Reposted by Shawna WilliamsMatt Ford @mford.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Ezra Klein asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about AI making kids worse at math and reading. Huang’s reply: “Does it matter?” Then he said he doesn’t know his own address or phone number. “We’re going to lose some fine intellectual dexterity.” www.nytimes.com/2026/09/23/o... 58854831504
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsCarissa Wong @carissacwwong.bsky.social · 23/09/2026We now know why a meningitis outbreak in the UK in March was so severe: it was caused by bacteria that took genes from harmless microbes. This helped the resulting bacteria evade the immune system and obtain iron from blood, boosting their growth. www.newscientist.com/article/2590...newscientist.comSevere meningitis outbreak caused by bacteria that took genes from microbiome | New ScientistAn unprecedented meningitis outbreak that occurred in Kent, UK, in March seems to have been driven by a bacterial strain taking genes from harmless microbes 084
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsMark Gongloff @markgongloff.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Urban heat island effects are bad enough. Clustering data centers in cities, each of which can produce the heat of 54,000 houses, will make it exponentially worse, especially in already hot places like Phoenix Gift link to this great @bloomberg.com infographic: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...bloomberg.comAI Data Centers Release Heat, Posing New Problem for CitiesAs facilities to power AI grow larger and are built in clusters, they are spreading hot air beyond their property lines 914098
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsProPublica @propublica.org · 22/09/2026NEW: In late 2024, FBI investigators had enough evidence to launch a sweeping bribery probe that could ensnare top lawmakers, including Sen. Susan Collins. Then Trump was reelected and eviscerated the FBI and DOJ teams handling public corruption probes.propublica.orgThe FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the WayAfter the FBI caught a defense contractor’s CEO making illegal campaign contributions, it sought to launch a sweeping political bribery probe involving Collins and others. Then the second Trump admini... 13746322242
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Big Tech is using panic to suck the air out of the room just as people are demanding transparency and accountability for the sector’s egregious, monopolistic overreach into every facet of our lives. My latest column with bonus track open.spotify.com/track/403oiK...open.spotify.comThieves in the TemplePrince · Music from Graffiti Bridge · Song · 1990 71368309
Reposted by Shawna Williamslukelukeluke @lukelukeluke.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Here are some nice mushrooms 18115099
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsProPublica @propublica.org · 18/09/2026Russian oligarch Umar Kremlev footed the bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars of expenses at Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding, including renting out a private island. National security experts say it raises an urgent question: What motivated Kremlev to spend a fortune cultivating the connection? 38704270
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsDavid Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 15/09/2026The US National Science Foundation Directorate for Geosciences, which has funded most of my research over the past three decades, has been enshitified by Trump and his lackeys. 6565114
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsAaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 14/09/2026NEW: DHS's Inspector General releases a scathing report about the Everglades detention camp known as "Alligator Alcatraz." The OIG finds that the now-closed camp, violated multiple ICE standards. The OIG also confirms detainees were punished with placement in a metal cage in the Florida heat.🧵 69285994169
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsThe Open Notebook @theopennotebook.bsky.social · 03/09/2026We’re so excited to announce Editing Forensics: a 5-week virtual course! This highly interactive training opportunity is designed to help you improve your editing and self-editing skills. Happening 10/14–11/18. Details & sign-up link here: www.theopennotebook.com/editing-fore...theopennotebook.comEditing Forensics: A 5-Week Virtual Course - The Open NotebookGreat writing depends on great editing—and great editing is a skill that can be learned. In this highly interactive 5-week course, participants will develop practical editing techniques that… 011
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsBrendan Nyhan @brendannyhan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Unprecedented corruption www.wsj.com/politics/pol... 692576879
