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Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
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7 Mar, 7 tweets, 2 min read
So much fun. And I get to see my friend @RealClancyBrown Image
I had forgotten that the oscillation overthruster was invented @PrincetonPhys #buckaroobanzai
“Buckaroo, you forgot your overthruster.”
“Use more honey. Find out what she knows.” “It’s my guess no human being has ever been inside the place.” #yoyodyne
“Where are we going?”
“Planet ten.”
“When?”
“Real soon.”

So good.
“Monkey boys are feeble. Lord Whorfin is supreme.”
“We are not in the 8th dimension. We’re over New Jersey.”

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More from @NAChristakis

Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
21 Feb
We are racing to vaccinate the US and worldwide population for COVID19 for many reasons: to prevent deaths, limit emergence of dangerous strains, and achieve herd immunity. Let’s talk about the spread of vaccination behavior. 1/
We can think of some of our behavioral responses to an epidemic like #COVID19 (e.g., mask wearing, getting vaccinated) as a kind of *social contagion*, spreading from person to person, which in turn addresses the *biological contagion*. 2/
In 2017, we published a reconstruction of the temporal dynamics of the spread of vaccination behavior and of the H1N1 influenza virus during the 2009 pandemic in a circumscribed social network of @harvard students. nature.com/articles/srep4… via @SciReports @nature 3/
Read 20 tweets
Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
8 Jan
Twitter permanently suspends Donald Trump account. I understood why they resisted until now, despite his prior violations, given the fact that he was president, but consistency is so important to values and public policy. Still, better late than never. nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news…
My key issue here is consistency. If others had to abide Twitter rules, I never liked that politicians, incl Trump, didn’t.

Distinctly, I also feel that monopolistic companies (eg, public square ones — see classic case of malls) might need to be regulated like public utilities.
This is a good example of why consistency is important and also so difficult. Will Twitter now delete any other accounts violating its rules?

To be clear, directly fomenting violence (and insurrection) is a special kind of speech.
Read 11 tweets
Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
4 Jan
I had assumed that the #DisruptTexts movement was organic. But I recently discovered disrupttexts.org, and I think that, in addition to publishers springing into action to meet market demand, they may possibly be playing a role in fostering abandonment of classics. 1/
Because, there is perhaps much less money to be made selling classics. 2/
I need to be VERY clear that I am wholly in favor of *expanding* the cannon and adding relevant, engaging texts for students in middle school, high school, and (of course) college. Students can and should read Baldwin, Marquez, Tan, Walker, Morrison, Malcolm X, and on and on. 3/
Read 11 tweets
Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
6 Dec 20
People have been talking about the Joe Rogan Experience #JRE podcast @joerogan, which I am happy to have been on twice. I think Joe is a first-rate interviewer, a great and genuinely curious conversationalist. And the breadth of the guests is astonishing, and to his credit. 1/
The breadth of his *listeners* and his reach are also astonishing and to his credit.

Here is a short personal illustration: After my first appearance, in March of 2019, I left my apartment in New Haven @yale the next morning to walk to work. 2/
The African-American doorman in my building, a man in his 50's with whom I have had countless warm conversations about many topics, told me he had heard me the preceding day and that he really enjoyed our conversation and "learned so much." 3/
Read 10 tweets
Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
25 Nov 20
I’d need to better understand the motivations for this bill. And I’m not opposed per se. I find “period poverty” disconcerting.

But if the bill is based on righting an innate gender inequity, will the parliament also mandate equal life insurance premiums for men and women?
And pads and tampons can be crucial for young women in many settings, as in this classic study by Esther Duflo showing that providing menstrual products enhanced school attendance (and much else) in poor women in Africa. nytimes.com/2007/11/12/giv…
I misremembered some details. Here are some other studies: cgeg.sipa.columbia.edu/sites/default/… indicated that providing sanitary pads reduces absenteeism by 5.4 percentage points. But bmjopen.bmj.com/content/6/11/e… shows no effect. NB @jt_kerwin
Read 7 tweets
Nicholas A. Christakis Profile picture
19 Nov 20
Actually, this could be a serious problem for COVID19 vaccine trials. I would have to look at the specific details of outcome ascertainment of the trials, but if participants have used testing to unblind themselves, this could affect their behavior and also measured outcomes. 1/
And here is a mention of a participant in the placebo arm who may have known their status (via @mjaeckel). 2/
Whether such unblinding has increased or decreased the estimated efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine being assessed depends sensitively on a host of factors. 3/
Read 4 tweets

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