Chris Neill 🐧
@chrisneill.bsky.social
Associate Professor, Economics (education, labour, public econ, policy) at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, 🇨🇦.
Originally from 🇦🇺, I tend to prefer rivers that I can swim away in, rather than skate away on.
Originally from 🇦🇺, I tend to prefer rivers that I can swim away in, rather than skate away on.
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
Indigenous Australian artist Loongkoonan, who started painting at 95, and first exhibited her work at age 105 #womensart
January 6, 2026 at 6:34 AM
Indigenous Australian artist Loongkoonan, who started painting at 95, and first exhibited her work at age 105 #womensart
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
Come do a PhD with us in Melbourne ☕️ working on the economic causes and consequences of family & domestic violence
#econsky #melbourne
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPX277/p...
#econsky #melbourne
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPX277/p...
PhD in Economic Causes and Consequences of Family and Domestic Violence at Monash University, Australia
Start your UK & international job search for academic jobs, research jobs, science jobs and managerial jobs in leading universities and top...
www.jobs.ac.uk
January 5, 2026 at 2:20 AM
Come do a PhD with us in Melbourne ☕️ working on the economic causes and consequences of family & domestic violence
#econsky #melbourne
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPX277/p...
#econsky #melbourne
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPX277/p...
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
The death toll from the attack on Venezuela is now at 80, per Venezuelan officials. That includes civilians. Every article about the attack, or how the US somehow claims it will run the country, should mention the fact that, you know, people died, including civilians. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...
Live Updates: As Venezuela Projects Defiance, Rubio Says U.S. Will Use ‘Leverage’ to Advance Its Interests
www.nytimes.com
January 4, 2026 at 10:51 PM
The death toll from the attack on Venezuela is now at 80, per Venezuelan officials. That includes civilians. Every article about the attack, or how the US somehow claims it will run the country, should mention the fact that, you know, people died, including civilians. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
When people argue that renewable energy sources are too expensive, remember that we don’t invade countries to seize wind farms and there are no solar cartels. Fossil fuels have enormous geopolitical, public health, and climate externalities.
January 3, 2026 at 8:40 PM
When people argue that renewable energy sources are too expensive, remember that we don’t invade countries to seize wind farms and there are no solar cartels. Fossil fuels have enormous geopolitical, public health, and climate externalities.
There was at least a notion at the time that the US had allies and that it wanted them on side.
It’s sobering to look back on the run-up to the Iraq war—a period of unceasing chattering-class debate, elaborate official lies, media complicity, unavailing global protest, in the end a giant stitch-up—and have it seem like some sort of paradise of public deliberation compared to these gangsters.
January 3, 2026 at 9:57 PM
There was at least a notion at the time that the US had allies and that it wanted them on side.
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
This online, PhD-level course in the economics of innovation is a huge opportunity.
Taught by some of the world's top scholars on this: @heidiwilliams.bsky.social, Chad Jones, Azoulay, van Reenen, many others! Co-sponsor @ifp.bsky.social
If you're admitted, it's free. Applications due January 9th!
Taught by some of the world's top scholars on this: @heidiwilliams.bsky.social, Chad Jones, Azoulay, van Reenen, many others! Co-sponsor @ifp.bsky.social
If you're admitted, it's free. Applications due January 9th!
Economics of Ideas, Science, and Innovation Online PhD Short Course | Institute for Progress
ifp.org
January 3, 2026 at 3:09 PM
This online, PhD-level course in the economics of innovation is a huge opportunity.
Taught by some of the world's top scholars on this: @heidiwilliams.bsky.social, Chad Jones, Azoulay, van Reenen, many others! Co-sponsor @ifp.bsky.social
If you're admitted, it's free. Applications due January 9th!
Taught by some of the world's top scholars on this: @heidiwilliams.bsky.social, Chad Jones, Azoulay, van Reenen, many others! Co-sponsor @ifp.bsky.social
If you're admitted, it's free. Applications due January 9th!
How about now?
If Americans aren't ready to not just ask this question but answer in the affirmative by now, then the nicest possible explanation is they're burying their heads in the sand.
January 3, 2026 at 11:44 AM
How about now?
As a tenured professor (albeit not at MIT), this: "I wanted to yell at him. You are a tenured professor at MIT! You have the highest level of influence and success to which anyone else in this room could hope to aspire, and you are delegating this task to us??"
I wrote about the endless temptation successful people feel to justify and feel justified in a clearly toxic system. Happy new year.
open.substack.com/pub/rottenan...
open.substack.com/pub/rottenan...
Caveat Vendor
Universities, audience capture, and bullshit; Beowulf, Kendrick Lamar
open.substack.com
January 3, 2026 at 7:26 AM
As a tenured professor (albeit not at MIT), this: "I wanted to yell at him. You are a tenured professor at MIT! You have the highest level of influence and success to which anyone else in this room could hope to aspire, and you are delegating this task to us??"
