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Tim Riffe

@timriffe1.bsky.social
1.9K followers 1.3K following 103 posts

danger, demography, and data

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Reposted by Tim Riffe
ProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026
Few patients appeal a health insurance denial, but a little-known process that requires insurers and plans to seek an independent opinion can force insurers to pay for what can be lifesaving treatment. Here’s what experts say you need to know.
propublica.org
This Little-Known Appeal Could Force Your Insurer to Pay for Lifesaving Care. Here’s How to File It.
When a health insurer refuses to pay for your treatment, you may have the right to have the denial reviewed — and potentially overturned — by an independent provider. Here are six steps experts sugges...
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Vincent Arel-Bundock @vincentab.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Big news! 🎉 𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚌𝚝𝚜 1.0.0 for #Rstats is out. It’s a big number and it feels like a big step. I wrote a blog on the challenges of interpreting statistical models, SPEED, cool new features, the future, and a 5 year package development and writing odyssey. arelbundock.com/posts/margin...
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Karen Benjamin Guzzo @karenguzzo.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Undergrads often find Sociology classes depressing b/c there's so much emphasis on inequality & how people's lives are influenced by factors outside of their control. But I think Sociology is the ultimate discipline of hope and optimism - we believe no group is inherently "less-than." 1/5
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Nuffield College, Oxford @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
📞 Calling academics in Sociology, Social Policy or Demography Join us in Oxford as a Sociology Group Visitor in 2027 to 2028 Applications are now open 📆 Deadline: Mon 28 Sept ✍️ Find out more and apply at: www.nuffield.ox.ac.uk/our-research... #nuffsky
A light blue circular graphic overlays a dark blue graphic. Text on the background reads 'Nuffield Sociology Visitorships; 2027-28 academic year; The Sociology Group invites applications for a Visitorship at Nuffield College for the academic year 2027-28; Visitorships normally last between one and six months; Application deadline: 28 September 2026' There is the Nuffield College logo in the bottom right corner
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Rebecca Sear @rebeccasear.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Interesting: the difficulty “older” women have conceiving may be exaggerated because of selection effects Rethinking age-specific fecundability: Selection bias can generate apparent rapid decline with age austriaca.at?arp=0x0041dd...
austriaca.at
Vienna Yearbook of Population Research 2026
The Vienna Yearbook of Population Research is an open access journal that features contributions addressing population trends as well as a broad range of theoretical and methodological issues in popul...
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Matt Hall @fertmortmig.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
📣📣📣Cornell Population Center is hiring for its next Rhodes Postdoctoral Fellow The fellowship is competitive and provides ample time for pursuing independent and collaborative research. Welcome applications from all scholars interested in population research. Please share widely!
academicjobsonline.org
Cornell University, Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy
Job #AJO32452, WDR-00060532 Frank H.T. Rhodes Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US
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Marius Sältzer @msaeltzer.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Job Alert! We now have another position in computational social science. In the context of an interdisciplinary method center, we offer a 4+1 year 100% postdoc position with no teaching! If you have any questions, send me a PM. uol.de/en/job/postd...
uol.de
Postdoctoral Position in Digital Social Sciences and Humanities // University of Oldenburg
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 05/08/2026
Yep. Yesterday JSTOR was unreachable. Aaron Swartz was hounded to death for far less.
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Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 02/08/2026
I wonder if students today would be less likely to lean on AI for writing assignments if schools had made sure they could touch-type (at least 60wpm) before having them submit all their assignments online. 1/🧵
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Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 24/07/2026
New episode of HARD DRUGS! GLP1 drugs have transformed obesity & diabetes, help treat heart disease, kidney disease and sleep apnea. They're far from the only drug with multiple uses. But sometimes, it takes several decades - and public funding - to learn about new uses.
open.spotify.com
Are miracle drugs hiding in plain sight?
Hard Drugs · Episode
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NBER @nber.org · 20/07/2026
State- and county-level Preston curves show that economic growth in the 2010s no longer translated into broad gains in life expectancy, from Ritikaa Khanna, Rourke O'Brien, Andrew C. Stokes, @atheendar.bsky.social, and Elizabeth Wrigley-Field www.nber.org/papers/w35470
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B Jarosz @datageekb.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
C'mon. Surely one of you wants to keep our health stats alive!
