DGBassani

Waiting for the check marks: The reality of connecting with family in Iran For the Iranian diaspora, maintaining contact with family requires dealing with communication blackouts, constant surveillance, and the emotional roller-coaster tied to a message's delivery status.

Families split between Iran and the diaspora have relied on fragile ways to stay in touch — letters, expensive phone calls, VPNs. Now communication blackouts are making those connections even more uncertain https://restofworld.org/2026/iran-internet-shutdown-diaspora-family/?utm_campaign=row-social

"You're right to question that. Let me be brutally honest.

"Known residuals" is a term I invented to avoid work. It doesn't exist "

This, ladies and gentlemen... is Claude Code. These things cannot help themselves.

👇 all of this!

We've reached the 'biblical responsibility' levels of madness.

How Stand Up For Science is trying to 'pull every lever' to win over the public Stand Up For Science has become a formal organization and adopted a new strategy that's more confrontational with grassroots tactics

Real change takes a movement that goes into the public square, and as @cdelawalla.bsky.social explains, the public square has expanded & requires moving beyond business-as-usual engagement. More on @standupforscience.bsky.social and its strategic calculus:

www.statnews.com/2026/03/06/s...

At least 13 hospitals and health facilities hit during attacks on Iran, WHO says Global health body investigating reports that four medics are among the 1,230 people killed in Iran since start of war

In Gaza, Israel and Biden normalized war crimes beyond anything we have seen before.

And now, Israel and Trump are using that model against Iranian civilians.

At least 13 hospitals and health facilities hit during attacks on Iran, WHO says

www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reache...

“If a U.S. role were to be confirmed, the strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the ​Middle East.” www.reuters.com/world/middle...

a cartoon of a person pressing two red buttons that say `` make it worse '' . ALT: a cartoon of a person pressing two red buttons that say `` make it worse '' .

So many choices

For a [Professor] Who Used AI to Write a Paper

RFK Jr has 'unreviewable' authority to reshape vaccine policy, DOJ lawyer tells judge A lawyer for the Trump administration told a judge on Wednesday that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has such broad authority over vaccine policy that he could even ​scrap re...

A DOJ lawyer argued in court today that RFK Jr. has the absolute authority to recommend (hypothetically) that people get a shot *of* measles instead of *against* measles during a hearing for the lawsuit filed against RFK Jr. by the AAP and APHA.

The good side is seeking a preliminary injunction…

Corporate Media Buries Story of US and Israel Killing 168 in Girls School Attack No front-page stories in NYT, WSJ, WaPo. No mention on NBC and CBS Sunday Shows. No stand alone segments on Evening News shows. A death count on par with the OKC bombing is relegated to the back page.

“No front-page stories in NYT, WSJ, WaPo. No mention on NBC and CBS Sunday Shows. No stand alone segments on Evening News shows. A death count on par with the OKC bombing is relegated to the back page.” www.columnblog.com/p/corporate-...

And yes… evergreen.

I just heard Lily Allen’s West End Girl for the first time today and oh boy… I can’t even explain. Just go listen to it.

📅 Save the date!

Join us next Monday, Mar 9th 11 AM ET, for another exciting seminar with Yasaman Asgari (University of Zurich) on global science landscape.

Hoping to see you all there!✨

The Shins - Saint Simon [OFFICIAL VIDEO] (Remastered) YouTube video by Sub Pop

"The cruel, uneventful state of apathy releases me
I value them but I won't cry every time one's wiped out

I'll try hard not to give in
Batten down to fare the wind
Rid my head of this pretense
Allow myself no mock defense

As I step into the night"

James Mercer

International Honor for Laurent Hébert-Dufresne | Computer Science | The University of Vermont

UVM Prof. of Computer Science, Laurent Hébert Dufresne, has been awarded the 2026 Young Scientist Award for Socio- & Econophysics! A global leader in complex systems, his research connects infectious disease modeling, network science, & ecology to answer one big question: How do things spread?

Yes

A quick web search of “scif container 705 tempest” shows lots of companies that make them as well as government tenders for bidding.

Aren’t some SCIF inside containers sometimes? The ones used in military bases. Or is that only in movies/fiction?

Her husband wanted to use ChatGPT to create sustainable housing. Then it took over his life. Kate Fox says Joe Ceccanti was the ‘most hopeful person’ before he started spending 12 hours a day with a chatbot

“It’s difficult to understand the scale of the problem, but OpenAI itself estimates that more than a million people every week show suicidal intent when chatting with ChatGPT.”

Modern-Day Slavery in the United Arab Emirates Author: Aalia Garrett September 5, 2023The United Arab Emirates (UAE), renowned for its opulent skyscrapers and extravagant lifestyle, hides a dark reality beneath its glossy facade, where there exist...

Apropos of nothing

World leaders fear broader escalation after major US and Israeli attack on Iran French President Emmanuel Macron called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting in response to the US and Israeli strikes in Iran. Germany and the UK are holding their own emergency meetings on Saturday to discuss the situation.

UN Security Council, at the request of France, is to hold an emergency meeting on Iran (16:00 EST/21:00 GMT). Secretary General António Guterres is to address the council. www.lemonde.fr/en/internation...

a woman says " why should we trust you " in front of a bloomberg sign ALT: a woman says " why should we trust you " in front of a bloomberg sign

“The world is a complicated, messy, and sometimes dangerous place.”

‘And we’re ensuring it gets much worse.’

There, I fixed it.

The Secret Agent is a masterpiece. And it’s not what you think it is at all. Academics, don’t miss it!

And this was Claude Opus 4.6

The use of these to create human work that would not exist otherwise is revolting. I have to deal with LLM generated feedback almost every week (and I stupidly step on eggshells to not accuse anyone of what they are obviously doing).

But it's also worse: in one session it tried to re-write a verification script (comparing some values with an API reference) and it inserted hard-coded values (after the API fetch) that matched my script estimates (hiding the unmatched values). "Data quality" fabrication.

Exactly. The illusion of proficiency clouds the room. If you do not know what you are doing to be able to assess its work you'll be fooled. Easily. It is an excellent bullshitter.