Daniel Citron

It’s named for the field ecologist who identified it, Stephanie Tailéd

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...

Meet the Metal Snail from the Bottom of the Ocean Live specimens of Chrysomallon squamiferum (known as the “scaly-foot snail”) from the Longqi vent field in the Southwestern Indian Ocean

Meet the Metal Snail from the Bottom of the Ocean ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/i...

If you can live through February, you’ll live another year.

From the Latin meaning “Oreo-toothed.” Very relatable.

QUIXOTE

Time to retire

Dares us to ask - what if Heathcliff were freakishly tall?

William H. Foege, Key Figure in the Eradication of Smallpox, Dies at 89

Highly recommend William Foege’s memoir “The Fears of the Rich, the Needs of the Poor” on public service through public health.

Thank you for your career of service to Americans and to the world.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...

I found this at the store a few years ago and I cannot believe it is real still

wikipedia turns 25 today! the last unenshittified major website! backbone of online info! triumph of humanity! powered by urge of unpaid randos to correct each other! somehow mostly reliable! "good thing wikipedia works in practice, because it sure doesn't work in theory" - old wiki adage

“I will accept electronic communication from students, but only by Telex or telegram”

Origami bird sitting on origami capybara

Capybara and bird friend. #capybara model by Hiroaki Kobayashi, folded from papyrus. Homage to www.tumblr.com/animalssitti... #origami

“Lord, please make my enemies ridiculous“

This work uses a mathematical model of malaria transmission in Bangladesh. This model includes a spatial component for tracking human movements, and uses data collected from mobile phones as an input for that model. The result is a map of source-sink dynamics throughout the region.

New paper out: "Identifying #malaria elimination strategies in the presence of human movement in Bangladesh" - led by Hsiao-Han Chang and and @ayesha-mahmud.bsky.social.

rdcu.be/eOXse

All of the samurai are muppets and the peasants are humans.

Kermit is Kambei. Sam Eagle is Kyuzo. Animal is Kikuchiyu.

Plague doctor with correlation=causation sign

Happy Halloween from this plague doctor

Satoshi Kamiya #octopus, folded from 4 inch papyrus #origami

Came here to post this

They interviewed him on Hard Fork too, and it was some wild gravy. I was aghast at how manic his claims were, and how poorly reasoned his arguments were.

Photograph taken of an exhibit at the Zambia National Museum of a Ground-to-Air Rocket used in witchcraft.

The caption evokes a world of invisible combat by witchcraft, where practitioners trade barrages of magic missiles.

The demolition of the Bastille was undertaken by a private citizen, Pierre-François Palloy, who became quite wealthy selling souvenirs and even giving guided tours of the site.

This is his portrait.

Here are some Bastille stone buttons, on display at Paris’s Carnavelet Museum

One of my favorite things that I learned on my French Revolution history tour of Paris is that when they dismantled the Bastille, they repurposed the stones. Some of them were carved into maquette sculptures of the Bastille, or other knicknacks, and sold as souvenirs.

First Bastille day had merch.

They mentioned that they deoxygenate the water and keep it very cold. The isopods can only stay in the open tank for a little while so they don’t get too much oxygen.

I don’t think I got a clear answer on how they survive in sea level pressure.

The last time I was at the Seattle Aquarium, they did a live feeding with the Giant Pacific Octopuses there, and they were not shy at all! Most of the GPOs that I’ve seen at aquariums are asleep or hiding during the day. It was pretty special.

I checked in on them a few weeks ago and they said to say hi.

Seriously amazing to see them at surface level, I had so many questions for the docent about how they keep them alive.

And last but not least, here is the site of Robespierre’s house, now a Louboutin.

Here is the Place de la Concorde, former site of the guillotine and now where Napoleon stores one of his obelisks.

Here is the former site of the Salle du Manège, where the National Assembly met (and where the terms of left, right, center referred to literal locations in the room). Currently a Loewe gallery for Paris Fashion Week.