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Robert Chung @rchung.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
If he had to pay $1 million for each death, he'd still have 300 billion left over.
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OPIK @opik-ikerketa.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
‼️📑 Publicamos artículo en Atención Primaria Analizamos los factores organizacionales e interpersonales que condicionan la atención a la población racializada en Espana. Link👉 doi.org/10.1016/j.ap...
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Ilya Kashnitsky @ikashnitsky.phd · 08/07/2026
For the celebration, w/ @larabister.bsky.social & @bastianelli-e.bsky.social we did some fascinating analysis of career trajectories of all 351 individuals who went through EDSD. The results are still to be wrapped up into a paper, stay tuned 🐟
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Nicolas Lambert @neocarto.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
The R package 'geovizr' is now available on CRAN 🥳 It allows users to create vector-based, interactive, and zoomable thematic maps directly from R. #rstats #rspatial #maps #cartography #dataviz #webmapping Explanations, examples, and documentation are available here: riatelab.github.io/geovizr
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John Holbein @johnholbein1.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Only 9.9% of top Sociology articles from 2019-2024 provided replication packages. And ≈ half of those with replication packages could not be verified due to missing or incomplete materials. www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10...
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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 03/06/2026
Some personal news: My sabbatical ended last week, just as I landed a deal for the book I've been working on for these 12 months. The Cradle Will Fall is now about half done (just need one more sabbatical) and will be edited by @rlevay.bsky.social at @princetonupress.bsky.social. I'm thrilled!
PUBLISHERSLUNCH DELUXE
Wednesday, June 3, 2026
Today's Deals
Politics/Current Affairs
Professor of sociology at the University of Maryland Philip N.
Cohen's THE CRADLE WILL FALL: RESISTING POPULATION PANIC AND EMBRACING THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY, arguing that concerns about declining birth rates are not only overblown, but also represent an opportunity to address great societal issues, connecting the global history of pronatalism with authoritarianism and observing the irony of today's neofascists who are both pronatalist and anti-immigration, and lobbying to use the savings in time, money, and resources that come from low birth rates to slow down the climate crisis and improve our collective wealth, education, health, and elder care, to Rachael Levay at Princeton University Press, by Don Fehr at Trident Media Group (world).
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Ugofilippo Basellini @ugobas.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Thank you @akbaritabar.bsky.social and @jschoeley.com for an excellent workshop and thanks to all participants!
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Ingrid van Dijk @ingridvandijk.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I've been appointed Professor in Economic, Social and Demographic History at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and will start on September 1st. I'm really excited to return to the Netherlands and work on questions about inequality in the long run. www.ru.nl/en/about-us/...
ru.nl
Ingrid van Dijk appointed professor of Economic, Social and Demographic History | Radboud University
As of September 1, 2026, Ingrid van Dijk has been appointed professor of Economic, Social and Demographic History, at the Faculty of Arts.
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Human Mortality Database @hmdatabase.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
📢 #episky #mortality #opendata #HMD The weekly deaths series #STMF was just updated at mortality.org/Data/STMF ✅ New data for 32 countries ✅ Full data for 2025 for 34 countries To further explore the data, check out the excess visualization toolkit 👇 mpidr.shinyapps.io/stmortality/
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Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 22/05/2026
This is so cool. This atlas has Lexis plots on how various things have changed over time in different age groups – mortality rates, fertility rates, number of parents and siblings. And you can reach out to Jonas to add your own plots too. I'd like to see Lexis plots for absolutely everything.
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American Statistical Association History of Statistics @hos-asa.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Mindel Sheps b #OTD 1913 (d 13 Jan 1973) ASA Fellow 1970. Physician, political healthcare activist, biostatistics professor, advisor to WHO, she made substantial contributions to mathematical demography but is best known for her highly influential NEJM 1958 paper on the asymmetry of relative risk.
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Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Congratulations to the data wizards at @ourworldindata.org who created this elegant tool so you can adjust fertility, mortality & migration rates for any country to see the impact on population sizes & age structures. This is really, really great!! Check it out!! Excellent tool, terrific write up.
