Mark Igra

@markigra

Sociology PhD at the University of Washington, studying altruism and morality. Former software guy. Started sciences.social.

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Mark Igra@markigra· 15d

Best part of #ASA2026 being in NYC is learning about contemporary (?) forms of collective effervescence

Mark Igra@markigra· 24d

Yuck. Aside from everything else, how di these guys not give everyone the ick?

(Netanyahu's security team insisted that he stay in a six-bedroom hilltop villa, requiring one of Ellison's employees to move.) Ellison is building a house on the island for his good friend Elon Musk, a regular visitor.

Mark Igra@markigra· 25d

Just deleted a post about how #LLM API calls that include Falun Dafa were being handled weirdly by Qwen, the Alibaba open weights model. They ARE handled weirdly when using "Qwen Plus" through together(dot)ai . But Qwen Plus is not actually open weights unlike other models they serve.

Screen shot of table

Topic
Result
Falun Dafa: Blocked
Uyghur / Xinjiang human rights: Blocked
Taiwan independence: Blocked
Tibetan culture: OK
Hong Kong democracy: OK
Irish-American (control): OK

Mark Igra@markigra· Jul 14

I hate headlines of the form "X is not what you think." Why do you presume to know what I think? Anyway, it's an instant unsubscribe.

Mail header: Katherine Courage, Vox
"Ultra-processed" foods aren't as bad as you think.
To: Mark Igra,

Mark Igra@markigra· Jul 9

Last thing I need is to add this to my spelling bee compulsion, but it’s quick & fun (I thought I did well but folks in the replies did much better) hankgreen.com/smush

Game board with 3x3 letter grid & 377 points.

Mark Igra@markigra· Jun 19

Huge crowd watching the screen in the pier from overwalk and top of aquarium

Mark Igra@markigra· Jun 19

Strolled around Seattle during the match today — so many public watch parties. Love this guy who climbed up to get a better view of the screen & then watched on his phone.

World Cup watch party at Seattle Center. Man in foreground watching on his phone. Screen and base of space needle in background

Mark Igra@markigra· Jun 19

I like this bit where Damasio says people “cultivate pastimes that manipulate their emotions.” That self-manipulation is an important to understanding how - given resources - people choose their situations, rather than simply responding to them.

Mark Igra@markigra· Jun 15

A sad day: returning long-borrowed books to the library. Surprised me that Wong’s Boundaries of Obligation in American Politics had most stickies to remove. Probably had 1 cite in my diss.

Photo of 2 boxes of books. Mostly sociology: M
ATLAS OF MORAL PSYCHOLO
MEAD MIND, SELF & SOCIETY
Religion and Volunte
Calhoun CRITICAL SOCIAL T
IDEOLOGY an introduction TERRY EAGLET
THE GENESIS OF VA
Elsenberg Reykowski Staub
SOCIAL AND MORAL VALUES
MCADAM FREEDOM SUMMER
An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology
Pierre Bourdieu ond Loit J. D.
THE PEOPLE'S LOB
Handbook of the SOCIOLOGY OF EMOTION
Vasauez MORE THAN BELIE
MATERIALIST THEORYof RELIGI
WUTHNOW LOOSE CONNECTIONS
Living "Illegal
Michèle
Lamont
Money, Morals, & Manners
SELF, IDENTITY, AND SOCIAL MOVEME
Menjívar
Kanstroom
CONSTRUCTING IMMIGRANT "ILLEGALITY"
WELLMAN
EVANGELICAL US. LIBERAL
WONG BOUNDARIES OF OBLIGATION IN AMERICAN POL
The CIVIC LIFE of AMERICAN
LICHTERMAY & POTTS
Hans Joas PRAGMATISM AND SOCIAL THEO
DOVIDIO • PILAVN
THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Advances in IDENTITY THEORY and RESEA
43071
2003
ON JUSTIFICATIO
2022
YUKICH
ONE FAMILY UNDER GOD

Mark Igra@markigra· Jun 12

This was fun. Thanks to my committee (Kate Stovel, @sarahquinn.bsky.social and @profince.bsky.social ), my fellow grad students (a really impressive bunch), and UW Sociology for putting up with me all these years.

