> My soul into the boughs does glide; > There like a bird it sits and sings, > Then whets, and combs its silver wings; > And, till prepar’d for longer flight, > Waves in its plumes the various light. -- Andrew Marvell, from "The Garden" #outdoormoments

"Prior estimates overstate support for political violence because of random responding by disengaged respondents and because of a reliance on hypothetical questions about violence in general instead of questions on specific acts of political violence." […]

Great website, via @sarahalsherif https://tech-litigation.com/ detailing lots of case law on automated decision making #ai #automateddecisionmaking #adm #dataprotection

Please read Josh Marshall's take on the Trump regime's escalating attacks on freedom of speech -- Kimmel's removal only the latest but probably most extreme example. https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-few-thoughts-on-kimmelgeddon/sharetoken/9b9c2c6c-bc94-4280-a74f-6fc8e2158cf8 The most […]

Had a conversation today with @pluralistic onstage about hacking tractors then ran into this beauty in progress on my ride home

As a friend said to me today, “the earth is so generous!”

“The mind, that ocean where each kind Does straight its own resemblance find, Yet it creates, transcending these, Far other worlds, and other seas; Annihilating all that’s made To a green thought in a green shade.” —Andrew Marvell #outdoormoments

If you're looking for resources on how your org can handle influxes of allegations based on someone's social media posts, here are two guides: 1. PEN America's guide for journalism employers: https://onlineharassmentfieldmanual.pen.org/best-practices-for-employers/ 2. The Researcher Support […]

I am seeing a broad effort to search social media & pressure organizations to fire people who have said negative things about Charlie Kirk in recent days. The State Department has also warned immigrants against "praising, rationalizing, or making light" of his death […]

I am seeing a broad effort to search social media & pressure organizations to fire people who have said negative things about Charlie Kirk in recent days. The State Department has also warned immigrants against "praising, rationalizing, or making light" of his death […]

Grateful for moments of grace this week #outdoormoments

Deeply shocked to read that Charlie Kirk has been killed while speaking at a campus event, & worried about what it forebodes. Universities shouldn't be places where people settle things with guns; they're places to settle disagreements with words & ideas […]

The investigative newsroom I work for, @ProPublica, is raising money right now. We report on abuses of power in the public interest - stories like corruption on the Supreme Court or the police response to the Uvalde school shooting. It was the first outlet to win a Pulitzer for web-first […]

Recently there has been a lot of discourse about ActivityPub and AT Protocol which has been quite dividing and heated. Yesterday at the Social Web CG meeting (the group that maintains the ActivityPub and related specifications), I proposed releasing a statement that counters the narrative that […]

So many of the woes of this country derive a basis in the pursuit of proving that some are better than others. We want a status hierarchy, artificial scarcity, inequality, and a winner takes all system, so long as we (or someone like us) are on top […]

New study: "More women-led papers receive at least one media mention in women-underrepresented fields, but they are cited less frequently across all fields. Women authors are underrepresented in national outlets and are more often reported by liberal media. Sentiment analysis shows that men-led […]

I think I have finally arrived at cycling spd shoes that I can wear on long gravel / touring rides to a meeting and still have something that matches my business casual uniform for tech oriented professional settings. I used to have some great black Chrome […] [Original post on social.coop]

Making a list and deciding which urgent scientific questions I will set aside in my work to defend/support academic freedom & civil liberties over the next few years.

I was today years old when I realized that the butterfly ballot is older than most of my students. Grateful for everyone who spent the last 25 years making elections more usable for everyone who votes, and for all they have taught us along the way about design + democracy […]

For folks thinking about tech competition & repair-ability, I'm fascinated by this laptop, which enables product owners to swap in new GPUs as upgrades become available - even from competing chip makers […]

10 months ago, a company across the world put my neighbor's access to medical care at risk, giving us 2wks notice that software behind our 40 electric car chargers would be shut down. This is the story of how my neighborhood broke free from this potential disaster […]

Keeping the Open Social Web running wouldn’t be possible without the server admins who sacrifice their time, money, and self to this online community. Coming from Big Tech, it's easy to take these things for granted; we're used to social media being […] [Original post on newsmast.social]

DEEPLY moved by all the wonderful notes I received from folks willing to stand together to support public knowledge after @transparenttech published "Power in Numbers," on the state of independent technology research. My heart has grown about five sizes <3 […]

We have a number of academic Assistant/Associate Prof posts open at the School of Computer Science of the University of Birmingham, UK. Applications due September 30th. https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOI907/assistant-or-associate-professor-in-computer-science-research-and-education If you would […]

How is independent tech research faring in 2025 amidst extraordinary headwinds & what can we do to preserve / grow it? A new report, "Power in Numbers" @transparenttech summarizes reports on interviews with 90+ researchers on the struggle for public-interest tech research worldwide: 1 […]

The Knight Foundation and others are trying to raise $50 million to rescue public radio and TV stations, prioritizing ones that historically received more than 30% of their funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and are among the only sources of information in their communities […]

How is independent tech research faring in 2025 amidst extraordinary headwinds & what can we do to preserve / grow it? A new report, "Power in Numbers" @transparenttech summarizes reports on interviews with 90+ researchers on the struggle for public-interest tech research worldwide: 1 […]