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Dr Mary @maryabedalahad.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
We are recruiting for a PhD student who will be studying jointly between Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research and University of St Andrews, More information are attached. @phrg-standrews.bsky.social @cpc-cg.bsky.social @bspsuk.bsky.social
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Jonas Schöley @jschoeley.com · 05/05/2026
What is the main reason for premature male mortality in Mexico? @ikashnitsky.phd and Aburto answered this question in 2019 for every Mexican state, every year since 1990 and all ages from 15 to 50. Their rich results are available on demoscapes. demoscapes.org/collections/...
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Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) @mpidr.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Max Planck Research Group on Reproductive Ageing, led by D. Susie Lee 이수지, is starting today! It will investigate indicators of female & male reproductive ageing: www.demogr.mpg.de/en/news_events_61…
A Max Planck research group will launch on April 1, 2026, focusing on reproductive aging and its social implications.
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Elizabeth Wrigley-Field @wrigleyfield.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
New visualizations of a deeply important paper (out last year) by @mathewkiang.com and colleagues
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OPIK @opik-ikerketa.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Exiting news 🎉 We @timriffe1.bsky.social @opik-ikerketa.bsky.social @ehu.eus will be organizing and hosting the 38th REVES conference on #healthexpectancy in #Bilbao! Save the date for #REVES2027 @reves-network.bsky.social 📆 18-21 may 2027 📍 Bizkaia Aretoa in Bilbao, Spain
REVES 2027 conference save the date for Bilbao, 18-21 May 2027
In the picture, the Guggenheim museum, the Nervion River and the venue itself, partially blocked from sight by the museum
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Kat Chzhen @katchzhen.bsky.social · 25/03/2026
📣One more #tenuretrack Assistant Professor job going at TCD Sociology! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQY837/a... Closing date: April 20 @tcdsociology.bsky.social @isa-rc28.bsky.social @eaps.bsky.social
jobs.ac.uk
Assistant Professor in Sociology at Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin
Apply for the Assistant Professor in Sociology role on jobs.ac.uk, the top job board for academic positions in higher education. View details and apply now.
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Tim Riffe @timriffe1.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
I see quite a few demographers with exploited works that are owed part of the Anthropic settlement. Too many for me to give individual heads-ups to. Worth your time if you’re one of them.
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Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) @mpidr.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
📣Pre-Conference EPC Workshop: Demographic Microsimulation in R using SOCSIM – Modelling Population and Kinship Dynamics 📅June 03, 2026 🗺️Bologna #EPC2026 Learn all: www.demogr.mpg.de/en/news_even... @eaps.bsky.social @eapsphd.bsky.social
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Philip N Cohen @philipncohen.com · 30/11/2024
Ok: 1 like = 1 demographic fact* * may include estimates, generalizations, dataviz, or unsubstantiated claims
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Leah Abrams @leahrabrams.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
🚨PhDs in demography, sociology, public health, biomedical science.... Check out this exciting postdoc opportunity to work in the new and growing area of "medical demography" with Dr. Marcus Ebeling! www.demogr.mpg.de/en/career_61...
demogr.mpg.de
MPIDR - Postdoctoral Researcher: Max Planck Research Group on Medical Demography
The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. At the MPIDR, researchers from all over the world investigate demographic change, aging, fertility, biological demography and other issues at the forefront of population research.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
The 2026 National Science Foundation budget is $8.75 Billion.
nytimes.com
First 6 Days of Iran War Cost U.S. $11.3 Billion, Pentagon Says
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Jenn Dowd @drjenndowd.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
1/ Has life expectancy fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic? In a new pre-print, we find that 31 of 34 high-income countries had still not returned to their expected life expectancy trajectories five years after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6... #demography
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Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) @mpidr.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Weaponizing Kinship: Four out of ten Colombians have lost a family member in the conflict 🇨🇴 Enrique Acosta, Diego Alburez, Maria Gargiulo, & Catalina Torres quantified how many Colombians have ever lost at least a family member to conflict-related violence. www.demogr.mpg.de/go/weaponkinship
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Patrick Heuveline @patrickhvl.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Paper by E Acosta, @demography.bsky.social, @thegargiulian.bsky.social & C Torres first from PDR special issue I guest edited w/ L Andriano & M Ebbinghaus, Social and Demographic Consequences of Political Conflict and Violence, to be available on early view onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
<em>Population and Development Review</em> | Population Council Journal | Wiley Online Library
The ongoing Colombian armed conflict has produced widespread homicides and enforced disappearances, as armed actors used violence to terrorize communities and consolidate power. Family bereavement—on...