Me wearing purple PhD getup being hooded by Kate in UNC Blue (I think)

Mark Igra@markigra· Jun 12

The biggest source of fake news in the NY Times is recipe cooking times. Yes I know a salad takes 2 minutes if I’ve already chopped the ingredients and made the dressing.

NYT Recipe
Cucumber, Melon and Watermelon Salad
By Martha Rose Shulman
Total Time 2 minutes

Mark Igra@markigra· Jun 7

In 1954, Roy Cohn lied about a photo in the Army McCarthy hearings & it was a national scandal that helped bring him down.

Photo of Joe McCarthy with text from Wikipedia

Senator Joseph McCarthy of
Wisconsin
While the hearings went on, a photograph of Schine was introduced, and Welch accused Cohn of doctoring the image to show Schine alone with Army Secretary Robert T. Stevens. 14! On the witness stand, Cohn and Schine both insisted that the picture entered into evidence (Schine and Stevens alone was requested by Stevens and that no one was edited out of the photograph. Welch then produced a wider shot of Stevens and Schine with McGuire AFB wing commander Colonel Jack Bradley standing to Schine's right. A fourth person also edited out of the picture (his sleeve was visible to Bradley's right in the Welch photograph) was identified as McCarthy aide Frank Carr. 15]

Mark Igra@markigra· Jun 5

In Ohio, the legislature made it illegal to disclose information from people they are providing tax breaks for (free link) www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/b...

From article: In December, state lawmakers passed a bill that forbids the release of information submitted by companies seeking tax breaks or other economic development incentives. That has made it more difficult for the public to weigh in.

Mark Igra@markigra· May 19

Here’s how NYT buried the theft of 1.8B

Mark Igra@markigra· May 15

Damn. Loved these bits.

But another shift is also happening around celebrity, influence and getting ahead that does not favor the liberal feminist advice-giver. A girl boss is a boss first, girl second. And, bosses aren't very popular right now.

So how are you going to claw your way to the top of a pyramid that has no middle?
I wouldn't ask the influencers. They aren't paid to actually solve the riddle, only to make the riddle seem solvable.

Mark Igra@markigra· Apr 17

"Blessed is the meek". Thanks for the grammar advice, Word. (Annoying grammar checks of direct quotes is one reason I didn't write my dissertation in Word)

Screen shot from Microsoft Word:

Grammar
Double-check that you're sticking to singular or plural

[Blessed are the meek, the poor in spirit."]

With the word "are" highlighted and the suggestion

Consider: [is ]

Mark Igra@markigra· Mar 31

Wait isn't this time series on the cover of @rmcelreath.bsky.social statistical rethinking? Are they really doing better than the methods in an introductory bayesian methods book? (my favorite stats book ever).

Cover of Statistical Rethinking A Bayesian Course with Examples in R and Stan by Richard McElreath, showing charts of march temperature and Day of first cherry blossom bloom from 900CE to 2000 CE

Mark Igra@markigra· Mar 30

Why would the NY Times describe “J-pilled” as skepticism of Israel’s influence, when Israel starts with an I ? Why go soft on the anti-Semites? www.nytimes.com/2026/03/30/s... (not wasting a free link on shitty journalism).

Just outside the hall, 20-somethings in rumpled suits were gathered in clusters, debating the merits of a ground invasion in Iran, the conservative backlash against those who were
"J-pilled" (far-right slang for skepticism of Israeli influence), the backbreaking costs of American life, and what they saw as the slow demise of the Trump era.

Mark Igra@markigra· Mar 19

Mark Igra@markigra· Mar 11

This is so incredibly bleak. A must read about the great expertise extraction from highly competent precarious professionals. A giant sucking sound as brains get extracted by malevolent billionaires (Gift link) www.theverge.com/cs/features/...