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsSam @very-simple.com · 05/09/2026NYC friends - I’m looking to get rid of this ottoman - it’s still in good shape (I’ve kept it slipcovered to protect from Sadie) but with more recent furniture acquisitions, it’s just too big. It’s 39” in diameter. Available for the low low cost of picking it up. 142
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsJim Swift @jimswift.bsky.social · 01/09/2026The cruelty is the point. Shame on this administration and shame on the people who voted for this. www.springfieldnewssun.com/local/spring...springfieldnewssun.comSpringfield Haitian student takes his own life after being fitted with ICE ankle monitor, advocates sayA 20-year-old Wright State student took his own life on Interstate 70 out of anguish over a required ICE ankle monitor, according to local community advocates. 431277513
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsHendrik Klaassens #FBPE #BanX #NoAfD #FBR @aurorablogspot.bsky.social · 29/08/2026An ABC NEWS Verify investigation has found Facebook's parent company, Meta, is paying controversial content creators including a white nationalist with Neo-Nazi links and a prominent anti-vaxxer. Content produced by these creators appears to be, at times, in violation of Facebook's own policies.abc.net.auFacebook pays controversial creators to produce rage-bait contentAn ABC NEWS Verify investigation reveals Facebook is directly funding some controversial Australian content creators including a white nationalist and an anti-vaxxer influencer. 67775
Reposted by Shawna Williamsemptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026IN THE MIDDLE OF LOSING A WAR, Whiskey Pete appears to have fired General Randy George bc George refused to drop a probe into Kid Rock. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec... 11726201032
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsCarl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 24/08/2026If you just happened to pick this week to start yelling about the importance of academic freedom, I sure hope you did more than watch silently for the past 18 months as the Trump administration assaulted everything from mRNA vaccine research to gender studies to the very idea of having universities. 152092441
Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Why am I even on this site if I could somehow miss, for two whole months, the fact that the final season of The Bear was out. 210
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsMichael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 22/08/2026As usual with these "cancelled" right-wing heroes, Cofnas hasn't been fired. The university has temporarily suspended him while it investigates whether his actions violate its discrimination policy. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026... 171202203
Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 17/08/2026Amazon having a dedicated facility where it feeds rare books into the AI maw and destroys them is exactly the kind of cartoon villainy I expect from our era. 022
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsLucy Prebble @lucyprebblish.bsky.social · 14/08/2026One of the sad things about the death of writing is that we are going to be taking life advice primarily from visually attractive people now who don’t know shit. ideally you want the world filtered through awkward homunculi filled with rage who know the plural of homunculus 151126231
Reposted by Shawna Williamse.w. niedermeyer @niedermeyer.online · 13/08/202614 million souls ended in a single year by Elon Musk's cruelty and stupidity Here are some of the comparisons: Rwandan genocide: 800k dead Cambodian genocide: 3 million dead The Holocaust: 7 million dead 7236351378
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsUCSC Science Communication Program @ucscscicomm.bsky.social · 11/08/2026⭐ BIG NEWS ⭐ The SciCom Program is expanding its reach! We're now offering online courses on the basics of science communication beginning this September. Learn more here: www.ucsc-extension.edu/series/scien... Enroll by Aug. 15 for $100 off! 046
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsI Scare You Like Sound Dog @chadstanton.blacksky.app · 12/08/2026This is my frustration with the moment, because everyone wants to yell about being a fighter and unafraid to take on the right etc, while at same time ignoring if not tacitly supporting the police being able to do whatever they want to people in communities like mine. 8704220
Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Finished this stunning book today. Highly recommend, especially the audio book. A bonus for me is that it takes place around the turn of the millennium on an island off the west coast of Scotland, which happens to be around the same time I spent five months living in the area. 000
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsArthur Snell @snellarthur.bsky.social · 09/08/2026I imagine there were Victorians who said “we can’t afford sewers”, knowing that deaths from poor sanitation happened mostly to people they didn’t know. This is much more serious, of course. 6280115
