Chris Bennett
LightNews LightNews
banner
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Chris Bennett
@chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
1.6K followers 500 following 290 posts
Redhead, NC native, and higher education researcher. He/him. https://chrisbennettedu.com
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Chris Bennett
trevondlogan.bsky.social
This Veterans Day I want to acknowledge the Black veterans of WWII who fought fascism and nazism and came home to fight for civil rights and democracy here. New research shows Black veterans were critical in securing the voting rights currently under attack.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
Homefront: Black Servicemembers and Black Voters in the Civil Rights Era
The role of Black World War II veterans in the Civil Rights Movement has been well documented, but the effect of Black military service on Black voting patterns remains unclear. Combining detailed in...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
brhkim.bsky.social
🚨Calling all education+social science researchers! 🚨

For the second time ever, Common App is hosting an open Call for Research Proposals to solicit innovative and rigorous research projects using our expansive (& still mostly untapped) data warehouse!
www.commonapp.org/files/DAR/Co...
A screenshot of the title page of the Common App Call for Research Proposals, AY 2025-2026. The Executive Summary and main requirements for the Letter of Intent are visible. Exact text can be found at the link in the main post.
November 10, 2025 at 8:01 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
jenee.bsky.social
Hi writers! I’m looking to assign a couple of features for Slate before the end of the year. If you have anything in mind that you think would be a fit please send me a pitch! Jenée.Desmond- harris@slate.com or dm me.

RTs are appreciated so this can reach more people. Thanks!
November 10, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
aaronclauset.bsky.social
Slides from my @mit.edu IDSS Distinguished Speaker seminar "Networks untangle gender differences in productivity and prominence among scientists" this week

I argue that collaboration networks act like unequally distributed (and gendered) social capital

aaronclauset.github.io/slides/Claus...
Slide title: "network effects in scientific labor" networks mediate most scientific activities: 1. scientific training, hiring, collaboration, teaching, attention, peer review, etc. 2. networks act like a form of unequally distributed social capital a productive collaborator --> increases your productivity a prominent collaborator --> increases your prominence How much does who you work with impact your productivity and prominence? Slide title: "model checking". Shows the results of applying our probabilistic generative from Li et al. Nature Communications (2022) for estimating individual productivity and prominence parameters from observed collaboration network data. This "nets out" the network, and estimates individual levels of activity. Left figure is joint distribution of productivity lambda and prominence theta, showing productivity is tightly concentrated around 0.42 papers/year, while prominence has a long tail, with most mid-career scientists (we studied 200,000 from 6 STEM fields) have very low prominence. Right figure shows pairwise correlation matrix of measures like number of papers, number of citations, lambda, theta, having a high-lambda coauthor, and having a high-theta coauthor. Strong correlation between your own number of papers and having a high-lambda (very productive) coauthor, etc. Good sanity checks for the model. Slide title "gender vs. productivity & prominence" Notes decades of past work showing a "productivity gap" between men and women, in which men publish more papers and receive more citations over time. But, after "netting out" their collaboration networks, we find no gender difference at all between individual productivity and individual prominence, implying that it's difference in who men and women work with (the size and composition of their collaboration networks) that drives the observed gap in productivity, not differences at the individual level. Slide title "how important is who you work with?" This is a wrap-up slide from the end of the talk: networks act like unequally distributed social capital in science they mediate our scientific attention, evaluation, and collaboration differences in collaboration networks can explain gendered differences in productivity & prominence early-career productivity & prominence what else? can we intervene in these networks to mitigate inequalities? funds for new collaborations, eg, after parenthood? early-career fellowships to work with elite senior coauthors?
November 6, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
theonion.com
Flying Squirrel Loves It Every Time
Flying Squirrel Loves It Every Time
November 5, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
xkcd.com
Repair Video

xkcd.com/3163/
Comic. [Person sitting at desk with laptop with machine labeled E-21 making “click click” noises on the floor behind] VOICE FROM LAPTOP: Hey all! Does your E-21 humidifier make an annoying clicking noise? Mine did, but I finally figured out that there’s an easy fix, so I made this video in case anyone else… PERSON AT DESK: Oh my god. Yes. *Yes.* [caption] I know there’s more important work in the world, but I feel like these people deserve, at minimum a statue.
November 5, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
paulgp.com
Dropping a beta version of this page while everyone is up and processing baseball!

