Philip N Cohen
@philipncohen.com
Sociologist and demographer, University of Maryland; director of SocArXiv. New book out! Citizen Scholar: Public Engagement for Social Scientists https://cup.columbia.edu/book/citizen-scholar/9780231555418
philipncohen.com
philipncohen.com
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Philip N Cohen
@philipncohen.com
· Nov 14
Hello new followers! I waste a lot of time on here, but when I'm not doing that I sometimes write books. My new one is called Citizen Scholar: Public Engagement for Social Scientists (out in January, orderable now), and it has all you need to prevent ... oh no
cup.columbia.edu/book/citizen...
cup.columbia.edu/book/citizen...
Reposted by Philip N Cohen
We @knightcolumbia.org are doing two online events on chilling effects: First on 11/17 on the state of 1A doctrine and current cases involving chilling effects claims, and 2nd on 12/10 on using social science to study the chill caused by particular laws and policies. RSVP links below & in next post:
Want to learn more about chilling effects and why they matter to the First Amendment? Join our webinar with litigators and experts on Monday, Nov. 17, including @carriedecell.bsky.social @evelyndouek.bsky.social @penney.bsky.social @stacylivingston.bsky.social:
knightcolumbia.org/events/litig...
knightcolumbia.org/events/litig...
Litigating Chilling Effects
knightcolumbia.org
November 3, 2025 at 3:21 PM
We @knightcolumbia.org are doing two online events on chilling effects: First on 11/17 on the state of 1A doctrine and current cases involving chilling effects claims, and 2nd on 12/10 on using social science to study the chill caused by particular laws and policies. RSVP links below & in next post:
Using GSS or ACS or CPS or NLSY to analyze a trend, and then years later ... it changes. Huh! Maybe we should have a Journal of Subsequent Events, to incentivize the original authors to report these developments. They are most likely to notice, and may as well get some credit for showing it.
/1
/1
November 10, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Using GSS or ACS or CPS or NLSY to analyze a trend, and then years later ... it changes. Huh! Maybe we should have a Journal of Subsequent Events, to incentivize the original authors to report these developments. They are most likely to notice, and may as well get some credit for showing it.
/1
/1
By my reckoning no modern authoritarian leader has been as unpopular in his capital city as Trump
November 10, 2025 at 7:58 AM
By my reckoning no modern authoritarian leader has been as unpopular in his capital city as Trump
A few of Copenhagen's dramatic statues
November 9, 2025 at 10:03 PM
A few of Copenhagen's dramatic statues
Heritage: burning in Hell to own the libs
1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️
November 9, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Heritage: burning in Hell to own the libs
In word counts, US media does their part to honor the 1000-to-1 Israeli to Palestinian life value rule in reporting on the return of remains to their families.
November 9, 2025 at 8:46 PM
In word counts, US media does their part to honor the 1000-to-1 Israeli to Palestinian life value rule in reporting on the return of remains to their families.
Reposted by Philip N Cohen
Haha that's pretty awesome. Nice one, Herbert Blumer.
November 9, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Haha that's pretty awesome. Nice one, Herbert Blumer.
"Diversity" was always already a defensive fallback. Then it became too much, so they reduced it to, "broaden the perspectives represented." Then they killed it.
UC to Stop Funding Systemwide Postdoc Program
Established in 1984 to encourage women and minority Ph.D.s to pursue academia, the program has attracted right-wing criticism for prioritizing diverse candidates.
www.insidehighered.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:43 AM
"Diversity" was always already a defensive fallback. Then it became too much, so they reduced it to, "broaden the perspectives represented." Then they killed it.
Today in Copenhagen: "People are disappearing. Fear and unrest are permeating the streets."
November 9, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Today in Copenhagen: "People are disappearing. Fear and unrest are permeating the streets."
Wow Cornell better hurry up and get that money to the farmers if we are going to have any hope of eradicating this
There’s no daylight between what Candace says here about “the Jews” & what Nazi propagandists & Father Coughlin said about the Jews in the 1930s. Her show is one of the top 5 “conservative” podcasts in the US. She has 5.5 million subscribers on YouTube and 7.3 million followers on X.