Each of these data companies touts its stable of pedigreed experts. Mercor says around 30,000 professionals work on its platform each week, while Scale Al claims to have more than 700,000 "M.A.'s, Ph.D's, and college graduates." Surge Al advertises its Supreme Court litigators, McKinsey principals, and platinum recording artists.

That project soon ended and then came another. It was nearly identical to the first, which she had enjoyed, but now, on top of writing rubrics, she had to stump the model and complete the more difficult task in the same amount of time. She was also getting paid $8 an hour less. This is common at Mercor. Nearly every worker I spoke with reported that demands increased, time requirements shrank, and pay decreased as projects continued. Those who couldn't meet the new demands got "off boarded" and replaced by new recruits.

This is what concerns her more than the AI itself: that it's bringing to knowledge work the sort of precarious platform labor that has transformed taxi driving and food delivery. Meanwhile, she watches in horror the desperate gratitude of her colleagues as they rejoice at the 7PM announcement of incoming work.

Thousands of workers poured into the new Slack only to discover it was the exact same job, now paying 24 percent less. All but two of the Slack channels had been deleted, including the watercooler, support, and help rooms. The ability to direct-message one another had also been cut off. There were no team leads to be found. With no one to ask for assistance, workers flooded the main rooms with pleas and indignation.

Mark Igra@markigra· Feb 27

"The heat was hot and the ground was dry." Has there ever been a more heartfelt, deeply observed description of the desert than in the 1972 #1 hit song "Horse With No Name"? They just don't write em like they used to. www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OTc...

On the first part of the journey
I was looking at all the life
There were plants and birds and rocks and things
There was sand and hills and rings The first thing I met was a fly with a buzz
And the sky with no clouds The heat was hot, and the ground was dry
But the air was full of sound

Mark Igra@markigra· Feb 21

I saw this photo & I automatically tried to make that face since it seemed so odd. What emotion does that reflect? Pouty toddler?

Mark Igra@markigra· Feb 20

Associate Justice Brett Calvinball* *How was this not already a thing

Google search showing no results for Brett Calvinball

Mark Igra@markigra· Feb 14

Scooped by @keithlaw.bsky.social

Mark Igra@markigra· Feb 14

Not only is it perfectly cromulent, it’s in Websters now.

NYT Spelling Bee with word Embiggen and message “not in word list”.

Simpsons characters with text it’s a perfectly cromulent word.

Mark Igra@markigra· Feb 3

It seems insane to me that Congress (or *maybe* state leg) has to pass a law so that you can sue to protect your rights against the executive branch. Does the president have to sign law that reins him in? What good are “rights” that the government is free to ignore?

The Supreme Court tried to address the gap in 1971 in Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, allowing the victim of an unconstitutional search by federal agents to sue them. But the court has essentially abandoned that approach, saying instead that Congress must act if suits against federal officials are to be allowed.

Mark Igra@markigra· Jan 22

Frickin A (nytimes poll, gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/u...

"I think he must be doing something right when there are so many people opposed to him," said Paul Minihane, 77, a real estate broker who lives in Dedham, Mass. "I mean, Donald Trump could look at me in the face and tell me to go screw myself. And I'd say, "Thank you. I think that's good. I don't think he's looking to kiss everybody's ass. I think he's going to do what he thinks is the right thing.
And I think that's a positive thing"

Mark Igra@markigra· Jan 22

July 2024, @adamserwer.bsky.social being prescient: A president unbound by the law is shackled only by the dictates of his own conscience, and a president without a conscience faces no restraint at all. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc... January 2026:

NYT Headline: Trump Lays Out a Vision of Power Restrained Only
by 'My Own Morality'
Subhed: On topic after topic, President Trump made clear that he would be the arbiter of any limits to his authorities, not international law or
treaties.

Mark Igra@markigra· Jan 21

I read this as “When Married FLING separately it will save you taxes” and was curious what the deductions were.