Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026But also dropping a link to what I observed at a city council meeting this summer in Salem, OR. Things are similar and also different between these two locales ... bsky.app/profile/jbur... 010
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026City council meetings in Japan are open to the public, but there's no "public comments" portion of the meeting. The folks gathered at this forum didn't include government officials from what I could tell or any of the major developers. 120
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026You can probably see where I'm going with this. It also means that there's no straightforward way for citizens to stop a nearby public golf course, beloved green space from being transformed into a logistics / data center as they are experiencing in Akishima - showanomori.infoshowanomori.info昭島巨大物流センターを考える会〜GLP昭島プロジェクトから子どもの命と昭和の森を守ろう〜 100
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Japan is famous for flexible zoning laws that many Westerners (myself included) have celebrated. High density housing, commercial, industrial co-exist and there are few avenues for citizens to stop this kind of mixed use. 110
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026There are very similar concerns here. People don't want to live near large facilities that block sunlight, replace their green spaces, emit noise, and reverse progress on climate change goals. One presenter mentions tech harms such as deepfakes and children's social media addiction. 120
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026I am quickly disabused of this notion. I ask one protestor from Akishima what their goal is. She says stop the data center. There are a few references throughout the forum to the data center moratoriums sweeping through the USA. 100
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026The focus of the forum is sustainable co-existence between data centers and the communities who live nearby. I start with an assumption that there is perhaps a cultural difference at play. More collaboration, fewer mock 'guillotines' (as protestors brought to Salem, OR). 100
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 04/10/2026More data center work! I'm in Japan at a 公開市民フォーラム (public citizen's forum) bringing together data center protestors from 8 regions around Tokyo. There are also professors, experts, and other speakers. The press is here as well. 1144
Reposted by Jenna BurrellMark Histed @markhisted.org · 03/10/2026Killed. NSF’s SBE was killed, in violation of law. The President does not have the power to choose to kill programs at a whim by defunding them. The imperial presidency was a mistake and we are in a separation of powers constitutional crisis. 151445527
Reposted by Jenna BurrellDr. Elinor Carmi @elinorcarmi.bsky.social · 02/10/2026We just had a discussion on this in our editorial meeting of Internet Policy Review. It would be great to hear from other academic journal editors what are their policies around researchers using synthetic data. -> www.pewresearch.org/data-labs/20...pewresearch.orgCan AI Stand In for Human Survey-Takers? Not ReallySynthetic surveys using digital twins do a poor job estimating the public mood and are especially error-prone for some subgroups, including Republicans and Black adults. 22812
Reposted by Jenna BurrellVictor Pickard @victorpickard.bsky.social · 27/09/2026A major structural hazard with extreme media ownership concentration is that oligarchs impose their ideological agendas--which almost always skew to the far right--on everyone. This capture of core info and communication infrastructures must be dismantled if we're to have any semblance of democracy. 6364152
Reposted by Jenna BurrellParis Marx @parismarx.com · 21/09/2026one of the 21st century’s great tragedies is seeing a media industry gutted by decisions made by the tech industry elevate a bunch of industry shills as the people meant to help the public understand how tech works and what impacts it’s having on the world 24911124
Reposted by Jenna BurrellFaine Greenwood @faineg.com · 17/09/2026So-called “effective altruism” actually just cuts the global poor out of the conversation entirely. Great piece: dear-humanity.org/effective-al...dear-humanity.orgEA is worse than traditional philanthropy in the way it excludes we the poor.Effective altruism is worse than traditional philanthropy in the way it excludes the extreme poor in the global south. By Anthony Kalulu @KaluluAnthony | December 3, 2022: —- I have spent the v... 933191
Reposted by Jenna BurrellJeff (Hot Type) Jarvis @jeffjarvis.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I'm fed up with incomplete, credulous reporting like this. I sent the email below to reporters. Journalists: Google TESCREAL before you write about these dangerous nutters. The Anonymous Math Geek Who Quit Anthropic—and Became the Face of AI Safety www.wsj.com/tech/ai/jaco... 87627
Reposted by Jenna BurrellKaren Gregory @karengregory.bsky.social · 17/09/2026Protect African Studies @ Edinburgh docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...docs.google.comProtect African Studies @ Edinburgh 11315
Reposted by Jenna BurrellSusan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 16/09/2026Big lawsuit filed by the family of Tierra Walker, who died of preeclampsia at 20 weeks pregnant after being denied abortion care. Argues Texas' abortion bans violate the state constitution's right to life and should be struck down. More soon on @autonomynews.co abortioninamerica.org/wp-content/u... 1530166
Reposted by Jenna BurrellRyan Calo @rcalo.bsky.social · 16/09/2026Banning "superintelligent" 🤢 AI plays right into industry rhetoric and keeps the focus off immediate, real world harms such as privacy, bias, and labor. Literally the same name of the silly Bostrom book everyone was reading 12 years ago. 311633
