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Mark Ellis Harris

@meharris.bsky.social
1.3K followers 317 following 112 posts

Writing a book on OceanGate "Deep End" published 1/27. Tech investigations for IEEE Spectrum, Wired, MIT Tech Review, TechCrunch. Senior Editor at Anthropocene Magazine. Always interested in tips! None of my writing includes generative AI/LLM.

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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
What if the best way to achieve practical fusion power isn't with city-sized tokamaks but with long-neglected, compact magnetic mirrors? spectrum.ieee.org/magnetic-mir...
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Mat Honan ✅ @mathonan.com · 21/09/2026
Our reporters spent the past year and some months investigating deaths along the "virtual wall" of the southern border. Their investigation reveals that a humanitarian crisis at the border has unfolded in view of the government’s own cameras: www.technologyreview.com/2026/09/21/1...
technologyreview.com
The US spent billions on border surveillance. Why can’t it catch people before they die?
Surveillance towers, increasingly powered by AI, promised faster responses to crossings. Our investigation of deaths near the towers found they are failing to deliver.
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Lucas Laursen @lucaslaursen.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
GPS is certainly handy when it works, but in wartime militaries jam it, and in peacetime they practice jamming it.
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
I have been reporting on the risks of domestic military GPS interference tests for years. Sadly, the NTSB is now investigating a fatal crash that may have a connection to jamming from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. spectrum.ieee.org/gps-crash-pr...
spectrum.ieee.org
Safety Officials Probe Army GPS Jamming in Fatal Air Crash
Two pilots and two nurses died in medevac crash during electronic warfare tests
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Here's my story about @tsbcanada-mirror.bsky.social report into the Titan implosion. Lots of missed chances to inspect the sub, including a boarding of OceanGate's support ship by armed officers from Canada Border Services Agency (not previously reported). www.wired.com/story/canada...
wired.com
Canada Missed Chances to Inspect OceanGate’s Titan Before Fatal Implosion
A new report shows that government agencies failed to communicate and includes recommendations for stronger oversight in a bid to avert future disasters.
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has released its report into the Titan implosion. Its conclusions echo the US Coast Guard: OceanGate avoided regulations & had no real knowledge how long its non-standard carbon fiber hull would last. Full story to follow www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports...
tsb.gc.ca
Marine transportation safety investigation report M23A0169 - Transportation Safety Board of Canada
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Only FIFA would sell me a branded clear stadium bag that is TOO LARGE to take into the stadium today.
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Seattle! If you're free next Friday or Saturday, support live arts & science at Centrifuge: 5 world premiere short plays imagined by professional playwrights & science writers. I'll be introducing one of the plays. Theater off Jackson @ 730pm. Pay what you can. theatreoffjackson.org/event/centri...
theatreoffjackson.org
Centrifuge – Theatre Off Jackson
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Sean O’Kane @okane.fyi · 13/11/2025
- firefighters do safety drill at Boring Company tunnel and get chemical burns/permanent scars - ff say they weren't warned - Boring Co blames firefighters - NV OSHA cites Boring Co - Steve Davis calls NV Gov office, has meeting - citations/proposed fines go away techcrunch.com/2025/11/13/f...
techcrunch.com
Firefighters received chemical burns at Elon Musk's Boring Company construction site | TechCrunch
The firefighters had to be treated at a hospital and received permanent scars, according to a report from Fortune. But the Boring Company was not fined after it met with state officials.
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 08/11/2025
I went to the launch of the world's first new subsea habitat in 40 years. The Vanguard will be deployed near the Florida Keys early next year and DEEP, the company behind it, promises more and larger sea bases soon... www.technologyreview.com/2025/11/07/1...
technologyreview.com
The first new subsea habitat in 40 years is about to launch
Unveiled by the buzzy startup Deep, Vanguard will let teams of scientists live and work on the seabed for a week at a time.
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
MIT Tech Review's 10 Climate Tech Companies To Watch is always worth a read. This year, I was lucky enough to write about one - Kairos. No flashy fusion gadgets or improbable designs, just a sensible, safer fission reactor that could make a real difference. www.technologyreview.com/2025/10/06/1...
