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colleen wood

@colleenwood.rocks
825 followers 422 following 306 posts

I teach political science at a big community college in Minnesota. I study digital politics and authoritarianism in Central Asia. Opinions expressed here are mine; views do not reflect the state of Minnesota or U.S. government.

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Reposted by colleen wood
Dr. Damien P. Williams, dread portent down from a mountain cave @wolven.blacksky.app · 01/10/2026
When it comes to research, there is no single tool or site that is as robustly useable as Google scholar is, and google scholar a) ain't as robustly useable as it could be and b) has started integrating LLM-based "AI" "summaries" into their search results, and i just HATE it.
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 30/09/2026
Okay jaw on the floor for this, but MAN she didn't go for the long-a dirtbayg
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Pam Herd @pamherd.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
America.gov launched today--a DOGE initiative to use AI to deliver public services. Child lying facedown on a frozen lake as the image accompanying the question: "How can I invest in my child's future" is just incredible. Way to go AI
Image of a child lying facedown on a froze lake.  above is the portal where you ask AI questions about government services.  the question matching this image is:  "How can I invest in my child's future?"
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Anthony Iannaccio @mrtonynacho.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Mister Rogers never misses
You know, your own imagination is far more wonderful 

Mister Rogers’ NeighborhoodThan any computer could ever be. You know why?

Mister Rogers’ NeighborhoodYou’re a living human being. And a computer is just a machine.

Mister Rogers’ NeighborhoodHuman beings are far more wonderful than machines.

Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 09/09/2026
Is there data that people ever abandoned blue books as an assessment method? (Sales plummeting during 2020 doesn't speak to a bigger trend... there was literally no way to do in-person assessment for most of 2020 in higher ed.)
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NY Times Pitchbot @nytpitchbot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Liberals say that our democracy is in a death spiral. They're wrong—our republic is in a death spiral.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 06/09/2026
Read the full story:
projects.propublica.org
“I Have Lost Everything”: The Toll of Cities’ Homeless Sweeps
Cities often take belongings — including important documents and irreplaceable mementos — when they conduct sweeps of homeless encampments. ProPublica gave notecards to people across the country so…
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Asheesh Kapur Siddique @asheeshks.org · 02/09/2026
Tech companies don’t understand scholarship. ‘Quickness’ and ‘efficiency‘ are not always the right values. Sometimes you don’t want to “answer your research queries faster” and when you do, existing search technology is more than adequate to help you do scholar.googleblog.com/2026/08/quic...
Answering a research question often requires reading through several papers and figuring out how each of them might be useful. You need to track down what each paper says about your question, what methods the authors used to arrive at the relevant results, and what caveats to keep in mind to understand the boundaries.

Today, we are introducing Scholar Quick Read, to help you answer your research queries faster. Search results in Scholar Labs and Scholar search that discuss your question in depth now include a “Quick read” link.
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 01/09/2026
Y'all I got a 5th place ribbon at the Minnesota State Fair for my savory scones!! Finally got to wander through the Creative Activities building today to see all the the amazing things Minnesotans have made this year
Lady in a light blue sleeveless shirt poses next to a display case filled with scones and intricately decorated cakesA hand holding a golden (slightly singed) triangular scone in front of blurred background of blue and yellow flags, fluffy clouds, and crosswalk
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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
be the state fair goat you wish to see in the world!
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Chris Steller @chrissteller.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Minnesota State Fair Attendance Reaches New Falcon Heights
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Doug Mack @douglasmack.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
rebel loon made out of pull tabs and meat raffle tickets, a staple of minnesota dive bars. this is such beautiful, perfect energy on every level. (worth noting that those meat raffle cards are from small towns in rural minnesota)
Rebel loon made out of blue meat raffle tickets and black and white pull tabs
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Yan Matusevich @ymatusik.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan used to be the two most remittance dependent countries in the world back in 2017 and 2018, but have gone on completely different trajectories since. In 2025, remittances make up almost 60% of Tajikistan's GDP whereas that number has dropped to just 17% in Kyrgyzstan.
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Matthew Vinge @mvinge.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Lunar Eclipse on the first day of the 2026 Minnesota State Fair First time in 167 year history that a lunar eclipse visible during open hours It wasn't until after doors closed that I had idea to take these pics. A friendly security guard escorted me back in!
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Dr. Casey Fiesler @cfiesler.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
I tried something in my class today that I was really excited about and I think went well! Basically a set of activities (with a bunch of polling) that turned students into an LLM in order to explain how they work. For example:
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Stacey Burns @wentrogue.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Jennifer Nelson’s entry to this year’s Minnesota State Fair crop art
A localized version of Guernica with a loon at the center and a person holding an ICE OUT sign 