Reposted by Jenna BurrellMichael Zimmer @michaelzimmer.bsky.social · 12/09/2026They could just… not do it. Or turn it off. Deploying AI tools in uncontrolled ways is a choice. The risks tech companies keep struggling to “manage” are risks they choose to create. Why It’s Tough for Tech Companies to Keep A.I. Out of Trouble www.nytimes.com/2026/09/12/t...nytimes.comWhy It’s Difficult for Tech Companies to Rein In A.I.Researchers say artificial intelligence is developing faster than the systems put in place to monitor and control it. 151
Reposted by Jenna BurrellGautam Kamath @gautamkamath.com · 16/09/2026Nihar Shah did a heroic experiment for TMLR: he spent 20-25 hours over two weeks interviewing authors of seemingly low-quality submissions about their own papers. He confirmed what we all suspected: people submitting these papers have *no idea* what is going on in them. 5293117
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 17/09/2026I mean, doing way more desk rejects isn't enough. The incentive is still there for unprincipled researchers to keep throwing stuff over the wall and see if you can trick people into accepting it. There's no friction if you are having AI write your papers. 000
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 17/09/2026People having papers written by AI, wasting the time of volunteer reviewers, unable to explain their own research ... this is research misconduct. How can we ensure there are consequences for this? i.e. you are no banned from this research community if you are caught doing this. 220
Reposted by Jenna BurrellKieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 16/09/2026They should have taken the opportunity to combine the Stanford Prison Experiment, the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator into a show where people assigned as guards or prisoners are repeatedly bombarded with either one marshmallow now or two marshmallows later. 717527
Reposted by Jenna BurrellDavid Roberts @volts.wtf · 15/09/2026It's difficult to pick apart fears about AI & data centers that are intrinsic to the technologies vs. those that are connected to the fact that giant, fateful decisions about these things are being made by a small handful of insular brain-cooked oligarch narcissists. 848188
Reposted by Jenna BurrellKate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 15/09/2026They’re going to claim that trace amounts of birth control in drinking water is a public health risk, and then make birth control pills illegal, aren’t they? 1192028618
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 14/09/2026If you grew up in a white enclave and think that's what 'Americans' are supposed to look like, that's a *you* problem. 010
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 14/09/2026**Nobody looks American** I say this all the time to people here in Japan. I try to convey this clearly to anyone I talk to who is not from the USA. It has never been a thing, not in 1776 and not now. 120
Reposted by Jenna BurrellRaffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Random note; since my dad passed away last December, I’ve been handling all of my mom’s mail and accounts. It is incredible. How many scams are aimed at the elderly in this country, including my companies that superficially seem legitimate. Every week her mail is full of this crap. 851807269
Reposted by Jenna BurrellAlondra Nelson @alondra.bsky.social · 10/09/2026Researchers across the country are turning to side hustles to fund their work. Behind the cuts sits a bigger shift: whether American science can still sustain durable research capacity. @lindseydcameron.bsky.social and I examine the stakes in a new piece @science.org: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...science.orgThe wrong platform for scienceDaniel Blumstein recently sat in a Colorado meadow waiting for yellow-bellied marmots to appear, as the ecologist and evolutionary biologist had done many times before, the New York Times reported. Bu... 6510273
Reposted by Jenna BurrellProPublica @propublica.org · 09/09/2026NEW: Our analysis found that from 2020 to 2025, the rate of deaths involving ectopic pregnancies nearly doubled compared with the previous six-year period. The uptick was steeper in states with abortion bans.propublica.orgEctopic Pregnancy Deaths Have Nearly Doubled. It’s Worse in States With Abortion Bans.With prompt and appropriate medical care, experts say, people shouldn’t die from an ectopic pregnancy. Women in Texas and Oklahoma have sued over delays in care, which, coupled with our new analysis, ... 34776174458
Reposted by Jenna BurrellPrisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 10/09/2026They are coming for Mifepristone and have been for a while. I can't tell you how much worse things are going to be if they criminalize it. If you are in NYC, come to our teach in about abortion on October 3: www.interruptingcriminalization.com/events/all/a... - do not be passive.interruptingcriminalization.comAbortion: A Community Teach-In — Interrupting CriminalizationAre you curious about how the rightwing successfully overturned Roe v Wade? Are you wondering how organizers and advocates are thinking about what comes next? Join Interrupting Criminalization for a t... 1420222
Reposted by Jenna BurrellMelanie Mitchell @melaniemitchell.bsky.social · 08/09/2026Hey @ericlipton.nytimes.com 👋 AI is not “evolving” on its own. *People* are choosing how to build it. *People* are choosing how to train it. *People* are choosing how to run it. Maybe the problem is that they are the *wrong people* to make these choices. 28635174
Reposted by Jenna BurrellTimnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 07/09/2026Guys, this is Bernie Sanders' guy for all things AI. Max Tegmark of the Future of Life Institute, funded to the tune of $665m by crypto billionaires, that's of course, after all the Muskrat + friends' money. Their "seed funding" was from Musk. 🧵 www.politico.com/news/2024/03...politico.comThe little-known AI group that got $660 millionPowered by a massive cash infusion from a cryptocurrency mogul, the Future of Life Institute is building a network to fixate governments on the AI apocalypse. 18571262