Grateful to have made it outside a few times last week before air pollution rose again. Today it’s back indoors while I finish reading Michelle Murphy’s fascinating book Sick Building Syndrome and the Problem of Uncertainty. #OutdoorMoments […] [Original post on social.coop]

The second time this week, I've heard folks on the left & right say the stakes are too high on policy to pay attention to science, that consensus work on what philosophers call "normal science" is too slow or naive. Instead, they argue, what matters is power. Is it just me? Are others hearing […]

In case you're wondering what our lab space looks like... The daughter of CAT Lab's scientific consultant @elplatt, who asked to go by "Meowzers," sent us this amazing photo of what she imagines we're all doing when he's at team meetings. 😻😻

Thinking about Deepti Doshi's thoughtful post about NextDoor in Jonathan Haidt's substack, arguing that the "The Unintentional Business Model [of NextDoor] is Fear." It cites the Front Porch Forum, a site in one of the Whitest US states, as an alternative to racist platforms. I admire FPF, but […]

> Five Al Jazeera journalists including prominent reporter Anas al-Sharif have been killed in a targeted Israeli strike near Gaza City's al-Shifa Hospital. > The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it had targeted Sharif, alleging he had "served as the head of a terrorist cell in Hamas". > […]

What can you do when the government shuts down a scientific advisory group to prevent researchers and the public from working together on important issues? Start your own of course! A guide from the @ucsusa on how to establish establish independent advisory committees to fill recent gaps in the […]

The Authors Guild has launched a certification program for asserting that a book has been human authored https://authorsguild.org/human-authored/

‘Booking.com is facing a class-action lawsuit from more than 10,000 European hotels arguing that the accommodation mega-site used its muscle to distort the market to their detriment over a 20-year period.’ […]

Earlier this week Ghost announced a major update. With it, every Ghost publication is now on the Open Social Web. This is a huge step forward for the Open Social Web and a real testament to how work across the Social Web is benefitting creators and […] [Original post on newsmast.social]

End to end encryption has many consequences. One of them, for better or worse, is plausible deniability about the use of a company's products. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/06/microsoft-israeli-military-palestinian-phone-calls-cloud

> In a 2015 lecture, Wreden declared that a “fearful state of mind” within the mainstream video-game industry had led to “an art form in which by far the most ubiquitous form of expression is that of firing a gun.” We have, he went on, “a culture where violence is understood and implied to be […]

I finished my Everesting Roam 11:17am this morning for a total time of 33hrs 7m, w/ 33,414 ft of elevation. Why do it? Journalism & global connection matter & are worth the effort. There's still time to donate to @globalvoices - I'll write more soon, now for a […] [Original post on social.coop]

I finished my Everesting Roam 11:17am this morning for a total time of 33hrs 7m, w/ 33,414 ft of elevation. Why do it? Journalism & global connection matter & are worth the effort. There's still time to donate to @globalvoices - I'll write more soon, now for a […] [Original post on social.coop]

With 28000 ft climbed, I have 5 hours 30 minutes to climb 5000ft, as I complete my <36 hr Everest roam fundraising challenge indoors away from wildfire smoke. Grateful to the @globalvoices community for sending me a workout playlist for my final leg! Really […] [Original post on social.coop]

Made it to the 2/3 point in my Everesting attempt by 7:30pm. Everything was going well! Unfortunately NY State issued an air pollution health advisory starting midnight. With air pollution at levels that send me to the ER, I pushed home to get indoors in time. I […] [Original post on social.coop]

Nearly at the half way point of my Everesting roam attempt, as a fundraiser for @globalvoices. It has been an extraordinarily beautiful day! If you care about journalism and cross border understanding, consider donating- thanks! […] [Original post on social.coop]

Amidst rainstorms in the Finger Lakes, I now have a start time for my Everesting Roam Attempt. If all goes well, I will ride 32k+ feet in elevation over 36hrs in support of journalism and global understanding. Learn more & donate here […] [Original post on social.coop]

In case anyone is wondering, yes, I *will* be riding unisex bicycle tubes on my attempt this weekend to ride my bicycle up the equivalent of Everest. Uh, thanks for clarifying, Amazon? #bikenite

Activists often argue for community involvement in the creation of predictive models & their implementation, but it's often dismissed as impractical. Excitedly waiting for Eos Trinidad's "Subtle Webs" on community involvement in school predictive modeling […]

We (@globalvoices) are trying to set up RSS to “Whatsapp Channel“ automatic posting so people can subscribe to our latest articles there. Anyone have this working without a huge cost and/or super complex setup? Seems like IFTTT has no support, and neither does our overpriced social media […]

How can our world stay informed & connected when social media has become fragmented and risky, locked behind private chat rooms, and controlled by mercurial billionaires with their own agendas? My reflections on @prehensile @cubicgarden BBC R&D report, on why this time especially needs […]

“Come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose.” -Rilke With wildfire smoke drifting into the US northeast, it’s a day to stay away from nature as I train for next week’s Everest Roam attempt […] [Original post on social.coop]

How do you celebrate & support the hard, beautiful work of cultivating understanding across difference? Next weekend, I'm riding my bicycle up 10k meters of elevation in an "Everest Roam" to support the international journalism, translation, & community at @globalvoices […]