Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026The so-called Center for Intellectual Freedom is a fraud perpretated on the people of Iowa and the students and faculty at the University of Iowa. It's just cartoonishly dishonest. 1156
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 16/09/2026About halfway through this remarkable piece of student journalism, you learn that the data on alleged liberal bias is *completely made up* 16325
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Congrats to the techbros for conceding that government action is necessary. So I guess AI hasn't solved the collective action problem www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/t...nytimes.comAnthropic C.E.O. Dario Amodei Calls for A.I. Slowdown (Gift Article)In an essay, the head of Anthropic laid out the rapidly advancing capabilities of artificial intelligence and said there needed to be greater safety controls across the industry. 040
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026With generous assumptions, a new faculty line costs about $180k a year (salary, fringe, overhead). $47 million annually would pay for 250 tenure lines. According to the UMass 2025-2026 fact book, the university has about 1,100 FTE tenure-line faculty and spends about $430 million on academics. 02112
Reposted by Ken MayerJacob T. Levy @jacobtlevy.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I don't think the news has made it here: bluesky political scientist Julia Azari @juliaazari.bsky.social 's _Backlash Presidents: From Transformative to Reactionary Leaders in American History_ (Princeton) was recognized with the Richard Neustadt award for best book published on the presidency! 15872160
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Dear Mr. Aschenbrenner: Enclosed please find your certified title for galaxy GN-z11. As we agreed, kindly send a certified check or money order for $6250 trillion. Sincerely, Wile E. Coyote 010
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 19/08/2026A reminder that Bret Stephens - who now wants "accountability" for Woke 1.0 - once complained to the George Washington University Provost about a joke a professor made on Twitter about him being a bedbug.davekarpf.substack.comTalking "Bretbug" in the ClassroomLessons from that one time I ended up living my strategic political communication syllabus 100
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 13/08/20261L hypo for @radiofreetom.bsky.social: In college, I lived both on and off campus, and registered for the first time and voted there. Then I went to grad school in another state, and registered and voted there (state 2) 1/x 100
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 05/04/202650+ years old. World Politics 27: 175-200. January 1975. 000
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 26/03/2026Anytime a headline asks a question, the answer is always “no.” 032
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 16/03/2026If Isaac Chotiner is interviewing you, and he begins a question with "Sir, you're a very, very smart guy," maybe you should just, I don't know, stop talking. 010
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 14/03/2026"Put a bunch of really smart people in one place and give them resources and independence" has produced the greatest global knowledge and public good project in the history of the world (the model still works after 1000s of years). And it's just being burned to the ground. 042
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 20/02/2026Another reminder that any reporter who writes about a Supreme Court decision without linking to the actual decision should just, well, they should just do it.supremecourt.gov 010
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 06/02/2026I reiterate my quadrennial proposal that all Olympics announcers get a contract worth $2 million, which is reduced by $100 for every word they say. 040
Reposted by Ken MayerClay Jones @clayjones.bsky.social · 19/12/2025Fun fact: the key term used in these discussions is clinical equipoise. Essentially, for a study to be ethical there must be a genuine uncertainty whether the intervention (withholding the vaccine) or the standard approach (giving the vaccine) is better for patients. This study is 100% unethical. 14311
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 09/12/2025Every sentence in this book would have won the Bulwer-Litton contest. 010
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 24/11/2025Well, I guess they solved the online elections security problem. Sort of.nytimes.comCryptographers Held an Election. They Can’t Decrypt the Results. 010
Reposted by Ken MayerKevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 13/11/2025If you have tenure at Texas A&M and aren't maliciously emailing the president a dozen times every day to ask if you can say this or you can say that, then what's the point in having tenure? 13253171206
Reposted by Ken MayerVictor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 13/11/2025If you have to get permission to teach in your area of expertise from people who are definitionally not qualified to adjudicate your expertise then you are no longer working at a university. You’re working at a state propaganda factory. 262810998
Reposted by Ken MayerMark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 26/09/2025Sad news. They buried the lede: "A proud son of the Midwest, Barnett was born in Illinois and attended the University of Wisconsin...He was married to Braver for 53 years." Bob & Rita have been huge supporters of UW Political Science for many years. True mensches. May his memory be a blessing.cnn.comWashington, DC, superlawyer Bob Barnett dead at 79 | CNN PoliticsRobert B. Barnett, a Washington, DC, lawyer and dealmaker who represented some of the most notable American political figures over the last half century, has died. He was 79. 29614
Reposted by Ken MayerSherrilyn Ifill @sifill.bsky.social · 10/09/2025A professor who was actually canceled - fired - and crickets from the hysterical “anti-cancel culture” crowd. 442325554
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 06/09/2025Hitler: Operation Sea Lion. Churchill: "we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender." NYT: Settlement Talks Stall between Churchill and Hitler 020