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsElizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 06/08/2026Republican elected officials, particularly Rand Paul and Ron Johnson, are a disgrace. Aside from their repeated attacks on Dr. Fauci, I ask you this: Who in their right mind will ever try to lead an American pandemic response again if the consequence is being harassed for the rest of your life?nbcnews.comSenators vote to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress for pleading the Fifth during tense hearingFauci declined to answer senators’ questions more than 100 times during last week’s hearing, angering Republican lawmakers who have targeted him for years. 43599190
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsAlexandra Petri @petridishes.bsky.social · 05/08/2026stop wasting your life! www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...theatlantic.comNow, Thanks to Sam Altman, You Never Have to Speak With Your Kids AgainAI can handle these kinds of pointless interactions. 423537
Reposted by Shawna Williamsdell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 05/08/2026NEW: Meta reviewed, approved, and ran more than 50 ads containing AI-generated child sexual abuse material across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads. They ran for nine months. Some were live this week. After WIRED asked about them, researchers found ~30 morewired.comMeta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse ImageryMore than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week. 20738445
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsRuth Deyermond @ruthdeyermond.bsky.social · 31/07/2026Evidence of the great benefits of AI: it used to take a huge amount of time and effort to make yourself look this stupid; now AI allows you to humiliate yourself almost instantly. 19631190
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsDr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 30/07/2026Let’s be clear here, when scientists say mistakes were made at the start of the pandemic, we DO NOT mean that we did too much. We mean not socially distancing quickly enough, not making tests widely available, and not acknowledging COVID is airborne and distributing N95 masks to everyone. 23895482536
Shawna Williams @coloradan.bsky.social · 30/07/2026Really driving away editors as potential customers with these naming decisions. 000
Reposted by Shawna Williamspublic health guy @publichealthguy1.bsky.social · 28/07/20262020 was bad. very bad. horrific in every sense of the word. unfortunately it can get a lot worse. the seriousness of these threats — for which the clock is ticking — is barely reflected in our politics, largely for reasons every disability scholar has written on at this point. these are the stakes 214512
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsMelody Schreiber @melodyschreiber.com · 26/07/2026I want to add one more point. You can argue that some MAHA supporters aren't anti-vax. But their leader, RFK Jr, has been anti-vax for decades. He is the movement! It was founded on him! It is intrinsically and inseparably anti-vaccine. 224624
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsDr. Genevieve Guenther (she/they) @doctorvive.bsky.social · 26/07/2026#ClimateChange is ridiculously expensive! — more so than phasing out fossil fuels. A new study says that NY State will surpass half a trillion dollars on infrastructure spending related to climate change by 2050. Now this is just one state. And one type of cost! www.nytimes.com/2026/07/23/n...nytimes.comNew York Faces Half a Trillion in Storm Prevention Costs, Report Finds (Gift Article)A study from a group called Rebuild by Design estimates that the money will be needed to repair the effects of climate change in the next 24 years. 59250
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsRoberta Kwok @robertakwok.bsky.social · 21/07/2026It's pub day for Lost in Curiosity -- please re-post widely! "Lively and revelatory" (Elizabeth Kolbert), "beautifully written" (Alan Lightman), "an utter delight" (Sabrina Imbler), "the kind of trip you won't want to miss" (Deborah Blum) www.robertakwok.com/book 22113
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsMelody Schreiber @melodyschreiber.com · 21/07/2026NEW: The HHS just paused $1 billion in Medicaid payments to California and Minnesota. They used AI to identify "suspected fraud and noncompliance." From me: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...theguardian.comRFK Jr pauses $1bn Medicaid funding to California and MinnesotaTrump’s health secretary says AI used to identify potential fraud in Democratic-run states 47644
