PNAS just asked me to order reprints for our recent commentary. For fun, I thought I'd see how much they cost.

25 prints—of just one page, mind you—646 USD. And then they have the temerity to charge 160 USD for shipping.

The for-profit publishers will take all we let them. Choose other journals.

Dutch police apparently fired guns 13 times in 2024. Just wondering, how many shots are fired by the New York city police every year? Yes, way more, particularly tasers (energy weapons). Kudos on them being so transparent, though.

www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/st...

We now have a fully electric heat pump that replaces our gas for heating and hot water. It reduces our monthly costs, and carbon emissions even more. We love it, happy to help other people and chat

An important distinction is that measuring behaviors means looking at behavior properties like frequency, duration, and intensity, and measuring person properties means looking at attitude/intensity strength, and vague and low-validity self-reports of typical behaviors. 2/2

Getting better at kombucha

I still complain about car/bicycle friction here in Amsterdam, but I shouldn't really. Such insane privilege to bike commute here. Picture is from Hungary, but it's not unique to there. I'm not dunking on our eastern neighbors.

I've been pleased to work these years in the former Geologic Institute building (1933) at the University of Amsterdam—nice space and interesting history. It's deeply ironic to find out it was co-funded by Royal Dutch Shell, since my lab focuses on mitigating climate change.

'Haring eters / Herring eaters'

Bit wandering, but useful video. We published one paper on voting systems and district boundaries.

Do any modern governments practice elections for exclusion rather than selection? This actually makes sense to me. I might even wager that the bad candidates are more distinctive, and the virtuous ones more replaceable, although I don't know what evidence would help test that

I applied for an Associate Professor opening in my unit and was rejected (ostensibly due to space, not merit). Maybe it's time for a new relationship with my work. For so long it feels like I've been doing 110%. Part of integrating into Dutch culture might be backing off a bit.

Happy winter everyone. We put up our xmas tree. Here's a picture from when my dad was younger than I am now, up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where my family used to spend xmas with the cousins.

This was my first dissertation proposal. It was not good. Afterward I pivoted to work on environmental issues. 12 years has come and gone, and a lot of growth.

Made this poster today to try and get from A1 to A2 Greek

Can scientists be viewpoint free? For a long time already, historians have accepted that there is no value-free perspective

Quote from www.nature.com/articles/s41... A manifesto for applying behavioural science by @mhallsworth.bsky.social

This is a highway just south of Vienna, normally and today. It's hard to accept the expensive changes that are needed now, but it's worse to delay

Claudia #Sheinbaum, president-elect of #Mexico

A small thing to love about the Netherlands is the fresh ginger or mint tea in most cafes. This thin-sliced one in Nijmegen is particularly *POW*