1. Bluesky doesn’t downrank links 2. You can choose your own algorithm from among thousands 3. The whole app is open source This keeps it a free and open platform by design, leading to better click-throughs and traffic to your site. We 💙 the open web.

À Bruxelles, plus de la moitié de l’espace public est réservée aux voitures

Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/20/w...

More of this and Brussels could become a great city and not just a very good one.

LinkedIn is changing its terms of use and will automatically opt you in to use your data for training their AI models... Make sure you opt out in the settings.. I guess it's nice of them to warm people? 🥲 Great to see all those privacy by design regulations doing its magic 🫠

Timely paper after La Vuelta. @friebos.bsky.social @nedboulting.bsky.social @thecyclingpodcast.bsky.social

🚨 New working paper alert 🚨 Missing summer — and the Tour de France? Don’t worry, we got you covered. 🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️🚴‍♂️ In this paper, we show that being on the route of Tour de France reduces far-right voting. osf.io/preprints/so...

Genuinely feels like a tipping point for American democracy, if we can keep it.

“I once again realised how absurd all of this is, and how much the supposed reality that politicians have to deal with is now confected, overblown and often completely illusory.” #merchantsofdistraction

“I’m very worried about the future in so many ways, and if we don’t allow ourselves to connect with other humans who have the experiences that we have, then I think we’re lost.” Brilliant on the threat to our societies and democracies if we cease to connect. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/se...

Important intervention in the debate about misinformation and what policymakers should do about it.

This is why efforts to promote science for policy/evidence-informed policymaking are so important not only for good policy but also to help keep democracy and political debate tethered to reality, rather than fantasy issues peddled by the merchants of distraction.

Great case for knowing your most cherished identities to recognise when your misinformation radar is likely to fail. @davidmcraney.bsky.social @matthewfacciani.bsky.social podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/y...

Indeed. But more to be done to continue to earn this trust. @scharfbillig.bsky.social et al paper here: publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/h...

Risks of ending US science-policy training | Science www.science.org/stoken/autho...

We had an emergency SMS alert too in our part of Brussels this morning. Not a test either! « BE-Alert - Odeur incommodante dans les égouts. En cas de gene, bien aérer les habitations. Un rincage du réseau d'égouttage est en cours. »

EXTRAORDINARY UNBELIEVAVLE HUNDREDS OF RECORDS BRUTALIZED IN JAPAN Most extreme heat wave in Japanese history Not just the records of September but ALL TIME RECORDS keep falling like 37.4 Sendai and 36.1 Watari: Hottest day ever. Next posts: List of records (HUNDREDS)

“And it’s September again” @nationoflanguage.bsky.social open.spotify.com/track/068kLr...

This.

Excellent episode casting Dreyfus Affair in a modern light. Have any cognitive psychologists written about it as a textbook example of motivated reasoning/conspiracy theory/confirmation bias? Convicting him again at the second court martial must be some sort of unbeaten world record.

Excellent example of how to explain the role of both facts and values in policymaking. #scipol

My latest Bellingcat tool is out! It lets you search what was said in council meetings across the UK and Ireland, and takes you directly to the right part of the video session to verify. Check it out and let me know what you think! 👇 council-search.bellingcat.com

Do you work on connecting scientific evidence with public policy – either in academia or in government or in between? We in the Joint Research Centre (European Commission) are building a community to learn how to do this better. More here: europa.eu/!hptQgd Apply to join here: europa.eu/!hJrr4g

Is there a name for the cognitive bias/fallacy that undervalues process (legitimacy) and overvalues output (legitimacy)? Seems very common these days in the discussion around LLMS over-valuing knowledge outputs and under-valuing the writing and thinking process.

Pursue engagement at the cost of credibility and you’ll deserve neither and lose both.

“High-quality listening during a political conversation decreases extreme political attitudes and increases people's willingness to reflect on their own beliefs.” This is one of the arguments in favour of mainstreaming participatory and deliberative democracy as a way to address polarisation.

“The only goal is to regain the trust of the people.”

Social media gives a false negative picture of the Overton window. Participatory and deliberative democracy can deliver a more accurate picture by including the views of those who don’t post, scroll or even vote.

“Today, people find it easier to imagine that we can build intelligence on silicon than we can do democracy at scale, or that we can escape arms races. It’s complete bullshit.” I am so here for this book. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Does this mean we need a different model for communicating social science compared to natural science? Or does identity trump everything and ignores inconvenient natural and social science equally? @jayvanbavel.bsky.social @matthewfacciani.bsky.social @scharfbillig.bsky.social

What about roustabout?

Is the constructive tension between democracy and the rule of law the institutionalisation of the tension between utilitarian and Kantian philosophies?

Irritating Discourse Cliche - "The Public Are Frustrated With Mainstream Politics" - up there with vague references to "the dangers of populism". Look at the last century of democratic politics - * Pre WW2 * Post-War * Post-Post-War

Fascinating philosophy perspective on behavioural science @profafinlayson.bsky.social To be fair, thanks to Nick Chater and others, behavioural scientists get weakness of "i" (individual) frame and need for system approach. Key is to bring psychology, philosophy and polsci approaches together.

Not for the first time wishing the useful distinction between “political” and “Political/partisan/party-political” has not been lost. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

MOST EXTREME DAY IN HISTORY Once again,we are seeing something beyond any imagination: Dozens of thousands of records are being brutalized nearly allover the world in over 160+ countries. In 2+ centuries of climatology there had never been anything like this. Wait for dozens of posts coming...

“First we shape our electoral systems and then they shape us” as Churchill might have said about politicians and democracy, rather than buildings.

@elkevandenbrandt.bsky.social @strobbe.bsky.social @ecf.com

The Trump Administration's attacks on science underscore the urgent need to safeguard scientific integrity in the federal government. The Scientific Integrity Act would codify protections for federal scientists to ensure federal research is protected from undue influence & informs policy.

“The reason why concern for truth doesn’t dominate in the reasoning process is because that’s not what is actually relevant for the person trying to make sense of the reality in which they find themselves”. Professor J McKenzie Alexander @lsephilosophy.bsky.social

@nedboulting.bsky.social It is Belgian national holiday tomorrow. That might explain why Campanaerts and Van Aert were chasing Wellens.

“the anglophone media is still setting the agenda for national media throughout the EU because English is the common language European journalists have between them.”

New @eurovelo.com routes to connect these regions and encourage cyclo-tourism? I’m sure there is incredible beauty in these places. Maybe the @le-tourdefrance.bsky.social @lavuelta.bsky.social and Giro d’italia could showcase some of these regions even more? on.ft.com/3TKw1xn

“social media is less like a neutral reflection of society and more like a funhouse mirror. It amplifies the loudest and most extreme voices while muting the moderate, the nuanced and the boringly reasonable.” Important for politicians - Overton Window bigger than you would guess from social media.

I used to think democracy only needed free elections, rule of law, human rights and freedom of the press. I now think it also needs academic freedom, use of scientific evidence by government, trustworthy public communications; and participatory and deliberative citizen engagement.

“Being able to write well and think coherently were basic requirements in most graduate jobs 10, 15 years ago. Now, they are emerging as basically elite skills. Almost nobody can do it …” www.theguardian.com/money/2025/j...