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 20/08/2025Aaron Swartz was prosecuted by the feds and faced decades in prison and millions in fines for downloading articles from JSTOR, which asked the gov to not pursue the case. The prosecution destroyed his life. He died by suicide in 2013. www.internethalloffame.org/inductee/aar...internethalloffame.orgAaron Swartz Inductee Biography - Internet Hall of FameAaron Swartz was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2013. He was a computer programming prodigy and activist who played an instrumental role in the campaign for a free and open Internet. 030
Reposted by Ken MayerAndrew Rudalevige @rudalev.bsky.social · 10/08/2025Eliot Cohen, quoting the British general W.F. Butler: “The nation that will insist on drawing a broad line of demarcation between the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools and its thinking done by cowards.” www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...theatlantic.comHegseth’s Headlong Pursuit of Academic MediocrityHis military-education reforms seem designed to ensure fighting men can’t think and thinking men can’t fight. 032
Reposted by Ken MayerStephen Nuñez @socio-steve.bsky.social · 07/08/2025GPT-5 regularly asks you why you are not citing its work. GPT-5 always believes your estimator is biased. GPT-5 has more of a comment than a question. Sometimes GPT-5 tells you stories about grad school and expresses regret about getting a PhD. GPT-5's mom wonders when it will start making money. 26784163
Reposted by Ken MayerGreg Sargent @gregsargent.bsky.social · 31/07/2025Wow. A group of top scholars at Harvard just sent a letter to its president, Alan Garber, warning against surrendering to Trump. Signatories include Steven Levitsky, Dani Rodrik, Ryan Enos, Theda Skocpol, and Steven Walt. Someone forwarded it to me. Read it here: 9237841220
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 13/06/2025Waited on Fred Grandy at a Capitol Hill restaurant. Decent tipper. 010
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 18/05/2025Show us your writing process in a gifmedia.tenor.comrobert downey jr. is wearing a purple sweater and looking at something .ALT: robert downey jr. is wearing a purple sweater and looking at something . 020
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 24/04/2025The fatality rate for measles is generally between 0.1% and 0.3%. So, this means thousands of completely preventable deaths from a completely preventable disease that was eliminated from the U.S in 2000. 010
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 11/04/2025There are 19 *public* U.S. universities in the global top 100* rankings, more than in any other country in the world has in total (and another 19 privates in the top 100). Andreessen's claim is just asinine and provably false, *world university rankings 2025, times higher education 100
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 09/04/2025Now would be a good time for UW leadership to get loud. www.wmtv15news.com/2025/04/07/s...wmtv15news.comSeveral UW-Madison students, alumni have visas terminated by U.S. governmentSix UW-Madison students have had their visas terminated by the U.S. government, the university stated on Monday. 082
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 09/04/2025Apropos of nothing, here's data on annual coal mining deaths from 1900-2023. arlweb.msha.gov/stats/centur...arlweb.msha.gov 120
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 05/04/2025Unless you were already wealthy your choices were basically: - work until you die - don’t get hurt or sick - move in with with your children - live in poverty - some combination of these 031
Reposted by Ken MayerDave Karpf @davekarpf.bsky.social · 04/04/2025This feels like the defining image from this year’s Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting. The National Science Foundatipn paid for a booth in the exhibit hall. But the booth sits empty, because NSF has been DOGE’d, and there is no one left to send. 7131901157
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 03/04/2025One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool. - George Orwell.wapo.stOpinion | The compromise that might make risking a third Trump term worth itEliminating the electoral college is worth the short-term risk of another Trump presidency. 110
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 01/04/2025In the first 20 years of the Nobel Prize (1901-1920), Americans won 5 out of 102 (4.9%). Only 2 of those were for science. Between 1951 and 1970, Americans won 60 of 150 (40%), 56 were for science. This scientific infrastructure is being purposely wrecked. Just monumental stupidity. 020
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 29/03/2025And then her cancer spread, the quack she trusted was convicted for practicing medicine without a license, and she died, all because she rejected the standard treatment that would have saved her life. What a dishonest headline, @nytimes.com. Well done, you.nytimes.comOpinion | First Cancer Threatened Her Life. Then Came Medical Freedom. (Gift Article)With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary, what was once a fringe movement now controls the halls of power. 033
Reposted by Ken MayerYoshiko Herrera @yoshikoherrera.bsky.social · 16/03/2025We’re already at the point where this affects ALL universities. The uncertainty of losing 10s or 100s of mil of $ in current spending is leading everyone to cut back now on grad programs & make programmatic & staff cuts across many fields. The next generation of researchers is already imperiled. 313142
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 14/03/2025When UW Madison went through accreditation in 1999, the reviewers wrote: "It is rather remarkable. . . that a state of such modest size and wealth has managed to build and to maintain for so long such a truly world-class institution." Intentionally destroying it is colossally stupid. 1/2 100
Ken Mayer @uwkenmayer.bsky.social · 14/03/2025UW Madison is the greatest economic and technical force in Wisconsin history. Medicine, stem cells, ag, engineering, physics, data science, patents, startups, and on and on. Generates $31 billion/yr economic activity, over 200,000 jobs. Gutting it is stupid and hurts everyone.universityrelations.wisc.edu 032
Reposted by Ken MayerMark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 22/02/2025The entire business model of American R1 universities is not viable without restoration of federal funding, & every individual institution pretending it can solve this problem alone is also not viable. University presidents need to be speaking out, collectively & loudly about this, in DC, right now. 442081716