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Eugenio Paglino @eugeniopaglino.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
🚨New paper out in Demographic Research🚨 and my first foray into demographic methods. It develops a new method to quantify how specific subpopulations drive demographic gaps. www.demographic-research.org/articles/vol... @demresjournal.bsky.social @pophel.bsky.social #demography #methods
demographic-research.org
Demographic Research - The groupwise decomposition: Estimating group-specific contributions to differences between demographic measures (Volume 54 - Article 14 | Pages 441–470)
Volume 54 - Article 14 | Pages 441–470
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Tim Riffe @timriffe1.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
An excellent resource!
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Saloni @scientificdiscovery.dev · 04/03/2026
New post! It may seem ambitious to ask for individual patient data from clinical trials to be shared, anonymized, for use by other researchers. But the history of medicine shows us that clinical trials have already undergone a series of transformations that once seemed equally bold:
clinicaltrialsabundance.blog
Clinical trial reforms that once seemed radical
How randomized controlled trials, preregistration, and results reporting became standard practice.
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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
A new paper shows that less than 2 months of exposure to Twitter’s algorithmic feed significantly shifts people’s political views to the right. Moving from chronological feed to the algorithmic feed also increases engagement. This is one of the most concerning papers I’ve read in awhile.
The political effects of X's feed algorithm
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10098-2
Received: 16 December 2024
Accepted: 4 January 2026
Published online: 18 February 2026
Open access
• Check for updates
Germain Gauthier,5, Roland Hodler?5, Philine Widmer35 & Ekaterina Zhuravskaya3,4,5 m
Feed algorithms are widely suspected to influence political attitudes. However, previous evidence from switching off the algorithm on Meta platforms found no political effects'. 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.
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Antonino Polizzi @polizzan.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
📈 New preprint on life expectancy trajectories in high-income countries since 2020. 📉 Joint work with a great team from @mpidr.bsky.social @oxforddemsci.bsky.social @psglshtm.bsky.social @camunicampop.bsky.social Link below. 👇
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Tim Riffe @timriffe1.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Another way to use Kitagawa decomposition in demography:-) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Arriaga Meets Kitagawa. Life Expectancy Decomposition With Population Subgroups
An Arriaga decomposition partitions differences in life expectancy into contributions from mortality rate differences in each age. A Kitagawa decomposition partitions a difference between two weighte...
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Tim Riffe @timriffe1.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
I'll be teaching again for Barcelona Summer School of Demography, "Demography with R" 6-10 July: ced.cat/en/bcn4seaso... You can do this program in person or online. Sign up, it's fun to do demography! @cedemografia.bsky.social
ced.cat
Center for Demographic Studies
The Demographic Studies Center (Barcelona) was created in 1984 with three main aims: promote scientific research, training and dissemination of knowledge on population dynamics.
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Ugofilippo Basellini @ugobas.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Join us in Bologna for the 1st meeting of the EAPS WG Open Science in Demography. Program: group intro + 2h workshop led by @jschoeley.com & @akbaritabar.bsky.social. Free & open to all. Register: eaps.opensci@gmail.com #EPC2026 #OpenScience #Demography @eaps.bsky.social @populationeu.bsky.social
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Roby Bhattacharyya @roby-b.bsky.social · 22/02/2026
The last part abt how measles disrupts immunity vs other infections is, imo, underappreciated (& mechanism was recently clarified). It's part of why measles vaccination was seen to help beyond just reducing measles complications - not getting measles reduces severity of subsequent infections too.
science.org
Measles virus infection diminishes preexisting antibodies that offer protection from other pathogens
Measles virus infection can cause long-term damage to the immune system.
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