This tool lets you search the full text of papers from the American Economic Review, American Economic Journal series, and over 30,000 NBER working papers.

paulgp.com/econlit-pipe...
Economics Literature Search
Full-text search across 15,000+ papers from top economics journals and NBER working papers. Track how empirical methods have evolved over time.
paulgp.com
November 2, 2025 at 4:43 AM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
docrevan.bsky.social
Did not expect one of the best paragraphs I’d read about baseball would come from an Irish newspaper

www.irishexaminer.com/sport-column...
And in that pause between pitch and contact - longer than logic, shorter than hope - we remembered why baseball existed long before we judged a sport's value by viral moments and betting apps. It is the romance of failure. The mortal beauty of trying and missing seven times out of 10 and still being considered great. It is the only sport where patience is a weapon, and panic the surest death. You cannot simply run out the clock in baseball; you must face it, pitch by terrifying pitch, until it finally releases you.
November 2, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
bebeneuwirth.bsky.social
Even winning this year’s Halloween costume prize couldn’t ease Carol’s existential ennui. “Another October, another ghost, another shiny prize. Maybe a pig’s ear would cheer me. Ah nuts, who am I kidding.”
Cute light beige dog dressed as a Halloween ghost.
October 30, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
needhibhalla.bsky.social
🧪hey all, a friend and colleague, @maddoxfornc.bsky.social, is running for Congress in North Carolina. He is a scientist, professor, and parent, perspectives that are especially important right now. I hope you will support his run for Congress. Find out more here: www.maddoxforcongress.com/about/
Meet Paul Maddox
Paul Maddox is a world-renowned cancer researcher, two-time entrepreneur, and native son of Western North Carolina–and now, a candidate for U.S. Congress. ....
www.maddoxforcongress.com
October 30, 2025 at 7:26 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
I remain fascinated at Google’s insistence on showing two significant digits for the daily percent change in the stock market.
Image showing the S&P 500 price on October 29, 2025. It closed at a value that was 0.0044% below the previous day’s close. Google shades the value in red on the line graph because of the slight decline.
October 29, 2025 at 10:58 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Change one letter, ruin a candy:

Spittles
rjelevi.bsky.social Dr. Rebecca J. Epstein-Levi @rjelevi.bsky.social · 13d
Change one letter, ruin a candy:

Milky Wax
alana-m-vincent.net V is for תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ @alana-m-vincent.net · 13d
Change one letter, ruin a candy:

Maim Bar
October 29, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
pronounced-ing.bsky.social
Food relief orgs can do a LOT with a little. $50 to the Atlanta Food Bank provides 150 meals. $100 to the Greater Cleveland Food Bank provides 250 meals. Anything you can share will go a long way. Never feel like your efforts are too small to make a difference.
pronounced-ing.bsky.social Celeste Ng @pronounced-ing.bsky.social · 16d
Heartfelt thanks to those who supported their neighbors with donations to food banks. I wish I could match them all! I'm matching the first $1K and reposted all the orgs. If you're looking for ways to help, check my feed and let the example of these generous folks inspire you. ❤️
pronounced-ing.bsky.social Celeste Ng @pronounced-ing.bsky.social · 17d
Following Ada's lead, I'd like to do the same.