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 05/08/2025
New from me: first read of the US Coast Guard report into the OceanGate Titan implosion. It's a litany of mistakes, evasions, and corner cutting, for which CEO Stockton Rush gets much of the blame. www.wired.com/story/us-coa...
wired.com
US Coast Guard Report on Titan Submersible Implosion Singles Out OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush
A report on the death of five people in the Titan submersible blames design, maintenance, and inspection flaws for its failure. “It all came back to Mr. Rush,” the head of the investigation told WIRED...
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University of Washington Information School @ischool.uw.edu · 22/07/2025
We sat down with @rcalo.bsky.social , a professor at the iSchool with a joint appointment at the University of Washington School of Law, to discuss some of the most pressing challenges at the intersection of law and technology, as well as his upcoming book. Read the full Q&A: bit.ly/46o522i
bit.ly
Q&A: Ryan Calo on why 'we need to take a page from the Amish'
Ryan Calo holds a joint appointment as a professor in the Information School and as the Lane Powell and D. Wayne Gittinger Professor at the UW School of La...
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BluFly 🛩 @blufly.media · 29/05/2025
A colourised photo of the Graf Zeppelin over Rio de Janeiro in 1930? Nope. It's LTA Research's 'Pathfinder 1' over San Francisco Bay in 2025. An excellent, new article just out by @meharris.bsky.social‬ writing for the @spectrum.ieee.org journal. Can't wait to book passage. (📸 LTA Research) | 🛩️ 🎈 🥇
spectrum.ieee.org
LTA Research's Massive Airship Combines Luxury and Sustainability in a Big Way
The age of airships returns with LTA Research's Pathfinder 1, a 124-meter helium giant, soaring over San Francisco Bay. Funded by Google cofounder Sergey Brin, this milestone marks a step towards sust...
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
I was lucky enough to be the first journalist to see the completed Pathfinder 1, the prototype next-gen helium airship from Sergey Brin's LTA Research, now flying over SF Bay. I also had a sit down with the startup's CEO, Brett Crozier. Story in IEEE Spectrum: spectrum.ieee.org/lta-research...
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
I'll be on BBC News at 1245 Pacific/845pm UK time to talk about the new BBC/Discovery OceanGate documentary, Implosion. Netflix is also releasing a documentary, Titan, in a few weeks, which I had a hand in. www.netflix.com/tudum/articl...
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
Here's my last story for Anthropocene Magazine: a look at Deep Fission, a startup hoping to deploy subterranean fission reactors a mile underground. Deep nuclear could be cheaper and safer than today's light water reactors - with built-in waste disposal www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2025/04/nucl...
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Megan @forestfauxx.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
Happy Twin Peaks Day, my friends ☕️
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Larry Neufeld @larryneufeldsk.bsky.social · 31/01/2025
89% of the world’s population want their govts to “do more” to fix climate change. However, those 89% don’t know that they are the overwhelming majority — that most other people on Earth also want govts to take stronger climate action #ClimateAction www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Globally representative evidence on the actual and perceived support for climate action - Nature Climate Change
Global support and cooperation are necessary for successful climate action. Large-scale representative survey results show that most of the population around the world is willing to support climate ac...
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Some personal news: I'm excited to expand my OceanGate reporting into a book, tentatively titled The Deep End, and doubly excited to be working with Norton, one of my very favourite publishers. Busy times ahead!
Announcement of a book deal for Mark Harris to write a narrative non-fiction book about OceanGate for Norton
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
At the risk of stating the obvious, there's nothing "efficient" about simply ceasing government services. That's called "failure."
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Crystal Lee @handle.invalid · 22/01/2025
the text-only NPR site is an absolute delight for someone who's trying to simultaneously lessen my consumption of news while still staying somewhat abreast of current events: text.npr.org
text.npr.org
NPR : National Public Radio
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 21/01/2025
Anyone other journalists getting cancellations of (non-political) interviews with people in US federal departments/facilities? I was told the Dept of Energy has ordered a media blackout.
