Kathleen Weldon

AAPOR Statement on the Removal of BLS Commissioner McEntarfer - AAPOR On behalf of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), we write to express deep concern regarding the removal of the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Erika McE...

AAPOR Statement on the Removal of BLS Commissioner McEntarfer aapor.org/statements/a...

That's good, because that dude is an obvious troll. Check the profile

I've noticed this with regards to use of polling data - historians (popular or not) much more willing to cite a NYT article that includes a poll finding than to go to the original data file or topline. Given how poorly journalism has historically dealt with polling, that's a problem.

University admins literally run institutions full of experts in every subject and not only do they never consult them, they go out of their way to insult that expertise while following the world's most deliberately stupid consultants. Every time. It's a death cult.

what lunatic put CoPilot in Notepad?

No heart, no soul, no service

Grew up with very controlling parents, and it took forever for me to realize that no one was keeping score and good grades and never getting in trouble didn't guarantee me a good life. Being given the latitude to screw up more earlier might have saved me screwing up later when it mattered.

Yes, several.

Given the other questions on this survey, it's reasonable the researchers would want to check for people who might be yanking their chain

To be fair, some of the things they say do make them sound high

At least a couple times a month I encounter drivers who are indescribably angry that I am crossing the street at a crosswalk, with the crossing light.

It takes me five minutes just to parse a headline these days "The cancellation of the block put on the hold for the program to cancel existing programs has been paused"

NOODLE SAND ON THE BEACH?

1 like = 1 historical poll result from @ropercenter.bsky.social that has somehow ended up saved to my laptop*

*offer good until I run out of screenshots and/or get bored or busy with something else

I got diagnosed with celiac (I think the stress of the COVID period was the trigger for suddenly becoming symptomatic), and so that's a whole other thing that confuses me

FINAL CLEAN DATA WITH NONSENSE WEIGHTS
.....
was it Betty?

The terrible thing is that targeted, human-reviewed use of some AI could greatly expand the ability of libraries and archives to serve researchers. Lots of great projects that are never done because there's lots of tedious work involved and no bandwidth.

Instead it's right to cuts.

Don't forget "or is this some sort of long COVID thing?"

Shoutout to the 1980s survey orgs who gave me job security by reusing their "unique" identifiers every few years. You're the champs.

Things I find in the archive that make me laugh (name of company redacted):

5521 THIS IS BETTY'S FIRST STUDY DONE OUTSIDE OF (redacted) SO BEWARE!!!!!!

Poor Betty. She was utterly untrusted.

If You've Asked ChatGPT a Legal Question, You May Have Accidentally Doomed Yourself in Court Sam Altman has admitted that ChatGPT conversations can be used against you in court if they are subpoenaed.

"If you’re pasting in contracts, asking legal questions, or asking [the chatbot] for strategy, you're not getting legal advice…You’re generating discoverable evidence. No attorney-client privilege. No confidentiality. No ethical duty. No one to protect you."

September 1945 NORC survey question results from Roper iPoll If you had been the one to decide whether or not to use the atomic bomb against Japan, which one of these four things do you think you would have done? Refused to use 4% Where no people 26% One city at a time 44% Wiped out cities 23% Don't know 2%

This NORC question was a bit more nuanced

Sigh. I hate to say it when the whole academic enterprise is under attack in the US, but I become more and more cynical about the entire system every day.

One of things I struggle with is that I genuinely don't care how accomplished you are if you're an asshole, and I never remember that most people don't feel that way about their professional contacts. Always shocked to realize deference to rude and obnoxious people is expected.

From over here at 53, I can say you ain’t seen nothin’ yet/bababababy you just ain’t seen nothin’ yet

I used to be able to nap if I fell sleep at midnight and woke at 5:30, but now?

I would say Ithaca leans heavily into a certain type that is not necessarily typical of core Dem voters or liberals in general. I didn’t know many anti-vaxxers in true-blue Cambridge MA.

Oh, I’m sure the vaccination rates are lower in conservative areas, but I’ve met a fair number of hippie anti-vaxxers in Ithaca. They may not have high numbers, but they make up for it by being extra annoying.

Not even then - a bunch of the supposedly lefty hippie moms around here don’t vax. Because nature knows best!
Nature is 100% okay with your kid dying, of course. But try telling them that.

Saddened by news of Tom Lehrer's passing. We remind ourselves of history's most effective criticism of quantitative sociology.

youtu.be/mB97Qe2D4V0?...

Wow, is that list 90s!