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dgbassani.bsky.social
DGBassani
@dgbassani.bsky.social
15K followers 3.7K following 1.7K posts
Widower dad of 3. Problem-solver living an unsolvable problem. Fatuity loather. Epidemiologist learning about complexity and networks. https://www.dlsph.utoronto.ca/faculty-profile/bassani-diego-g/ and https://www.isi.it/people/diego-bassani/
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dgbassani.bsky.social
And many of us (voters) still remember what a being raised during a dictatorship was like. And how hard the fight for democracy was.
zackbeauchamp.bsky.social Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social · 2h
The Brazilian political system is, structurally, very similar to the American one. But when they elected a Trump-style authoritarian back in 2018, their Congress and Supreme Court actually fought back.

I went to Brazil to find out why. And what I learned surprised me.

www.vox.com/politics/479...
How one country stopped a Trump-style authoritarian in his tracks
What Brazil got right that America got wrong.
www.vox.com
February 18, 2026 at 8:34 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
voiceoffranky.bsky.social
This is so invisible. So important
February 17, 2026 at 3:21 AM
Reposted by DGBassani
kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Terrific piece by @rexhuppke.bsky.social on Elon Musk, White Nationalist
Wow, Elon Musk sure does like White people | Opinion
Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a guy whose social media platform most companies still use, is a BIG fan of White people. Problematically so.
www.usatoday.com
February 16, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
jennschiffer.com
the culture of silicon valley has bred a narcissism where a lot of folks think they can use agents to become the architects of a future society when, respectfully, they‘re becoming useful idiots to the billionair/trillionaire ai class and i think “token anxiety” is the gut realizing that.
February 15, 2026 at 5:40 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
naomiaklein.bsky.social
Reminder that Francesca Albanese is not being targeted for a sentence twisted and lifted out of context in a speech.

She is being targeted for daring to name the names of giant companies complicit in the crime of genocide.

They would rather destroy international law than be accountable to it.
February 15, 2026 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
emilymbender.bsky.social
Starting reading (or starting too, I doubt I'll make it all the way through) Douthat's interview with Amodei from a couple of days ago. From the jump it seems like yet another example of credulous journalist platforming tech CEO high his own hype.

(A 🧵, short or long depending on when I give up.)>>
Screencap: Are the lords of artificial intelligence on the side of the human race? That’s the core question I had for this week’s guest. Dario Amodei is the chief executive of Anthropic, one of the fastest growing AI companies. He’s something of a utopian when it comes to the potential benefits of the technology that he’s unleashing on the world. But he also sees grave dangers ahead and inevitable disruption. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/opinion/artificial-intelligence-anthropic-amodei.html
February 15, 2026 at 4:11 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
zeteo.com
"What they fear most is these mass movements leading eventually to some kind of accountability.”

@mehdirhasan.bsky.social and @naomiaklein.bsky.social discuss how Trump and Epstein’s elite circle fear mass movements that could bring them down.

Watch the full episode: zeteo.com/p/naomi-klei...
February 15, 2026 at 5:26 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
colincarlson.bsky.social
NEW‼️ For the forthcoming Pandemic Agreement travaux préparatoires edited by @alexandraphelan.bsky.social, we did a deep dive on how experts and evidence shaped the negotiations. What we found is a microcosm of global health: limited time, high stakes, and familiar shady actors like Big Pharma. (1/3)
Expert engagement and evidence use in treaty negotiations 24 Pages Posted: Anna Bezruki affiliation not provided to SSRN Chloe Batie Yale University Colin Carlson Yale University Date Written: February 10, 2026 Abstract Science-and evidence-based decision-making are core values in global health, but in multilateral processes, they often take a backseat to politics. The Pandemic Agreement requires Parties to use "the best available science and evidence as the basis for public health decisions for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response," but is the treaty itself evidence-based? In this chapter, we trace how scientific and technical evidence were introduced into the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body. External experts were a key source of advice, especially on legal issues, but they were mostly excluded from the negotiations. Over time, Member States began to treat Relevant Stakeholders as a secondary source of technical expertise, introducing potential conflicts of interest into the process. In the end, scientists and stakeholders successfully leveraged scientific authority to facilitate the incorporation of One Health approach to pandemic prevention (Articles 4 and 5)-but otherwise, the treaty was shaped more by politics and pragmatism than by science. Moving forward, the Conference of Parties will be an opportunity for Member States to establish formal channels for scientific evidence synthesis and engagement-or to preserve a status quo that falls substantially behind evidence-based global governance in other areas. Keywords: Citation networks, evidence-based policy, One Health, Pandemic Agreement, scientometrics, World Health Organization Figure 1. Evidence use in the WHO Pandemic Agreement negotiations: (A) by user type and evidence type; and (B) by individual users and documents. Flows are proportional to the number of instances. In panel B, shaded flows represent self-citations by individual contributors (purple) or by organizations (red). Figure 2. Evidence use networks connecting documents (red) and users (blue). Edge width and node size is proportional to the number of references made. For visual clarity, only the most influential nodes are labeled. Layout is based on network connections and readability, and does not necessarily reflect node properties (e.g., centrality).
February 12, 2026 at 10:01 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
cwarzel.bsky.social
I wrote about something I've been thinking about for a long time. A kind of post-ironic collapse in our politics and culture where nihilism has become the lingua franca of the internet and beyond. It links Kirk, Clavicular, Epstein, memestock/coin stuff, mass shooters. I hope you'll read it.
This Is What It Looks Like When Nothing Matters
Welcome to the internet’s nihilism crisis.
www.theatlantic.com
February 14, 2026 at 5:21 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
cdelawalla.bsky.social
I've been asked about how to deal with the fear of speaking out. So, I wrote about it!