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Matt Rosoff @mattrosoff.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Some personal news: TechCrunch and I have decided to part ways. It's been a learning experience and I met a lot of great folks while I was there. I'm on the hunt, so if anybody is looking for an experienced newsroom leader with a history of training up young reporters to break news, give me a shout.
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ProPublica @propublica.org · 08/01/2025
NEW: Given Musk’s role advising President-elect Donald Trump on ways to slash regulations and government oversight, Boring and the Vegas Loop project might be a harbinger for the country. w/ City Cast Last Vegas
propub.li
Elon Musk’s Boring Company Is Tunneling Beneath Las Vegas With Little Oversight
Given Musk’s role advising President-elect Donald Trump on ways to slash regulations and government oversight, Boring and the Vegas Loop project might be a harbinger for the country.
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J. David McSwane @davidmcswane.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
I was among those who covered the immediate aftermath of the January 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Politicians may not want to talk about. But it happened. Here's how it was captured by the insurrectionists themselves. projects.propublica.org/parler-capit...
projects.propublica.org
What Parler Saw During the Attack on the Capitol
ProPublica sifted through thousands of videos taken by Parler users to create an immersive, first-person view of the Capitol riot as experienced by those who were there.
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 23/12/2024
Interesting! 2 involuntary disengagements and 7 safety-related voluntary disengagements coast to coast
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
This kind of gamesmanship with public records requests does not serve the public interest. Is it illegal? Maybe, but agencies know that news orgs (and especially freelancers) have fewer and fewer resources to fight.
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
My latest for @anthropocenemag.bsky.social - when it comes to carbon, should the polluter always pay? www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2024/12/shou...
anthropocenemagazine.org
Does the road to clean energy run through dirty mines?
You can’t scale green power without scaling gray industry.
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Jason Koebler @jasonkoebler.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
When people talk about Kash Patel and Trump "going after" journalists it doesn't just mean suing or trying to arrest them. It also means filing demands for information about their reporting and embroiling them in legal proceedings they have nothing to do with.
If we begin divulging our sources to the companies and governments we report on, we can no longer credibly offer vulnerable sources protection and those sources would understandably not trust us and would not be willing to talk to us. And so Paxton’s subpoena not only demands that we serve as an unwilling agent of the State of Texas, but also requires that we sacrifice our own hard-earned credibility to do so. At that point, we are no longer journalists, we are a quasi extension of state or corporate power.
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Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 04/12/2024
Loads more extra detail in the story, including links to Russian espionage, propaganda outlets and more
wired.com
She Was a Russian Socialite and Influencer. Cops Say She’s a Crypto Laundering Kingpin
Western authorities say they’ve identified a network that found a new way to clean drug gangs’ dirty cash. WIRED gained exclusive access to the investigation.
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John Wiseman @lemonodor.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
It did show signs of being affected by GPS interference, though it was reporting normal GPS navigation accuracy by 6 minutes before the last data point, when it was still 24 km from the airport.
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dell cameron @dell.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
WIRED has tracked thousands of US military & intel personnel coming & going from classified sites, incl. NSA hubs & nuclear vaults. We know where they sleep, what they eat, and which brothels they visit. It's an ocean of blackmail & national secrets within reach of every spy agency in the world.
wired.com
Anyone Can Buy Data Tracking US Soldiers and Spies to Nuclear Vaults and Brothels in Germany
More than 3 billion phone coordinates collected by a US data broker expose the detailed movements of US military and intelligence workers in Germany—and the Pentagon is powerless to stop it.
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Just a quick note to say that the wonderful climate solutions magazine I write for has made to Bluesky. Give them a follow at @anthropocenemag.bsky.social for daily science news and in-depth features.
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
New from me at IEEE Spectrum: The NZ start-up that is trying to make a floating fusion reactor. spectrum.ieee.org/dipole-fusio...
spectrum.ieee.org
A New Fusion Prototype Floats Into Action
OpenStar’s levitating dipole device ditches the traditional donut-shaped design
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The Onion @theonion.com · 05/11/2024
Neuralink Patient Unable To Stop Hand From Voting For Trump theonion.com/neuralink-pa...
