For the "data scientists" out there who are throwing things at machines (e.g., LLMs) and trying to extract "insights," I recommend (re)reading this piece: "Data is therefore only as useful as its quality and the skills of the person wielding it." qz.com/1664575/is-d...

Postdoctoral positions: Our team at the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public is accepting applications for up to two postdoc positions, starting in Fall 2026. Priority deadline is Jan 15. If you know someone who might be interested, let them know!

Someone asked me to comment on the anniversary of Jan 6. I will consider having comments on it….should it ever end. We are very much still reaching for the nadir of this reclamation. No time yet for historicizing it. Still trying to survive it.

One of my wishes for 2026 is that we collectively try to end over-meeting culture. Before "putting some time" on people's calendar, please step back and ask yourself whether that meeting is really necessary, or whether the goal can be achieved another way. annehelen.substack.com/p/the-root-o...

Folks getting in the weeds about licensing agreements but this research study engaged me in research, by creating a bespoke dataset about me, before I agreed to participate. They already made the dataset before I was invited to participated. That's not how informed consent works

When power is rooted in disinformation, data become a threat.

“These viruses are serious, dangerous, and life-threatening. We are seeing children who are seriously ill, families grieving devastating losses, and hospitals under capacity strain.” www.cnn.com/2026/01/05/h...

damn this was a scathing READ lmao

We underestimate how impactful harassment and threats of violence are on politicians. Clear, large uptick in the number of major incumbent politicians not running/retiring specifically due to harassments and threats of violence. The harassers are like 0.1% of the population but hugely impactful.

This is a great read. Lessons generalize beyond the tech industry.

"we have entered a new phase in American foreign policy. Yes, we’ve done oil wars and illegal wars before. But this would be much, much stupider and much, much less constrained by common sense, Congressional oversight (what’s that again?), or any hint of respect for international law..."

somebody at UChicago is feeding preprints to LLMs without authors' consent, in a research study they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work. lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply

Four generations of my family have served our country. Service is in my blood. The President wouldn’t know anything about that.

“HHS will only recommend single dose of the HPV vaccine as opposed to two. Meningitis, hepatitis A and B, dengue, and RSV vaccines will only be recommended for “high-risk” groups…rotavirus, Covid-19, flu, meningitis, and hepatitis A and B only under “shared clinical decision-making.”

A reminder that the US killed 80 people in Venezuela, and it would be nice if the US media cared enough to think that the life of a grandmother in Caracas whose building is destroyed by a US bomb matters as much as the life of a person in the US.

Speech standards are clearly asymmetric. Edgy left-leading speech can get you fired. Edgy right-leaning speech can get your instructor fired if they give you a poor grade for not completing the assignment.

One of those cases where you think it might be more complicated and then read the story to discover that it is not. The resident dean was removed after an organized campaign that surfaced speech - whether you like it or not - seemingly unrelated to their work at Harvard.

As @jbakcoleman.bsky.social and I wrote, “Every time a scientist abdicates their work to an AI tool, that is a tacit admission that the work is not worth being done by the scientist.” Same goes for instructors.

Tara Roberts is a Black Woman Scuba Diver who works for National Geographic that goes deep into the ocean in search of lost slave ships.

Congestion pricing is an unqualified success in NYC. It would be great to see it expanded to every city with decent public transit options. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

I believe he's the first acting Archivist of the United States to be deputized to run a foreign country as a side hustle.

It's wild that the PM of a NATO member feels compelled to put out a statement like this vis-à-vis the US government.

We had a good run

Literally a publication for eight-year olds 40 years ago

"You’ve lived through several waves of feminism, and they’ve culminated in two women who were among the most qualified candidates in US presidential history losing to the same misogynistic con artist." #McSweeneysTop25of2025

WELKER: Is the Cuban government the Trump administration's next target? MARCO RUBIO: Well, the Cuban government is a huge problem. Yeah. WELKER: Is that a yes? RUBIO: I think they're in a lot of trouble, yes

finally, we're living through precedented times

Well, I have hit the wall. I do not want to be a “political communication” scholar anymore.

Polls conducted in late 2025 show that most Americans, by a 25-50 point margin (depending on question wording), oppose the use of military force against Venezuela. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/americans-...

What if none of these things is a distraction from the other things and instead they're all just horrible things

NEW: A mass propaganda event is about to engulf the US news cycle and what, if anything, survives it will be a lesson for our times. But it’s what the rest of the world does now that’s key. When someone tells you who they are, believe them. broligarchy.substack.com/p/the-threat...

Time to reup the real National Security Strategy:

At least a thousand New Yorkers turned out to protest this war with just a few hours notice. People care and you are not alone. Wherever you are, find your organizing home and figure out how to put your own care into action.

for real

The oil companies knew about this before the U.S. Congress www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

"If this is really a signal that a spheres-of-influence world is taking shape...Putin will feel entitled to reciprocal impunity in what he considers contested or gray-zone spaces. After all, if Trump is allowed to do it in Venezuela, why can’t Putin do it in Lithuania. Or Poland. Or France."

NYT: At least 40 people were killed in the US attack on Venezuela, including military personnel and civilians.

babe wake up, they're doing insider trading on war crimes

Well, it was either all this or another black person in a Star Wars movie

oh my god he posted so many action shots from the makeshift mar a lago situation room and they were just looking at tweets together on a gigantic screen

www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01... Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, in an address to the nation, “the masks had fallen off, revealing only one objective: regime change in Venezuela. This regime change would also allow for the seizure of our energy, mineral, and natural resources."

Members of Congress: stop posting online and APPEAR, PHYSICALLY on the steps of the Capitol to decry this unconstitutional violation of domestic & international law. SHOW THE PEOPLE the level of danger we are facing as a country. @housedemocrats.bsky.social @senatedemocrats.bsky.social

🤔 I'm old enough to remember a few hours ago when this was supposedly about drugs.

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts. Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

The action in Venezuela is also another consequence of how weak Congress has become. President saw no need to even attempt to build support or justify his actions.

The “if you give a mouse a cookie” principle means that if he faces no consequences worldwide for this, he’ll go for Greenland next.

People are going to try and lure you into debates about whether Maduro was a good guy or not and the thing is, it doesn’t matter for the purposes of discussing whether violent kidnappings and extrajudicial murders by the US government are ok. No, they aren’t! End of convo.