November 8, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Wow Cornell better hurry up and get that money to the farmers if we are going to have any hope of eradicating this
Reposted by Philip N Cohen
Read that from Musk closely:
"Civilisations" with seperate and distinct characters are locked in a Darwinian fight for survival, and hearts must be sufficiently hardened to do what is necessary in order to prevail.
Can you name a historical precedent for this worldview?
"Civilisations" with seperate and distinct characters are locked in a Darwinian fight for survival, and hearts must be sufficiently hardened to do what is necessary in order to prevail.
Can you name a historical precedent for this worldview?
I helped make a film, out this week, called “Rovina’s Choice,” about the deaths this man without conscience or accountability has caused — already 600,000, ⅔ of them children.
November 7, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Read that from Musk closely:
"Civilisations" with seperate and distinct characters are locked in a Darwinian fight for survival, and hearts must be sufficiently hardened to do what is necessary in order to prevail.
Can you name a historical precedent for this worldview?
"Civilisations" with seperate and distinct characters are locked in a Darwinian fight for survival, and hearts must be sufficiently hardened to do what is necessary in order to prevail.
Can you name a historical precedent for this worldview?
Reposted by Philip N Cohen
This kind of announcement may help explain why so many people are using LLMs to flood preprints servers with papers about AI
November 8, 2025 at 9:09 AM
This kind of announcement may help explain why so many people are using LLMs to flood preprints servers with papers about AI
Reposted by Philip N Cohen
The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. At best, we can say that this deal could have been worse.
Read our full statement here:
Read our full statement here:
Statement on Cornell’s agreement with federal government
The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. We ar…
aaup-cornell.org
November 7, 2025 at 11:24 PM
The Cornell AAUP chapter has consistently stated that any deal with the Trump administration would be strategically unwise and a betrayal of Cornell’s principles. This remains the case. At best, we can say that this deal could have been worse.
Read our full statement here:
Read our full statement here:
Bluesky is labeling this sexually suggestive without nudity, but it's the opposite: nudity but not sexually suggestive (according to most interpretations)
I went to see the David statue this morning. It was quite moving. 500 years old! 3 years' labor and 8 tons of marble! Truly awe inspiring. I think my picture is good enough for my memory, but just in case I have some backups, too.
November 7, 2025 at 11:13 PM
Bluesky is labeling this sexually suggestive without nudity, but it's the opposite: nudity but not sexually suggestive (according to most interpretations)
Reposted by Philip N Cohen
My biggest question for @cornelluniversity.bsky.social admin right now is: how will this be interpreted? Will Cornell be changing its current trans-inclusive policy that "allows students, staff, faculty, and visitors to use the restroom or facility that corresponds to their gender identity"?
November 7, 2025 at 6:21 PM
My biggest question for @cornelluniversity.bsky.social admin right now is: how will this be interpreted? Will Cornell be changing its current trans-inclusive policy that "allows students, staff, faculty, and visitors to use the restroom or facility that corresponds to their gender identity"?
Reposted by Philip N Cohen
Priding yourself on securing an agreement that next time the Administration will follow the law it blatantly ignored this time just seems so naive.
November 7, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Priding yourself on securing an agreement that next time the Administration will follow the law it blatantly ignored this time just seems so naive.
Reposted by Philip N Cohen
160 faculty from all 5 UC law schools signed this open letter detailing why the Trump demands to UCLA are unlawful, unconstitutional, and wrong: sites.google.com/view/uclawfa... Great to work with @fishkin.bsky.social @blakeprof.bsky.social @seanashiffrin.bsky.social on this statement.
Home
UC Law Faculty to Regents: Resist the Unlawful Demands
sites.google.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:05 PM
160 faculty from all 5 UC law schools signed this open letter detailing why the Trump demands to UCLA are unlawful, unconstitutional, and wrong: sites.google.com/view/uclawfa... Great to work with @fishkin.bsky.social @blakeprof.bsky.social @seanashiffrin.bsky.social on this statement.
"Cornell agrees to hand, on a silver platter or other suitable conveyance, all information needed, or wanted, to prosecute Cornell for what The Government shall deem illegal under Fictional BS Section 1488, on a Quarterly basis, forever and in perpetuity, in exchange for several pieces of silver."
statements.cornell.edu
November 7, 2025 at 5:18 PM
"Cornell agrees to hand, on a silver platter or other suitable conveyance, all information needed, or wanted, to prosecute Cornell for what The Government shall deem illegal under Fictional BS Section 1488, on a Quarterly basis, forever and in perpetuity, in exchange for several pieces of silver."