“My piece was inspired by Picasso's Guernica, a work that was his response to the Nazi's bombing of the Basque town. I thought there was a fitting parallel between these incidents about the high price paid by ordinary people when aggressive regimes try out new tactics of war, as well as a fitting juxtaposition of the darkness of living such an experience and the light we shone through it in our own resistance and care for one another. The patterns near Renee Good and Alex Pretti’s mouths are actually their last words in Morse code: ‘I’m not mad at you,’ and ‘Are you okay?’” 

Jennifer Nelson
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W.E.D.em Boyz @leftistwonk.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
ICE has fallen out of the headlines but July marked the largest number of migrant detentions ever on record. Five migrants have died in ICE custody in the last two months. It's also currently impossible to legally migrate to this country, as 100% of visa applications have been paused.
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Michael Corey @mikejcorey.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
If only these same outlets had not been absolutely salivating to run with these stories while people were cautioning this the whole damn time.
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 24/08/2026
me picking up the copy of the power broker i abandoned this summer bc of the bqe video
still from Mean Girls where side character wearing a pink sweater + her hair half up says I saw Cady Heron wearing Army pants and flip flops so I bought Army pants and flip flops
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 24/08/2026
First day of the semester, but the vibes are weird because my first class starts at 6pm🥴 I would rather not be at work from 8:30 until 9pm but I'm so antsy to get things started
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 23/08/2026
🔥🎯🔥🎯🔥🎯
“[T]hese guidelines afford students the freedom to think for themselves, to listen to one another without the cacophony of other (disembodied and non-human) voices in the room, to make mistakes, and to change their minds as they engage with thinkers of the past, with us, and with their fellow students in good faith, face-to-face,” the SSCD memo reads.
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Keegan Lannon @keeganlannon.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Rhetorically speaking, it benefits GenAI companies for this obfuscating generic terminology. The gun lobby does the same thing with words like "assault rifle" and "automatic weapon"--terms that have general purpose use but no domain-specific reference.
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Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
...at some point we need to answer the question of what reading is going to feel like when 50% or more of the text we encounter isn't written by humans. (Seriously: students are wondering!)
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Nick Kodama 🌳👻 @nickkodama.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
distracted bf meme looking at stopping the bomb ignoring bombing to win
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 16/08/2026
Book cover for Kathy Cramer's The Politics of Resentment. Pastel yellow background. Two images nested in an outline of Wisconsin; top half is a red farm and cornfield, bottom half is a blue pinstripe suit with a red VOTE button
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 15/08/2026
it's cheugy to say cheugy isn't it
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 12/08/2026
I really don't understand how the administration can square "DOGE to save money on all that deep state fraud" with "giving authoritarian governments millions of dollars to imprison people indefinitely." A gutting read; incredible, nimble reporting.
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Marco Langbroek @marcolangbroek.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Very happy with this result. Combination of #eclipse images (time lapse) with 35 mm lens, one image per 5 minutes, from #Leiden, the Netherlands. Old Leiden Observatory bottom right.
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👻👹 boo-rit 👹👻 @britculpsapp.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
welp, just lost my life savings on kalshi
Fin Twitter
@fintwitter.bsky.social
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar secures
Democratic nomination for Wisconsin
governor
8:25 PM • Aug 11, 2026
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 11/08/2026
This is more or less what I'm doing for my in-person classes + 6 short at-home (300-600 words) which require footnotes with correctly-formatted references to stuff I assign and *only* stuff I assign. Time stamp or a direct quote from the source in the footnote if they paraphrase.
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Nathan Kalmoe (he/him) @nathankalmoe.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Why is Iran attacking our water supply? Well, Trump ordered U.S. military attacks on Iranian water facilities earlier this summer. These counterattacks were entirely predictable. www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/...
aljazeera.com
US bombs Iran’s water facilities: Why that’s so significant
The US struck several sites in Iran, saying it retaliated against the downing of a US helicopter in the Strait of Hormuz
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Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
have you ever been to, uh, a restaurant??? because, if so, wow do I have a brand new multimedia bonanza exactly for you fresh up today @pudding.cool — the story of the American restaurant *plus* a database of 5000 explorable historic menus pudding.cool/2026/06/menu...
pudding.cool
A History of Menus is a Menu of History
What do America’s earliest restaurant menus teach us about America?
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 28/07/2026
trying to avoid reality tv romance on today's hospice caretaking shift, so turned on THE RESIDENCE for a little mystery, a little zhuzh and immediately hit with al franken's likeness. guess i can't escape MN senators today
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 28/07/2026
Confused by this piece. Why is an independent news organization that frames itself as committed to reporting peddling nondescript platitudes about a crucial election?
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Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Yes. Despite everything, there will still probably be 800,000-1,000,000 people who get green cards this year. This is part because backlogs in many categories are so long that even if the Trump admin blocked 50% of applicants, there are enough people in line that total numbers wouldn’t drop.
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 27/07/2026
my hot yoga studio isn't touching the thermostat in this hellishly hot st paul summer, and it's such a weird thing to be sweatier while taking the garbage out than holding intense squats for an hour
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Erica Marat 🇺🇦 @ericamarat.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
I have some bad news for Loomer
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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · 26/07/2026
Grand strategy via influencer is actually a thing
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Nathan Kalmoe (he/him) @nathankalmoe.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
In business, this is called shrink-flation. The Board should make tuition more affordable by reducing tuition in concert with the state. Shrinking college makes students less ready for their civic lives & careers.
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Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Gutting USAID is why it took so long to find out where this outbreak came from. A lot of CDC's budget for dealing with Cyclospora came from USAID. When that was cut, most of the CDC's Cyclospora people were fired!
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 21/07/2026
sighs in "time to retinker my U.S. economic policy" lectures
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Tobias Wilson-Bates @phdhurtbrain.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Absolutely dystopian how phrases like “innovating the future” have become synonymous with the most regressively pointless curriculum at any given institution.
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Stephanie Kollmann @slkollmann.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Yes. Using a computer now feels like this at all times.
Man yelling into bored woman's ear in nightclub meme captioned 