Fear and Fascism.

SUFS Blog: www.standupforscience.net/blog/fear-an...

Substack: open.substack.com/pub/sciencef...

@standupforscience.bsky.social #StandUpforScience
February 15, 2026 at 1:51 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
carolecadwalla.bsky.social
NEW: Read this terrific piece @virginiaheffernan.bsky.social for @thenerve.news in which she unpicks Edge.org, the hugely influential 'salon' funded by Epstein & threaded through with race science & eugenics.
1/

www.thenerve.news/p/epstein-bi...
The billionaires' eugenics project: how Epstein infiltrated Harvard, muzzled the humanities and preached master-race science
Edge - Jeffrey Epstein's favourite intellectual salon - was sold to me as a gathering of the world's finest minds, writes Virginia Heffernan. The files reveal it was something far darker: a decades-lo...
www.thenerve.news
February 15, 2026 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by DGBassani
andyscargill.bsky.social
My brother Garry has dementia and is currently lost somewhere in the Chester area. If anyone should spot him please call the police on 999. We'd appreciate reposts. @shitchester.bsky.social
February 14, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
jeradwalker.bsky.social
What a great photo of Brazilian alpine skier Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, the first South American to ever win a medal at the Winter Olympic Games.
Credit: Fabrice Coffrini / AFP / Getty Brazil's Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, center, winner of an alpine ski, men's giant slalom race, jumps in celebration on the podium flanked by second placed Switzerland's Marco Odermatt, left, and third placed Switzerland's Loic Meillard, at the 2026 Winter Olympics.(AP)
February 14, 2026 at 9:06 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
mollymckew.bsky.social
Too many people amassing astronomic wealth fundamentally do not believe in the idea that all people are equal and deserve equal rights, and they are spending their money on those ideas. This is the story.
February 13, 2026 at 1:15 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
theomoudakis.bsky.social
My Cartoon for Thursday's Toronto Star
February 11, 2026 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
jbakcoleman.bsky.social
I have plenty of reservations about the reliability of funnel-plots and z-curves and such, as well as their interpretation.....

But holy shit look at that.
February 10, 2026 at 3:17 PM
dgbassani.bsky.social
"Overall, broad claims of generalized learning gains resulting from AI/LLMs appear premature; the current evidence is insufficient to support robust policy or practice recommendations."
numcog.bsky.social Daniel Ansari 🇨🇦 @numcog.bsky.social · 8d
New: "Effect of Artificial Intelligence on Learning: A Meta-Meta-Analysis" by Wagenmakers and colleagues revealing evidence for "severe publication bias and extreme between-study heterogeneity" in existing meta-analyses of the effects of AI on learning: osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
February 10, 2026 at 4:01 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
lmesseri.bsky.social
Everyone should go read "More Work for Mother," by Ruth Schwartz Cowan.
February 10, 2026 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by DGBassani
brandonfriedman.bsky.social
"Find lost dogs with Ring's new Search Party" is the tag line they're using.

"Lost dogs"
a close up of a woman 's face with a disney logo on the bottom right
Alt: Woman winking
media.tenor.com
February 9, 2026 at 2:33 AM
Reposted by DGBassani
insidenflnews.bsky.social
Bad Bunny “together we are America”
February 9, 2026 at 1:35 AM
dgbassani.bsky.social
But what was written on the football?
February 9, 2026 at 1:43 AM
Reposted by DGBassani
kjhealy.co
Statler and Waldorf have more of a comment than a question
adamrothman.bsky.social Adam Rothman aced his cognitive test @adamrothman.bsky.social · 11d
I'd watch a muppet show movie where the muppets infiltrate an academic conference.
February 7, 2026 at 3:00 PM
dgbassani.bsky.social
As someone very wise once told me: you have no idea who people really are. And what they’ll confess privately. To lawyers, therapists, and their enablers.

She also said the partner of a monster is there to bask in the thrill and help burry the corpses. They don’t leave because they are in it.
February 7, 2026 at 4:22 AM
dgbassani.bsky.social
🤷🏻‍♂️
February 7, 2026 at 4:15 AM
Reposted by DGBassani
slauson.bsky.social
Made me think of this great sketch from last week's SNL.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ky63...
Winter Olympics Promo - SNL
YouTube video by Saturday Night Live
www.youtube.com
February 6, 2026 at 11:45 PM