Summary of today's AI@UW keynote speech:

I feel this shouldn't have to be said, but if you're running an @OpenClaw bot please don't let it spam GitHub projects with PRs and then write aggressive blog posts attacking the reputation of the maintainers who close those PRs simonwillison.net/2026/Feb/12/...

A better Rainier Ave S is possible:

The Douglass-Truth Library Has How Unlikely a Name? A Little Simulation in Python This is a story is about the Douglass-Truth Library, the surprising way it got that name, and a computer simulation inspired by that surprise. Maybe it will surprise you, too.

𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗲: 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗼𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 We are dedicating the International Journal of Population Data Science 2026 Special Issue to the use of Artificial Intelligence in Population Data Science research. The Call for Papers (CfP) for this Special Issue is here: ijpds.org/calls/ai

Testing Stochastic Simulations: Bayesian Fuzzy Checking in Python A hands-on guide to catching simulations bugs with automated tests

The Journal of Privacy and Confidentiality has managed to get one more edition published this year: https://journalprivacyconfidentiality.org/index.php/jpc/issue/view/123 Happy new year to the editors!

A unique database complied by @acleddata.bsky.social allowed them to put together this deep dive into the extent of war-related violence acleddata.com/report/two-y...

New @ihmeuw.bsky.social paper today --- "HIV-related mortality time trends among children and young adolescents on antiretroviral therapy by age, treatment duration, and region: a systematic review and meta-regression analysis": www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

There was a baby boom of elephants in 2020 and now they are turning 5 www.elephanttrust.org/wp-content/u...

"Telehealth for patients experiencing homelessness has been surprisingly successful in improving access and extending care beyond traditional clinic settings." jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

3/4 of my age group does not mail in their poop jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Help, I've fallen in a rabbit hole about needle phobia journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

The @uwescience.bsky.social has an ethnographer to study our data scientists and their rituals escience.washington.edu/staff-spotli...

"Yellow fever is prevented by an effective vaccine, which is safe and affordable." www.who.int/emergencies/...

The title of his first book, written with Jennifer Wear, says it all: “How to Have Intercourse Without Getting Screwed.” Once, at a lecture, he explained the pun: “I wrote it for my kids.” magazine.washington.edu/the-uw-mourn...

🔊 @drkariljordan.bsky.social's #PyConUS 2025 keynote is up on @pycon.us's YT. 🎉 Kari shares incredible insights, and Python impact stories from @brownsarahm.com @healthyalgo.bsky.social @fgazzelloni.bsky.social Amanda Kis & @marijanewhite.bsky.social. Check it out! www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UOL...

Student project to demonstrate using the simulated data from pseudopeople.org : medium.com/@samshin0714...

Norovirus vaccine produces mucosal immunity in phase 2b trial Despite being the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide, there are currently no vaccines for norovirus. www.cidrap.umn.edu/n... Photo: selvanegra / iStock

This is such an important shift. For many years the catholic church withheld support for HPV vaccination which prevents cervical cancer. 119,000 women die from this cancer in Africa every year. This full throated support of the HPV vaxx by the church will help uptake. nation.africa/kenya/health...

Yeah I think so!

@simonwillison.net this *is* vibe coding, right? figshare.com/articles/jou...

Our new paper about Census and privacy is out! We conducted a simulation study to investigate the risk of disclosing a change in how an individual's sex was recorded in successive censuses. journalprivacyconfidentiality.org/index.php/jp...

Congratulations to @uw-healthsystems.bsky.social Professor Donald Chi, who was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science! Professor Chi has led research on children’s oral health inequities, especially in rural communities in Alaska. www.washington.edu/news/2025/03...

people seriously ask us if we've ever seen any ninja turtles in our sewer work, and i can't help but think "wow people really don't understand how ninjas operate"

Do you want to read scientific papers but don't really know how? Curious about cats and bird flu? Like journal clubs? If you answered YES to any of these, this week's E is for Epi newsletter is for you. Join me reading this recent study in 7 simple(-ish!) steps: open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

"A 2024 survey of college applicants found that about 50 percent had used AI for brainstorming essays, 47 percent had used it to create an outline, and about 20 percent had used it to generate first drafts." hechingerreport.org/students-try...

King Holmes was a giant in STI research. He built the UW into a powerhouse in the area and steered my own thesis advisor, Maggie So, toward what would become her pathbreaking career of work on Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Our work as researchers, educators, and mentors sends ripples to distant shores.

These tables provide data in race categories that align with those used in vital records by reassigning responses from the “Some Other Race” category to the five race categories in the 1997 OMB standard.

The upcoming meetings of the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, National Advisory Committee, and the 2030 Census Advisory Committee are cancelled. www.amstat.org/the-nations-...

Monkeypox Ib incubation periods: the median incubation period from exposure to rash was 18.6 days. Five percent of cases develop a rash within 5.4 days and 95% within 37.6 days. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

arxiv.org/abs/2502.19190 offers perspective from humanities researchers on GenAI, including: "1) Models make words, but people make meaning; 2) Generative AI requires an expanded definition of culture; 3) Generative AI can never be representative; 4) Bigger models are not always better models;

If you have been exposed to #measles you can get post-exposure vaccination. Ideally within 72 hours of the exposure. This can help reduce the severity of illness and could even prevent you from developing symptoms at all. Given exposures in gyms and at airports consider this a free tip.

WHO had a meeting about mpox recently --- the situation continues to be a "public health emergency of international concern" www.who.int/news/item/27...

> Most papers in the review reported a positive impact of female leadership: 119 (87%) reported an improvement, increase or benefit of the assessed outcome as a result of women’s leadership. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Drug overdoses kill >100,000 people every year, and counties with more extractive policing practices (revenue generation through fines and forfeitures) have higher overdose death rates. surface.syr.edu/lerner/265/

PAHO warns of rise of yellow fever in the Americas Cases, on the rise since late 2024, have spread to new parts of Brazil and Colombia. www.cidrap.umn.edu/y...

Uganda has launched a clinical trial for a vaccine targeting the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus following an outbreak in the capital, Kampala. The trial will targets contacts of confirmed cases. www.reuters.com/business/hea...

Talk by Chris Murray about recent @ihmeuw.bsky.social work on how health in US is going: www.healthdata.org/news-events/...

What US Census Bureau would ideally like to see in a system that protects privacy: www2.census.gov/library/work...