Reposted by Jenna BurrellMegan Kovacs @megankovacs.bsky.social · 06/09/2026The thing that makes this piece so deeply disingenuous is not only the willful misreading of the quote attributed to her which is obviously about patriarchy and not comparing communists to fascists; (cont) 2508
Reposted by Jenna BurrellNicole Bedera @nbedera.bsky.social · 03/09/2026I genuinely think that one of the biggest feminist challenges right now is that feminism was so successful that a lot of people can’t even imagine what the world was like before it. 321616290
Reposted by Jenna BurrellLeah McElrath @leahmcelrath.bsky.social · 03/09/2026When Gloria Steinem co-founded Ms. Magazine in 1972, the honorific “Ms.” was virtually unheard of. Unmarried women were referred to as “Miss [father’s last name]” and married women as “Mrs. [husband’s last name].” “Ms.” was an assertion of individual identity. Women who used it were widely mocked. 201528323
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Unintended / unimagined uses was also a major theme of my book -- mitpress.mit.edu/978026201736... -- can send it along as PDF if you need it.mitpress.mit.eduInvisible UsersThe urban youth frequenting the Internet cafés of Accra, Ghana, who are decidedly not members of their country's elite, use the Internet largely as a way to... 110
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Claude Fischer's book 'America Calling' goes into detail about how the telephone industry tried to discourage people (well, women) for a decade or more from using the phone for making sociable calls. There wasn't some good economic reason, it was short-sighted on the part of the industry. 110
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 03/09/2026I have some photos of nets being used to reinforce roofs in Uganda that I could dig up if you need them. Yes, also used as fishing nets, can confirm. 140
Reposted by Jenna Burrelldanah boyd @zephoria.bsky.social · 28/08/2026PhD candidates/new grads: Postdoc opportunity with me focused on political economy and tech. See details here: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32502academicjobsonline.orgCornell University, Department of Communication Job #AJO32502, Postdoctoral Associate, Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, US 16562
Reposted by Jenna BurrellTressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 27/08/2026I have seven invitations from student groups to talk about A.I. They know what I think about A.I. That's why they asked me. They aren't feeling it, y'all. 192487469
Reposted by Jenna BurrellSusan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 25/08/2026Actual “pro-life” policy alert 112121
Reposted by Jenna BurrellMél Hogan / The Data Fix @melhogan.bsky.social · 24/08/2026““[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 184
Reposted by Jenna BurrellDavid Roberts @volts.wtf · 23/08/2026I hope everyone caught this Lancet study confirming that Elon Musk & DOGE are responsible for genocidal levels of suffering & death.thelancet.comEvaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysisUSAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a... 5435201809
Reposted by Jenna BurrellVictor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 22/08/2026I’m going to go out on a limb and say that if you are signing a letter supporting a disgraced eugenicist famous for hounding a Black scholar to death your main concern is not academic freedom. This goes double if you don’t have the same smoke for the Trump administration’s attacks on academia. 14651166
Reposted by Jenna BurrellAndrea Mann @andreamann.bsky.social · 19/08/2026"By writing, you are literally firing up your brain and therefore stirring up your conscious thoughts and something new emerges. You are not, or at least not always, transcribing something already present in your conscious thoughts.“ LOVE this piece. www.historians.org/perspectives...historians.orgHow Writing Leads to Thinking (and Not the Other Way Around) – AHAWriting is stressful. Sitting in my computer chair my neck and shoulder muscles almost immediately tense up as I dig around in my brain for the best phrase or even any coherent string of words. 181039336
Reposted by Jenna BurrellSarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 18/08/2026Right? I feel like "oh noes AI is using up all the rural water" is very in keeping with one of white-collar America's most obnoxious habits, "Let's slap a rural mascot on extremely urban concerns! Because it makes the problem feel more 'real.'" 626735
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 18/08/2026anyways ... for the uninitiated, spread the word, let's use more publicly-funded institutions this way! Call it "parent's night out" call it "kid's night out" whichever! 010
Jenna Burrell @jburrell.bsky.social · 18/08/2026This is great, of course, but I guess I'm surprised that its being treated as novel. My kid's Oakland public school did this many years ago. Put the kids in the gym, serve popcorn, wear PJs, watch a movie. Maybe we contributed a small fee, but it was way cheaper than hiring a babysitter. 110
Reposted by Jenna BurrellHypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 17/08/2026“The concern is a person who is leaving a state where abortion is illegal and coming to Columbus to get the abortion care they deserve should not be followed into our city by this dragnet surveillance system that we have…”woub.orgAbortion rights advocates fear Flock cameras could track women seeking abortions in OhioTexas officials used data from thousands of Flock cameras nationwide to track a woman in 2025, according to a report from 404 Media. 04116