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsDavid Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 20/07/2026The 1997 Flores settlement says children can only be in immigration detention for 20 days. A new legal filing shows that kids at CoreCivic's detention facility in Dilley, TX have been there as long as 323 days, & includes firsthand accounts of the abuse guards are inflicting on children.prospect.orgTrump Administration Routinely Violating Immigrant Children’s Rights - The American ProspectThe 1997 Flores ruling requires immigrant children be released from detention after 20 days. Trump is keeping some for as long as 323 days, new filings in a lawsuit state. 10677420
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsBrian Goldstone @brian-goldstone.bsky.social · 20/07/2026"It feels good to stand up and say, 'This is not legal or constitutional so we will fight back.'" Proud to call @thrasherxy.bsky.social a friend. Whatever your views on his politics: "Members of the U.S. government… should not be deciding who is and who is not teaching at university campuses."chicagotribune.comDenied tenure and alleging discrimination, Northwestern University professor sues school and government officialsA Northwestern University professor filed a federal lawsuit alleging federal officials pressured the school to deny him tenure. 19234
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsNicholas Grossman @nicholasgrossman.bsky.social · 18/07/2026The US built the greatest talent magnet ever, attracting the smart, skilled, and striving. They’d come to study, then stay and build things here, or leave with positive impressions and fruitful connections. Helped make the US wealthy and powerful. Then America chose to throw it away. And for what? 20846331580
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsEmily Atkin @emorwee.bsky.social · 18/07/2026We are given only a limited number of truly perfect summer days in our time on Earth. One of the more insidious cruelties of fossil fuel greed is how it slowly strips those days from us, more and more throughout our lifetimes, perhaps without us even realizing what we have lost.heated.worldAnother stolen summer dayWhat are we still waiting to learn? 252625666
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsTracy, Making Games @theothertracy.bsky.social · 17/07/2026Saw something driving Elissa to work this morning. Had to stop and take a picture. 1747446709
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsR. O. Kwon 권오경 @rokwon.bsky.social · 16/07/2026this deeply moving piece by @ingridrojasc.bsky.social, “I See My Father in the Fathers Killed by ICE” 💔 I’m so glad she wrote this & furious she felt she had to time.com/article/2026...time.comI See My Father in the Fathers Killed by ICEThe killings of Joan Sebastian Guerrero and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo remind me of my own father, writes Ingrid Rojas Contreras. 198
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsReuters @reuters.com · 14/07/2026Elon Musk's xAI has installed more than double the number of gas turbines than it has publicly acknowledged to power its Colossus 2 data center project, without federal permits, and the pollution is hitting predominantly Black neighborhoods the hardest reut.rs/4bIghEm 15236041946
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsKynos @kynosireland.bsky.social · 12/07/2026Two lovely fellas God bless their kind and loving souls. www.nytimes.com/2026/07/11/n...nytimes.comJayson Conner, 48, and Jeffrey Newman, 58, Die; Gave Thousands of Backpacks to Those in Need (Gift Article)The couple, who died within a few days of each other, provided needed supplies, like socks and wet wipes, to people living on New York City’s streets. 0126
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsMike Drucker @mikedrucker.bsky.social · 10/07/2026This is my favorite thing I've written for @mcsweeneys.net in a while. Hope you folks enjoy it! I think the headline pretty much clears up what it's about.mcsweeneys.netMy Critics Are Missing the Nuance of My Membership in the Wealthy People Hunting Poor People for Sport Club“Over the last couple of years, I’ve been focused on making a positive impact on how the future unfolds, especially in tech, AI, and which areas of the body ... 332340585
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsPBS News @pbsnews.org · 04/07/2026All told, 321 diamonds, 56 sapphires, 13 emeralds and six rubies encrust the watch-sized gold ring presented this week to Bill White, the U.S. ambassador to Belgium, to give to U.S. President Donald Trump. to.pbs.org/44batiO to.pbs.orgA Belgian diamond group is gifting Trump a lavish ring after that industry won tariff reliefIt’s a glitzy window into the role that ostentatious – and almost always gilded — gifts are playing by those seeking to curry favor with the U.S. president. 259840539
Reposted by Shawna WilliamsAlexandra Petri @petridishes.bsky.social · 02/07/2026this contains one of the wildest paragraphs I’ve ever written www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...theatlantic.comI Went to the Great American State Fair and I May Never Sleep AgainA day at the fair featuring patriotic energy drinks, a George Washington impersonator, and lots of ABBA 2636173
