Dan Isbell

Opinion | If You Hate Bad Bunny, I Have Bad News for You

This is all good news, actually...
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/o...

Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue

YouTube video by Polyvinyl Records American Football - Never Meant [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO]

For reference:

youtu.be/_NfnXdXpjL0?...

YouTube video by ChineseFootball Official Channel Chinese Football － 電動少女 ［Official Music Video］

So I just learned there's a Chinese band doing Midwest emo called..... Chinese Football.

That is such a good name lol

And the music is pretty good too!

youtu.be/X2goYUJpq9k?...

"People are scared...since you've got an accent, or you're Black, they can stop you for no reason" - absolutely gutting and a regression away from values America has long aspired to (though as of yet not achieved).

We compared intelligibility scores from in-person listeners vs. listeners recruited on Prolific. In-person listeners had higher scores. (No surprise.) Screening out listeners with catch trials helped improve reliability. We had to recruit 360 participants to get 300 that met screening criteria.

Vietnam to accept TOPIK scores in college admissions The Test of Proficiency in Korean will be accepted in Vietnam’s college admissions process, South Korea's Ministry of Education said Tuesday. Vietnam’s Ministry

TOPIK scores now being accepted in Vietnamese universities to satisfy foreign language requirements:

www.koreaherald.com/article/1066...

It seems like ESEM for hybrid CFA-EFA situations where you target non-primary variables to have variance constrained to zero in rotation is just... dredging for marginally improved fit indices?

Psycholinguistic Databases, Stimuli, Utilities — Concepts & Cognition Laboratory

2026 big update to the psycholinguistic database page! If you know of corpora, lexical databases, or other resources that I've missed, please LMK. Trying to keep this thing relatively current and could use the help www.reilly-coglab.com/data

This is also like, exactly the same very weird, very dumb, very likely to be projection take that the not-all-there Naomi Wolfe had about liberal women protesting ICE.

Wait is this new or just (another) thing I've overlooked for years that would have saved me many lines of code?

Lukianoff casually crashing the Oscar Meyer weinermobile into the academy...

They just don’t get it - they’re trying to replace the part of our job we like the *most*.

If they could make an AI tool to vibe-complete travel, reimbursement, and annual reporting paperwork they would make a fucking FORTUNE

This report doesn't appear to address science of reading. It compares surface-level and deeper comprehension oriented activities; all the examples of surface-level activities involved some kind of comprehension focus.

How to work in Korea with student visa (2) - Korean language criteria and work hour limits Even if they get a work permit, the total hours foreign students are allowed to work varies according to the level of their Korean language skills. To be consid

TOPIK exam results (among other criteria) being used for student work permits #languagetesting 🐦🐦

www.koreaherald.com/article/1066...

Exclusive | Testing Giant Shops GRE and Toefl Exams for Around $500 Million The testing industry has faced pressure since the pandemic, when many universities made exams optional.

Some rumors circulating about selling or soliciting private investment for the #TOEFL and #GRE exams: 🐦🐦

www.wsj.com/us-news/educ...

Ice needs to be abolished

In a last-ditch effort of sorts, Rauch, Haidt and Strossen organized a call with Carvalho. The discussion didn’t inspire confidence in the group, said someone with knowledge of the call who was granted anonymity to speak candidly. Carvalho basically told them that UATX was a right-wing project, and that they’d known this when they signed up. But that wasn’t what any of them had believed.

This part kind of blew me away. Just amazing how some people, who I probably disagree with on most things but are reasonably intelligent, just miss the incredibly obvious subtext and refuse to believe it even when spelled out explicitly right in front of them (as Carvalho did on this call).

Map showing states with laws, executive orders, or proposed bills that limit free speech/intellectual freedom in higher education.

All the free speech warriors who go apoplectic when a professor comments on race or gender in lecture complete ignore the actual state-enforced censorship of ideas sweeping the country:
pen.org/report/americas-censored-campuses-25-web-of-control

Medical examiner believes death of man in ICE custody was homicide, recording says A fellow detainee says he witnessed Geraldo Lunas Campos being choked to death by guards at the ICE detention center in Texas on Jan. 3.

ICE kills people

Too many significance tests!!

Made this little graphic for my #stats class, showing the various kinds of (N)HST and how interpreting confidence intervals can replace all of them.

