John Bowman

Why bother with different skis for cross country and alpine? Just rip the sticky strip off, clip your boots in the back and you’re ready to swoosh downhill!

I'm happy I finally have time time to feature the "Tales from the Frontier" comic, seen in #StarfleetAcademy's "Come, Let's Away".😊 I have assembled all the pages seen in the episode but as a special gift, here's the cover and back page of the comic, provided to me by its designer: Stu Pearce! 🧵 1/4

Article: The political effects of X’s feed algorithm Abstract: Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects1. Here we present results from a 2023 field experiment on Elon Musk’s platform X shedding light on this puzzle. We assigned active US-based users randomly to either an algorithmic or a chronological feed for 7 weeks, measuring political attitudes and online behaviour. Switching from a chronological to an algorithmic feed increased engagement and shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump and views on the war in Ukraine. In contrast, switching from the algorithmic to the chronological feed had no comparable effects. Neither switching the algorithm on nor switching it off significantly affected affective polarization or self-reported partisanship. To investigate the mechanism, we analysed users’ feed content and behaviour. We found that the algorithm promotes conservative content and demotes posts by traditional media. Exposure to algorithmic content leads users to follow conservative political activist accounts, which they continue to follow even after switching off the algorithm, helping explain the asymmetry in effects. These results suggest that initial exposure to X’s algorithm has persistent effects on users’ current political attitudes and account-following behaviour, even in the absence of a detectable effect on partisanship.

Figure 2. ITT estimates of feed-setting changes on engagement and political attitudes. ITT effect estimates of switching the algorithm on and off (in s.d.). Left, effect of moving from the chronological to the algorithmic feed for users initially on the chronological feed. Right, effect of moving in the opposite direction for users initially on the algorithmic feed. For each outcome, the results of two specifications are reported. Blue, unconditional estimates with robust s.e., controlling only for the initial feed setting and, where applicable, pre-treatment outcome levels. Orange: conditional estimates, controlling for pre-treatment covariates using GRFs; 90% and 95% CIs are reported. Numerical effect sizes and P values correspond to the conditional estimates (all tests are two-sided). The unit of observation is respondent. From top to bottom, sample sizes are n = 4,965, n = 3,337, n = 4,965, n = 4,965, n = 4,596, n = 4,596 and n = 4,850. Tests are described in Methods. Supplementary Information Table 2.16 reports the exact numerical point estimates, s.e., CIs and sample sizes for every specification. All outcomes are standardized. Additional results are presented in Supplementary Information section 2. PCA, first principal component from principal component analysis.

X's algorithm is in fact doing what you think it's doing. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I didn’t see it coming. I should have, but I didn’t. #SwearTrek

I think “game show host” works.

The Homeland is no longer secure. Post rare Worfs.

“You remind me of a girl I once knew.”
“Fascinating.”

I mean, I wouldn’t eat an apple that had landed in a space capsule and started running around.

That monster’s gonna give me nightmares.

© CBC/Radio-Canada 2026. All rights reserved.

Here's Nyamakop producer Sithe Ncube talking about the game on CBC Radio's As It Happens

www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

“Wutherings Heights,” so-called.…

Remember Keiko reacting to the idea that Miles’s mom would touch and cook and eat actual meat? She was shocked!

Prominent climate scientist argues it's time to ditch the 'myth of neutrality' | CBC Radio Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe talks to Bob McDonald about the polarization of science and why she thinks scientists should stop pretending to be neutral when it's our planet at risk.

“Scientists should stop trying to be neutral and instead embrace their values,”says a group of top climate scientists, including @katharinehayhoe.com. The neutrality myth is harming the reputation of science right when we need it most.” #ClimateCrisis

Science isn’t neutral. It’s science.

Video game Relooted tasks you with reclaiming African artifacts in museums | CBC News Relooted, a new video game from African-based studio Nyamakop, tasks players with stealing real-life African artifacts from museums and private mansions to return them to their rightful historical own...

Here's my story on @nyamakop.co.za's Relooted, a game with the gotta-go-faster impulses of Trials but a heartfelt and emotional story at its core about reclaiming stolen African artifacts. www.cbc.ca/news/enterta...

SILVER FOR CANADA 🇨🇦

The Canadians win mixed relay short track Olympic silver.

It’s Canada’s first silver medal at the Olympics thanks to the brilliant performance by Courtney Sarault, Kim Boutin, Felix Roussel and William Dandjinou.

There was controversy when the French pair danced to Personal Jesus which was TECHNICALLY released at the end of 1989. They had to switch.

“Where is he from?”
“California.”
“…. huh?”

Congratulations on an unbelievable career to one of the best to ever do it.

Buck Martinez has announced his retirement.

What a career, what a man, what a friend.

When he was traded to the #BlueJays in 1981, he thought that was the end of the road. Today, he retires as one of the most important people in this country's baseball history. To Buck 🥃

I wish this was in the Olympics: luge but on a ski run. bsky.app/profile/thek...

They then appeared to attack each other with staple guns.

Medgar Evers’ killer was a Klansman, but Trump administration says stop calling him a racist - Mississippi Today Among anticipated changes to a new visitor brochure for the Medgar & Myrlie Evers Home National Monument is no longer using "racist" to describe the killer of the civil rights leader.

Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was shot in the back by a Klansman in 1963.

The National Park Service has removed visitor brochures from Evers' museum and reportedly plans to remove references that call his murderer a “racist"

“Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning” — Cowboy Junkies

No rhymes. No chorus. Perfect song.

Bonus selection from the same album: “‘Cause Cheap Is How I Feel.”

“Sun Comes Up, It’s Tuesday Morning” — Cowboy Junkies

No rhymes. No chorus. Perfect song.

hey remember when I got shit on for years for trying to warn people that GamerGate was just Nazis and not just about harassing women and not just about some “consumer revolt”

One of the nuclear annihilation scenarios in the rapid-fire sequence at the end of WarGames (1983) is the CANADIAN THRUST.

Dear media, stop acting like Trump means what he says Whether over "a deal" on Greenland or a "pivot" on ICE, we need far more skepticism

"The news media doesn’t seem to know how to bring anything other than wide-eyed credulity to Trump's utterances, even after all the lies and deceit of the past decade."

Great @sulliview.bsky.social takedown of coverage of "pivot" on ICE and Greenland:
margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/dear-media...