I went to see the David statue this morning. It was quite moving. 500 years old! 3 years' labor and 8 tons of marble! Truly awe inspiring. I think my picture is good enough for my memory, but just in case I have some backups, too.
November 7, 2025 at 1:46 PM
I went to see the David statue this morning. It was quite moving. 500 years old! 3 years' labor and 8 tons of marble! Truly awe inspiring. I think my picture is good enough for my memory, but just in case I have some backups, too.
Reposted by Philip N Cohen
Change the incentive systems!
![Part from "Reformation of science publishing: the Stockholm Declaration":
3. Incentive systems to merit quality, not quantity
Reward scientific achievement based primarily on quality—not quantity measures of today’s ‘reputation economy’ metric system [8].
Discourage ‘salami-slicing’ of results to obtain ‘least publishable units’; reduce the abundance of review articles (meta-analyses) and commentaries that over-burden reviewers and can too easily be generated using AI.
Rankings of academic achievement with metrics such as citation counts, ‘journal impact factor’ (JIF) and ‘publication number’ must be used responsibly because they often do not correlate with research quality [9] (see also CoARA—Reforming Research Assessment). 7
Select appropriate achievement criteria that are compatible with respective disciplines and publishing traditions.
Because peer review adds to researcher workload, the science community should reflect on how to incentivize it properly (e.g. tracking scientists' number of review assignments and their quality).
Applications for funding or positions/promotions should disregard metrics and limit the number of publications to be evaluated (e.g. 10) depending on career age, academic field, etc.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:e3pl5vxcg7zhcaxu4bnrlvhv/bafkreibbk54lbcvgq7obdw34hl33bkwoefbyt2pcknt2d37vv5lu2alnge@jpeg)
November 7, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Change the incentive systems!
Reposted by Philip N Cohen
If you think reducing work-family conflict will raise the birth rate, consider: For every professional woman who decides to have one more child because of, eg, free childcare, there may be a more traditional woman who decides to enter or stay in the workforce for the same reason, and have one less.
November 7, 2025 at 8:03 AM
If you think reducing work-family conflict will raise the birth rate, consider: For every professional woman who decides to have one more child because of, eg, free childcare, there may be a more traditional woman who decides to enter or stay in the workforce for the same reason, and have one less.
Looking at the Pietà in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, a young boy asked his mother, "Is he dead?"
"It looks that way."
"Why is he dead?"
"We don't know, we just have to think about it with our minds."
Do your own research, kid.
"It looks that way."
"Why is he dead?"
"We don't know, we just have to think about it with our minds."
Do your own research, kid.
November 7, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Looking at the Pietà in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence, a young boy asked his mother, "Is he dead?"
"It looks that way."
"Why is he dead?"
"We don't know, we just have to think about it with our minds."
Do your own research, kid.
"It looks that way."
"Why is he dead?"
"We don't know, we just have to think about it with our minds."
Do your own research, kid.
Husband and wife cleaning team standing on the wrong porch in broad daylight, or home invasion? We asked these armed, racist Americans who murdered an innocent mother of four
Cleaning worker who mistakenly went to wrong home fatally shot abcnews.go.com/US/cleaning-...?
Cleaning worker who mistakenly went to wrong home fatally shot: Police
The shooting victim died from a gunshot wound to the head, the coroner's office said.
abcnews.go.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:58 AM
Husband and wife cleaning team standing on the wrong porch in broad daylight, or home invasion? We asked these armed, racist Americans who murdered an innocent mother of four
Reposted by Philip N Cohen
This wouldn’t happen if we still had a 92% top marginal tax rate, because obscene and dangerous payouts like this would be pointless.
Tesla shareholders approve $1 trillion pay package for Musk | CNN Business
Tesla shareholders approved a pay package on Thursday that could make CEO Elon Musk, already the world’s richest person, the world’s first trillionaire.
www.cnn.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:31 PM
This wouldn’t happen if we still had a 92% top marginal tax rate, because obscene and dangerous payouts like this would be pointless.