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
Whether it’s reading, listening, or watching, enjoy some science fiction today. Happy Birthday, Isaac Asimov!
January 2, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Whether it’s reading, listening, or watching, enjoy some science fiction today. Happy Birthday, Isaac Asimov!
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
Please join me in welcoming to the public domain such works as the 1930 Best Picture All Quiet on the Western Front, Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, several Nancy Drew books, some songs you've heard of (Dream a Little Dream of Me; Georgia on My Mind), and more:
blog.archive.org/2026/01/01/w...
blog.archive.org/2026/01/01/w...
Welcome to the Public Domain in 2026 | Internet Archive Blogs
blog.archive.org
January 2, 2026 at 1:33 PM
Please join me in welcoming to the public domain such works as the 1930 Best Picture All Quiet on the Western Front, Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, several Nancy Drew books, some songs you've heard of (Dream a Little Dream of Me; Georgia on My Mind), and more:
blog.archive.org/2026/01/01/w...
blog.archive.org/2026/01/01/w...
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
#energysky #solar
#climatechange
Old Solar Panels Built in the Early 1990s Are Still Going Strong After 30 Years at 80% Original Power — And That’s a Big Deal for Our Energy Future
flip.it/zmDGvZ
#climatechange
Old Solar Panels Built in the Early 1990s Are Still Going Strong After 30 Years at 80% Original Power — And That’s a Big Deal for Our Energy Future
flip.it/zmDGvZ
Old Solar Panels Built in the Early 1990s Are Still Going Strong After 30 Years at 80% Original Power — And That’s a Big Deal for Our Energy Future
Thirty years later, old-school solar panels are still delivering on their promise.
flip.it
January 1, 2026 at 4:28 AM
#energysky #solar
#climatechange
Old Solar Panels Built in the Early 1990s Are Still Going Strong After 30 Years at 80% Original Power — And That’s a Big Deal for Our Energy Future
flip.it/zmDGvZ
#climatechange
Old Solar Panels Built in the Early 1990s Are Still Going Strong After 30 Years at 80% Original Power — And That’s a Big Deal for Our Energy Future
flip.it/zmDGvZ
"Hospitals are major drivers of trips and should be located on prime transit sites."
This is something that has really been brought home to me the past few weeks.
Really, why isn't Waterloo's new hospital going on the empty field right next to the transit stop? Madness.
This is something that has really been brought home to me the past few weeks.
Really, why isn't Waterloo's new hospital going on the empty field right next to the transit stop? Madness.
Waterloo Region is about to shoot itself in the foot with a new hospital decision, so I wrote a blog post on why locating hospitals is so important, and the *many* better places they could put this one.
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...
open.substack.com/pub/nextmetr...
An Urgent and Avoidable Transit Mistake in Waterloo Region.
A Transit-Forward Town Takes A Step Back.
open.substack.com
January 1, 2026 at 9:37 PM
"Hospitals are major drivers of trips and should be located on prime transit sites."
This is something that has really been brought home to me the past few weeks.
Really, why isn't Waterloo's new hospital going on the empty field right next to the transit stop? Madness.
This is something that has really been brought home to me the past few weeks.
Really, why isn't Waterloo's new hospital going on the empty field right next to the transit stop? Madness.
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
Wow. Had never heard of Dorothy Andersen. Who discovered cystic fibrosis.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...
Dorothy Hansine Andersen - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
December 31, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Wow. Had never heard of Dorothy Andersen. Who discovered cystic fibrosis.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy...
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
In the last two weeks, I've heard about:
-mRNA vaccine to treat age-related vision loss
-cure for Alzheimer's and a treatment to reverse cognitive damage
-Japanese scientists working on a way to regrow teeth
I'm in awe. What a time to be alive. 🤩
-mRNA vaccine to treat age-related vision loss
-cure for Alzheimer's and a treatment to reverse cognitive damage
-Japanese scientists working on a way to regrow teeth
I'm in awe. What a time to be alive. 🤩
December 31, 2025 at 9:51 PM
In the last two weeks, I've heard about:
-mRNA vaccine to treat age-related vision loss
-cure for Alzheimer's and a treatment to reverse cognitive damage
-Japanese scientists working on a way to regrow teeth
I'm in awe. What a time to be alive. 🤩
-mRNA vaccine to treat age-related vision loss
-cure for Alzheimer's and a treatment to reverse cognitive damage
-Japanese scientists working on a way to regrow teeth
I'm in awe. What a time to be alive. 🤩
It is very hard to believe we are more than 25 years past the year 2000, a year that sounded fake to me once upon a time.
