Dr Pete McKenna

We Failed The Misinformation Fight. Now What? | NOEMA Defending democracy in the digital age will require moving beyond the focus of fighting online misinformation.

Great article on #misinformation: www.noemamag.com/we-failed-th...

"Simply put, the public is not easily moved by new pieces of information; rather, people are often motivated to interpret the information they are exposed to through the lens of their established worldview."

#research
#politics

I've just found out that Apple's Pages app does not detect additional whitespace in its grammar check, and I honestly can't believe it. I thought all Apple software was superior to us poor MS users. Not so it seems!

🚨 MSc Social and Behavioural Research Methods - apply now! 🚨

Are you considering a future in research and want study in Edinburgh?

Our programme is designed to equip you with the advanced skills and expertise needed to transition seamlessly into doctoral study.

Apply here: lnkd.in/eHKSaHkM

Hi BlueSky, I'm looking to build up a network of researchers (from all disciplines) studying #misinformation. My intention is to create safer online environment for my kids, by understanding misinformation better and developing guardrails. If this is you drop me a line!

#research
#fakenews
#science

The Blue Origin flight showcased the utter defeat of American feminism | Moira Donegan The trip leaned on a vision of women’s empowerment that is light on substance and heavy on a childlike, girlish silliness

Excellent piece from Moira Donegan on the Blue Origin flight:
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

#feminism
#blueorigin
#space

Yes, absolutely!

No luck (see image). Could be something at my end, but perhaps something to be aware of.

@jbengler.de thanks a bunch for Tidyplots. Really enjoying it's utility (for research and teaching) and am currently preparing a manuscript with several tidy plots - I can share once published. I noticed you added the 'comparisons' parameter for grouped plots. Any ideas when this will be ready?

Hi #programming folks. Is it possible for someone to write a Win11 script that defaults all apps to full screen at launch? I'm getting frustrated with the randomness of launch app size and location on the desktop (sometimes inaccessible).

#software
#win11
#code
#debug

On the responsibilities of intellectuals and the rise of bullshit jobs in universities You may never have considered yourself to be one. Why would you? But if you’re reading this, there is more than a likelihood that you are one. If you’re a

"...a key problem has been that instead of facilitating academic work, these systems have created obstacles to performing the core mission. Corporate academia is subverting academic life. It’s destroying academia from within."

academic.oup.com/brain/articl...

When you spend 6-months bemoaning your Lenovo webcam dysfunction, only to find that it's because the slider button next to it has slid to 'Close' 🤦

#techfail
#lenovo

Rdatasets is a collection of 2300 free and documented datasets in CSV format. It's a great resource for teaching and exploration!

The new `get_dataset()` function from the {marginaleffects} 📦 allows you to search and load them directly in #Rstats.

vincentarelbundock.github.io/Rdatasets/ar...

2 lines you say...wonderful! I'll share with the students once they are ready

#rstats folks, the following inline error is not conveyed in an error message - turns out \textit is a problem (it italicises maths expressions anyway!)

# not this
$\beta_{1_\textit{_var1}} = \beta_{1_\textit{_var2}} + \beta_{3}$

# do this
$\beta_{1_{_var1}} = \beta_{1_{_var2}} + \beta_{3}$

#rstats here's how 2 calc proportions for 2+ categorical vars

total_n <-
nrow(df) # nrow counts the number of rows

df |>
group_by(cat_var_1, cat_var_2) |>
summarise(n = n(),
.groups = 'drop') |>
mutate(freq = n / total_n) |>
mutate(freq = round(freq * 100, digits = 2))

Phone bans in schools don't help grades or health, study suggests It is the first study to look at school phone rules, alongside measures of pupil health and education.

Typically sensationalised headline here. How about pointing readers to the study instead?

BBC News - Phone bans in schools don't help grades or health, study suggests - BBC News
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Thanks for this @cghlewis.bsky.social. Yes, I agree lists are unavoidable. I guess my question should include, 'is there a good beginners guide to lists?'

Hi #rstats, a beginner R student of mine was asking how to read in multiple datasets of the same format into R. Didn't want to scare them away with lists and stringr...any recomended resources to ease them in? tia

I'll try it and get back to you 👍

Hi #rstats people, just letting you know that R Markdown images will not appear in your compiled doc if you include "%" in the image file name, e.g.,

 # will not work
 # should work fine

Took me a while to figure out what was going on!

Perfect. Strawberry please

Listen to his powerful, exclusive interview, out now 👇

globalplayer.com/podcasts/epi...

@maitlis.bsky.social
@lewisgoodall.com

A copy signed by Pablo would be ideal 😜

Thank you! I'll check it out

Hi #rstats folks. It's occurred to me that some of my tidy/wrangle scripts are unwieldy (esp. projects with multiple untidy and related datasets), which has got me thinking about #workflow optimisation. Any recommended resources on this?

tia

Me: I'd like to explore potentially more affordable car finance options please.

Salesman: Sure! First up is our latest model costing you an extra £100 a month.

Me: ...right. Let's start again.

Thanks @simonsmart.bsky.social. I found that this solution distorts some of the formatting, e.g., code chunk text becomes extremely large. I've since opted for the print option in the RStudio Presentation window, which seems to have done the trick!

Spiders don't have antennae like insects, so how do they smell?

WITH THEIR FRIGGIN' LEGS (well, male spiders at least) 🦵👃

Olfactory organs similar to those in antennae were found in male spiders' upper legs, but not in juveniles or females. This suggests smell is for mate detection/recognition
🧪🌏🕷️

Hi #rstats folks, does anyone have advice about presenting reveal.js slides on Canvas VLE? When I save reveal.js as pdf from a browser the formatting goes completely awry!

#quarto
#programing
#rstudio
#canvas