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math/preprints/Exact-Uniform-Sampling-of-Contingency-Tables-with-Arbitrary-Margins-September-24-2026/main.pdf at main · openai/math

One of the OpenAI maths preprints dumped hours ago could be relevant for political scientists: it claims to allow uniform sampling of matrices with arbitrary integer row and column sums - useful for ecological inference github.com/openai/math/...

github.com

Contribute to openai/math development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Hold on, is this where I set you up to plug your own book?

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Very difficult to thread the needle between "this survey is incomprehensible to anyone without a politics degree" and "this finding tells us people like good stuff and dislike bad stuff"

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Juraj Medzihorsky @medzihorsky.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"How voters evaluate the proportionality-concentration tradeoff" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... <- people like proportionality less if you tell them there won't be a clear majority

sciencedirect.com

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New political compass just dropped.

A plot of the first two dimensions from a correspondence analysis of the implied contingency table of supermarket-by-party that is in the chart in the quoted post.

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Chris Hanretty @chanret.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Going to see Bill Callahan tonight; excited to stare into the mirror of my middle age

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Hugh Jones @hbsj.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This is superb work by @jimdickinson.bsky.social unpacking the OECD's statistics Why isn't this being done in the Department for Education, so that the Secretary of State has the right information? wonkhe.com/wonk-corner/...

wonkhe.com

A glance at Education at a Glance misleads on UK spend on universities

Every year the OECD publishes Education at a glance, and every year I flick to the table on spending per tertiary student and think the same thing – WTF?

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Chris Hanretty @chanret.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Devolution! No autonomy! Only devolution!

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Peter Thal Larsen @petertl.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

In this weekend’s newsletter: while others debate whether Man City should be stripped of their trophies or relegated to League Two, I argue that what happens to the club’s directors and auditors is just as important - perhaps even more so.

Imagine a widget maker is sold to a new owner. Eager to expand, the ambitious proprietor splashes out on state-of-the-art machinery. The company’s improved widgets attract widespread praise and win many awards. However, sales do not keep up with the investment and the business suffers heavy losses.

Embarrassed by the red ink, the owner asks friendly business partners for help. Perhaps they could boost his sales by buying some products? The partners want to be supportive but cannot justify paying such high prices. So the owner gives them the necessary cash. The widget maker enjoys a boost to sales and reduced losses. Over almost a decade, these sham contracts bring in £831 million in additional revenue.

This, in a nutshell, is the case against Manchester City Football Club, as outlined in the eye-popping conclusions of an independent commission appointed by England’s Premier League and released this week. In this case, the widgets are Manchester City’s performances on the soccer pitch, while the sham payments were disguised as sponsorship and other commercial contracts.

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mwhoyle96.bsky.social @mwhoyle96.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

For reference, it is Ch 6 of "Follow the money : The Audit Commission, public money and the management of public services, 1983-2008". It all only comes to light because someone at Goldman effectively blew the whistle:

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Chris Hanretty @chanret.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

"This [sham romance] keeps Olive's lie believable so Anh can find love, and it helps Adam get his grant renewed by appearing more committed to Stanford" <- err, what now?

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Chris Prosser @caprosser.com · 02/10/2026

Excited to help run the BES for the next 5-10 years, this time alongside @olliheath.bsky.social, @chanret.bsky.social, Kaat Smets, @profrosiecamp.bsky.social, @bobbyduffy.bsky.social, @maxfalken.bsky.social, and @profsob.bsky.social, @jack-bailey.co.uk, Alex Cernat, and @robfordmancs.bsky.social!

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I'm still on shared parental leave, so I'm not touching this for a few months - but still, excited to get started

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If in London can recommend Community Fibre - 1 Gbps broadband for 22.50/month

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Well, there is another more nakedly partisan reason!

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Rein Taagepera - Wikipedia

To some extent, a former physicist already picked that fruit (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rein_Ta...); agreed on historical synthesis

en.wikipedia.org

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I can think of *one* exception, of roughly the same vintage as John ...

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I have my own candidates, but I have to keep them close to my chest - and also away from other LLMs in case I am pre-empted

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Scrolled to the bottom of this, saw Gary King's name, and started wondering whether there aren't many "Claude-shaped problems" in polisci

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Have you experimented at all with Jev?

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Trans.: this is*my* preferred policy

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I am somewhat amazed that discussions of ICE phase-out don't include motorbikes. Seems like an easy win, esp. if sold in noise pollution grounds

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wheatles @wheatles.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

You can apply the same rules as STV for single member districts, and it becomes AV - or better, "AV = STV for a district electing one person". Supplementary vote is different from AV because it doesn't eliminate sequentially but goes immediately to top two

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Getting emails asking for feedback on a car charging point is a new low. Basically a plug asking "how did we do"

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Jack Bailey @jack-bailey.co.uk · 02/10/2026

I worry that Labour are making a trap for themselves on electoral reform 1) SV *is not* a form of PR. So would do nothing to account for our fragmenting politics 2) Opting for SV would just rehash the referendum on AV, which reformers overwhelmingly lost www.politico.eu/article/andy...

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Tarik Abou-Chadi @tabouchadi.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

For my new research unit Politics of Democracy at the Berlin Social Science Center @wzb.bsky.social, we have 3 open research positions. 2 postdocs: 4 + 2 years (100%) 1 doc: 2 years (75%) Starting date: 1 March 2027 (negotiable) Application deadline: 1 November

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Gonçalo Pina @alvespina.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

José Mourinho, your Department Chair

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Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Manchester City cheated Premier League rules, the Commission found. Did it also cheat HMRC? We've examined the decision and leaked Mancini documents. We think City likely failed to pay £12m in tax. There should be a criminal investigation. Thread:

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Chris Hanretty @chanret.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Lots of river cruises cancelled this year (or turned into shorter cruises with connecting bus journeys)

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Printing this out and putting it in a card in my wallet...

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Do I have to pick my spot or is this like pasta in Italy: high mean, low variance?

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Stations are not usually a place I think of when I think of excellent food

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