I can summarize that for you
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 19/07/2026
Today's reading rabbit hole brought me to an academic article about the fidelity of AI-driven fatwas (the edge of the rabbit hole was trying to figure out how RAGs work/what the current status of LLM-as-search-engine debate is)
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Calliope @calliope5431.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Sign tapped:
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Jesse Rothstein @jrothst.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
I just finished reading “Seeing Like a State.” It argues that “high modernism” (Brasilia, soviet collectivization, Tanzanian forced villagization) failed because it put complex humanity into overly-simple schema. I think it has interesting things to say about AI’s impact on the labor market. 🧵
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 14/07/2026
yum town!!!! i think i might go for more frosting (or a thicker frosting? probably need to go to a special grocery store to get Smetana Smetana instead of sour cream) and am tempted to play with spices but pleased with the first effort
8 thin layers of golden brown cake in between white layers of frosting on a marbled blue/white plate in front of a shelf with tea cups and cocktail-making vessels
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allison / collage, zines, mail art @allisonanne.com · 12/07/2026
a sign remembering Lorenzo Salgado Araujo at Alex Pretti’s memorial 📍Whittier, Mpls
handwritten sign pasted to a window at alex pretti’s memorial in whittier, mpls

LORENZO
SALGADO
ARAUJO
killed by ICE
7-7-26
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colleen wood @colleenwood.rocks · 13/07/2026
it was 93 degrees today, we don't have AC, but for some reason i was inspired to practice one of my state fair bakes: medovik. absolutely melted for hours, but hoping it's tasty (it has to sit in the fridge over night so the filling can soak into the eight [8] layers!)
close up of a small pot filled with a golden goo and a whiskmarbled blue and white plate with a cake on top - cake covered in white frosting, chunks of golden brown cookie dust on the edges and top. potions of the caribbean cookbook in the backgroundtop-down view of a kitchen counter: half a metal bowl filled with whipped sour cream, half a teal kitchenaid, a blue and white marbled plate with a circular dark golden layer of cake and a spatula with a gob of the whipped sour cream
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Dr. Devon Cantwell-Chavez @devoncantwell.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
The ghost of Margaret Thatcher during the World Cup semifinals
Margaret Thatcher in a tank with a British flag flying from it
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