Made with #rstats #ggplot (duh)

The American Dialect Society has chosen its word of the year: slop…used as both a freestanding noun, and a productive suffix! Check out all the words we nominated at the link! And while I nominated “that’s AI” (and it won for most useful), there’s no fake news here!

Folks at Duolingo have authored a critical commentary on an article by Bruce et al (2025) concerning stakeholder perceptions of English proficiency tests in UK higher ed that has been referenced in a lot of press releases and higher ed reporting.

doi.org/10.1093/elt/...

Best TikTok thing going is the two dudes trying food from every country without leaving NYC. If you haven’t seen them yet, it’s incredible. My favorite so far is last week’s. Legit got me emotional.

Dude, same.

YouTube video by Takes™ by Jamelle Bouie Abolish ICE

a few thoughts youtu.be/lERS4kJIQR8

The Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) has recently been aligned with CEFR and will begin adding CEFR levels to score reports soon. It looks like JLPT N2 caps out at B2, while high enough scores on N1 can reach C1.

I like that the levels correspond to "Linguistic, Receptive".

#langsky

Pew Research Center is seeking a Data Archivist to support our commitment to open science and data transparency. This newly created role will play a key part in enhancing the accessibility, usability, and reproducibility of our research data while continuing to protect the privacy and identity of our survey participants. As Data Archivist, you will lead efforts to create and implement best practices for preparing, documenting, and disseminating datasets. These best practices should maximize FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles while minimizing disclosure risk. You will work across teams to ensure our data is well-organized and thoroughly documented. You will serve as an internal advocate for data users, helping to ensure that our datasets are not only accurate and comprehensive but also easy to discover and reuse by researchers, journalists, and the public. This is a full-time, Pew Research Center position. The position is funded by an external grant and limited to a two-year term.

Primary Responsibilities Develop optimization procedures to improve discoverability of our datasets on internal and external platforms Develop and maintain standards to improve accessibility of our microdata and tab plans by changing/adding formats and/or adding documentation Identify metadata documentation best practices and a process to implement those best practices at the Center Work with Legal to evaluate most appropriate license to publicly share the Center's survey data, including Creative Common options Identify and correct processing inefficiencies in our data publication process Sit on the internal Disclosure Risk Taskforce Document analytical decisions and code to support transparency and replicability, including the development of a RACI chart for publishing code to recreate derived variables that are used in reports but are not included in the microdata Manage/create merged time series datasets for select Center datasets Identify a process for internally archiving data and projects that are no longer in active use Identify and implement a process to assign Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) to microdata Prepare and upload public-facing datasets and restricted-use datasets for external sharing. Train staff on FAIR principles and best practices in data archiving.

Education/Training/Experience Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in library sciences, organizational management, or a related field. 5-7 years of experience with data archiving, database management, or survey research. This may include graduate training at the MA/PhD level or equivalent experience in an applied setting. At least 3-5 years of experience applying FAIR and open science principles. Background in social science research or data curation. Experience in data management, archiving, or research support. Familiarity with FAIR principles, Creative Common licensing, data privacy principles, and exposure risk. Proficiency in metadata standards and documentation tools. Experience managing research projects, including working collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team. Experience with statistical software (e.g., R, Python, Stata) and reproducible research workflows. Knowledge, Skill and Workplace Requirements Strong organizational and communication skills. Detail oriented with exacting standards to maintain accuracy and impartiality in all work products. Ability to work independently to carry out special projects from start to finish. Ability to balance numerous tasks simultaneously. Ability to work collaboratively and collegially with other team members, as well as with staff from other Pew Research Center teams. Ability to balance competing priorities and identify optimal solutions FLSA Status: Exempt Compensation: Starting salary is commensurate with experience within the range of $100,000 - $120,000. Hybrid Work Schedule: Pew Research Center staff are required to be present in the Center’s Washington, D.C., office three core days weekly (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday). Staff may work virtually from remote locations on other days in a typical work week.

Please share - @pewresearch.org wants to hire a data archivist who will be an advocate for data users, helping to ensure that our datasets are easy to discover and reuse by researchers, journalists, and the public.
pewtrusts.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/CenterExtern...

Yeah I did a double-take at "semilingual" - extremely out of date and broadly seen as offensive/demeaning nowadays; no one seems to use it anymore academically in any subfield I'm aware of.

There were fewer people, from fewer countries, with relevant degrees and qualifications! And assistant profs today, including people from "perceived intellectually shortchanged groups", get hired with CVs that would've been good enough for tenure back in the day.