Reply to me w/ a receipt of a donation to a food bank of your choice, and I'll also match your donations, up to $500. 🍎🍌🥬🍞🥩❤️
October 28, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
peerresearch.bsky.social
🚨 NEW from @PEERResearch.bsky.social: New graduate, parent loan limits will curtail borrowing for about one-third of borrowers. About $10 billion/yr will no longer be available to grad students (more when including new limits for part-time students), parents. www.american.edu/spa/peer/imp...
Impact of New Graduate and Parent Loan Limits
Based on our analysis of recent borrowing levels, OBBBA’s new loan limits will curtail borrowing for about one-third of both all parent and all graduate student borrowers. Read more.
www.american.edu
October 21, 2025 at 1:15 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Research firms continue to shed talented staff—even after the far-reaching cuts earlier this year. Just this week, there have been announcements of significant layoffs at RAND and Mathematica.
LinkedIn post from Paul Decker (President and CEO, Mathematica) in late October 2025 A Difficult Update Regretfully, ongoing disruption in the federal policy environment has continued to affect our work, and we need to initiate another round of staff reductions at Mathematica this week. The colleagues affected are exceptionally talented and dedicated professionals who've made lasting contributions to our mission, and we are sorry to lose them. Any of these individuals would be an asset to an organization lucky enough to hire them. If your organization is hiring, we'd be glad to connect you with them or share recommendations. Please reach out to Mathematica if we can help make introductions or offer support. LinkedIn update from RAND in late October 2025 RAND We have some news to share with those who follow RAND and value our mission. Today we made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by 11 percent, returning RAND to its size of a few years ago. This shift aligns our resources with changes in the broader research environment. We want everyone to know that our departing colleagues are skilled, dedicated professionals who have made lasting contributions to RAND's mission. We're proud to have worked with them and will do all we can to support them as they move forward. They will always be part of the RAND story. Even through times of change, RAND remains as focused as ever on our mission to help improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis.
October 23, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
wrigleyfield.bsky.social
Postdoc at the Minnesota Population Center, @minnpop.bsky.social

Applications open now and being evaluated on a rolling basis. Pass on to demographers you know!

(This one requires folks to relocate to the Twin Cities, because it involves work in the restricted data center)
hr.myu.umn.edu
October 23, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
vulture.com
Ryan Coogler says he’s rebooting ‘The X-Files’ for his mom, a major fan of the show, and she’s already read some pages: ‘She’s fired up.’
Ryan Coogler Is Rebooting The X-Files for His Mom
Ryan Coogler says he’s rebooting ‘The X-Files’ for his mom, a major fan of the show, and she’s already read some pages: ‘She’s fired up.’
www.vulture.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:01 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
rainesford.bsky.social
“Over the past two decades, the number of news desert counties – areas that lack consistent local reporting – has grown steadily. This past year was no exception: in this report, we are tracking 213 U.S. counties without any local news source, up from 206 last year.”
The State of Local News
localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu
October 21, 2025 at 11:14 AM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Oak leaf hydrangeas deserve more credit for their contributions to fall foliage
Picture of oak leaf hydrangea leaves that are turning from green to red. Picture was taken in October in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.
October 20, 2025 at 2:17 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
One of my favorite parts about learning Latin was discovering the various meanings of a word. For instance, “hope” and “trust” are translations of the same word, which is awfully poetic.
October 12, 2025 at 1:30 PM
chrisbennettedu.bsky.social
Shoutout to the radio stations still clinging to their tagline “the best of the 80s, 90s, and today”—a phrase that now covers…<checks notes>…five decades
October 10, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
peerresearch.bsky.social
NEW from @PEERResearch.bsky.social: We estimated how #highered programs measure up against the accountability standard in the reconciliation law. Overall, few programs fall short, but low-earning programs are concentrated in some schools, fields. www.american.edu/spa/peer/one...
October 7, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
conradhackett.bsky.social
Here's a fun way to make words out of letters that appear in satellite images science.nasa.gov/specials/you...
October 5, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Reposted by Chris Bennett
ninametz.bsky.social
She was hilarious! Don't call her Mrs. Bucket! It's Bouquet, accent on the second syllable, dear! 😂
October 3, 2025 at 11:41 AM