January 1, 2026 at 8:50 AM
It is very hard to believe we are more than 25 years past the year 2000, a year that sounded fake to me once upon a time.
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
Some good news to start the New Year
Cheap Solar Is Transforming Lives and Economies Across Africa
Chinese panels are now so affordable that businesses and families are snapping them up, slashing their bills and challenging utilities.
www.nytimes.com
January 1, 2026 at 12:17 AM
Some good news to start the New Year
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
the onion has had many “please put down the lathe of heaven” moments but this one tops them all
December 31, 2025 at 8:11 PM
the onion has had many “please put down the lathe of heaven” moments but this one tops them all
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
NYE Taroona to Kingston swim for second year running; sadly without mum this time round.
December 31, 2025 at 3:30 AM
NYE Taroona to Kingston swim for second year running; sadly without mum this time round.
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
Great pre-doc opportunities at @econ.uzh.ch in Zurich for aspiring PhD candidates from low- & middle income countries or with a refugee/asylum seeker background.
Predoctoral Program Global Talent Common Application: www.facultyhiring.oec.uzh.ch/auth/Apply/0... Please share widely in your networks!
Predoctoral Program Global Talent Common Application: www.facultyhiring.oec.uzh.ch/auth/Apply/0... Please share widely in your networks!
December 29, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Great pre-doc opportunities at @econ.uzh.ch in Zurich for aspiring PhD candidates from low- & middle income countries or with a refugee/asylum seeker background.
Predoctoral Program Global Talent Common Application: www.facultyhiring.oec.uzh.ch/auth/Apply/0... Please share widely in your networks!
Predoctoral Program Global Talent Common Application: www.facultyhiring.oec.uzh.ch/auth/Apply/0... Please share widely in your networks!
A particularly clear demonstration of the value of the revealed preference approach.
Reminded, by something else, of the peak opening biographical paragraph on Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_...
December 29, 2025 at 10:17 AM
A particularly clear demonstration of the value of the revealed preference approach.
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ekumen envoy Genly Ai's mission to entice Gethen to join the Ekumen is complicated by atypical biology and all too familiar local politics.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/right...
Ekumen envoy Genly Ai's mission to entice Gethen to join the Ekumen is complicated by atypical biology and all too familiar local politics.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/right...
Right Hand of Light
Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1969 The Left Hand of Darkness is a stand-alone science fiction novel. It takes place in her larger Hainish setting.
The Ekumen spans eighty-three worlds and thousands of cultures....
jamesdavisnicoll.com
December 28, 2025 at 2:37 PM
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ekumen envoy Genly Ai's mission to entice Gethen to join the Ekumen is complicated by atypical biology and all too familiar local politics.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/right...
Ekumen envoy Genly Ai's mission to entice Gethen to join the Ekumen is complicated by atypical biology and all too familiar local politics.
jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/right...
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
Solar+batteries is just going to win.
Solar is comparatively cheap. It's the easiest for power companies to deploy (~1 year vs. 5-10 years for conventional power plants). It's inexpensive to maintain. It's environmentally beneficial. And it can add value to farms by providing shade.
It's a winner
Solar is comparatively cheap. It's the easiest for power companies to deploy (~1 year vs. 5-10 years for conventional power plants). It's inexpensive to maintain. It's environmentally beneficial. And it can add value to farms by providing shade.
It's a winner
December 28, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Solar+batteries is just going to win.
Solar is comparatively cheap. It's the easiest for power companies to deploy (~1 year vs. 5-10 years for conventional power plants). It's inexpensive to maintain. It's environmentally beneficial. And it can add value to farms by providing shade.
It's a winner
Solar is comparatively cheap. It's the easiest for power companies to deploy (~1 year vs. 5-10 years for conventional power plants). It's inexpensive to maintain. It's environmentally beneficial. And it can add value to farms by providing shade.
It's a winner
Reposted by Chris Neill 🐧
Agrivoltaics boost crop yields even when the solar panels aren’t generating power. New research from Canada shows that shading crops with elevated solar panels creates a cooler, wetter microclimate that can lift yields and improve performance across dozens of crops. buff.ly/6eqClf1
#ShareGoodNewsToo
#ShareGoodNewsToo
The gift that keeps on giving: How solar panels on farms can help increase crop yields
A new study finds farmers can enjoy increased crop yeilds under partial shade of solar panels long after they stop working decades from now.
buff.ly
December 28, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Agrivoltaics boost crop yields even when the solar panels aren’t generating power. New research from Canada shows that shading crops with elevated solar panels creates a cooler, wetter microclimate that can lift yields and improve performance across dozens of crops. buff.ly/6eqClf1
#ShareGoodNewsToo
#ShareGoodNewsToo