendship would lead to research funding A new trove of documents released by the Justice Department reveals that Epstein’s reach into academia was wider than previously known.

So the same reason the rest of us write NSF proposals?

2026 Pre-Doctoral Economics Conference hosted by Yale University | The Economic Misfit Event Date: June 5th, 2026Locations:87 Trumbull Street, Room B12028 Hillhouse Avenue, Room A106Organizers: Goksu Zeybek, Nicolas Fajardo, and Owen RaskDescription: The second annual Pre-Doctor

2026 Pre-Doctoral Economics Conference – Yale University

Bringing together pre-doctoral fellows worldwide to present research, get feedback, and network.

Submission deadline: April 6, 2026 (abstracts or paper drafts)

Read more here: theeconomicmisfit.com/2026/02/14/2...

Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change

It's not an exaggeration to say this will result in genocidal-scale death. And I don't mean in the distant, speculative future. Just the tens of thousands of pollution deaths in the relative near-term (Free link.) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/c...

In Gaza, Scanning the Sky for Stars, Not Drones A Palestinian scientist's effort to bring astronomy to Gaza has begun to bear fruit, but steep hurdles remain.

Suleiman Baraka in Gaza says this about his work: “I decided to fight the killing of the children by educating the children.... astronomy “is also a window for breathing freedom that we were denied for our whole life".

I think this is the reason the world needs it. All of us need his example.

A headline reads: "Bad Bunny Delivers a Love Letter to Puerto Rico At Super Bowl Halftime." Bad Bunny stands on top of a truck, dancing with one arm raised and legs spread wide. In the foreground, dancers surround the vehicle. A large crowd is seen in the background. Photo by Doug Mills/The New York Times.

Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance featured a sugar cane field, a wedding, a pan-American parade and more. The show placed his beloved Puerto Rico at the center of a communal celebration. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/08/a...

Just had a Super Bowl halftime where the singer:
1) boasts about the poor place he’s from;
2) boosts the value of agriculture;
3) celebrates small town life;
4) highlights the joy of inter-generational celebrations; and
5) promotes marriage.

And tomorrow, the MAGA movement will attack it.

Holding us accountable for the shameful failure to restore power to PR

Happy perfect grid February to all those who celebrate

The group bike ride for Alex Pretti is about to depart in Minneapolis, stopping at his memorial, then Renee Good’s, and finishing at the VFW. If you can join, hop on anywhere. It’s a warm 17° & sunny!

I’ve never seen this many cyclists for a group ride. ⚡️✊🏽⚡️🚲⚡️✊🏽⚡️ #RIPPretti

Please consider citing if you are a fixest user!