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 05/11/2024
If you haven't seen this already, just six hours left to grab an orignal image by some of the world's best photographers AND help combat election interference and voter suppression. statesofchange.us
statesofchange.us
Home
A print sale fundraiser to support groups fighting for democracy in the states most targeted by voter suppression. 200+ artists. $150 prints. Ends November 4, 2024.
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 04/11/2024
My latest for Anthropocene: Can we keep producing more food in a warming world? www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2024/11/can-...
anthropocenemagazine.org
Can we keep producing more food in a warmer world?
It’s a question of speed. Agriculture needs to outpace climate change, even while struggling with its carbon footprint.
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Kate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 31/10/2024
Also, "non citizen voting" is not a thing. It's extremely rare and insignifcant to election outcomes.
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 25/10/2024
My latest for Wired in the OceanGate saga: federal investigators are looking into the company's finances. Lots of new info about its corporate structure and business model! www.wired.com/story/oceang...
wired.com
OceanGate Faces Federal Investigation a Year After the Titan Submersible Implosion
A US Attorney's office is investigating the company behind the doomed expedition to the wreck of the Titanic, sources tell WIRED, even as a civil suit is already underway.
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Dave Maass 🔦 @maassive.bsky.social · 21/10/2024
Congress seems shocked, SHOCKED that surveillance towers at the U.S.-Mexico border are broken. But I've been digging through oversight reports dating back 20+ years....and guess what, they've ALWAYS been found to be junk. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...
eff.org
U.S. Border Surveillance Towers Have Always Been Broken
A new bombshell scoop from NBC News revealed an internal U.S. Border Patrol memo claiming that 30 percent of camera towers that compose the agency's "Remote Video Surveillance System" (RVSS) program a...
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 27/09/2024
That's a wrap on the OceanGate hearings, but with many questions still unanswered about the Titan's final moments, we'll be hearing a lot more about Stockton Rush in the months ahead. www.wired.com/story/titan-...
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The vOICe vision BCI 🧠🇪🇺 @seeingwithsound.bsky.social · 27/09/2024
Neuralink's Blindsight device is likely to disappoint - Elon Musk has made big claims for the artificial vision technology spectrum.ieee.org/neuralink-bl... #BCI #NeuroTech #neuroscience
spectrum.ieee.org
Neuralink’s Blindsight Device Is Likely to Disappoint
Elon Musk has made big claims for the artificial vision technology
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 25/09/2024
Some really interesting - and very technical - testimony the last couple of days at the OceanGate hearings, including data on the state of the carbon fiber hull recovered from the seafloor. Here's my take on what we've learned. www.wired.com/story/titan-...
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 20/09/2024
Here's my round-up of the first week of US Coast Guard hearings into the OceanGate Titan accident. Some damning info, but a lot of open questions going into week two. www.wired.com/story/titan-...
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 20/09/2024
The Coast Guard just released a transcript of the 2018 meeting where OceanGate whistleblower David Lochridge was fired by Stockton Rush. It's packed with jaw-dropping quotes from Rush, including A LOT about the prospect of his own demise in the TItan My latest stories: www.wired.com/author/mark-...
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 17/09/2024
second reference to my Wired feature at the OceanGate hearings. Former director of marine operations David Lochridge notes that the viewport manufacturer would only rate the window to 650 meters, not 1300-1400 meters as had been previously reported. www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9tq...
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Mark Ellis Harris @meharris.bsky.social · 17/09/2024
My take on Day 1 of the OceanGate hearings - a sub designer who wouldn't ride in his creation, and more clues about what caused Titan's implosion . www.wired.com/story/oceang...
wired.com
‘I Told Him I’m Not Getting in It’: Former Titan Submersible Engineer Testifies
The US Coast Guard's OceanGate hearings started Monday with some startling revelations—including the last messages from the passengers.
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