Jeff bezos in the Mission Control room

engineers everywhere pretending to “monitor the situation” while refreshing the aws status page

A moment that calls for collective action… to reject this transparent attack on academic freedom.

I haven’t left my house today did the rapture happen my neighbors appear to be here but we’re all terrible people

Would love to!!

Amazing! They are lucky to learn from you!

You Really Need to See Epstein’s Birthday Book for Yourself This time, the conspiracy theorists were right.

I wrote about what I think is a genuinely revealing document of elite depravity and impunity. It is shocking and sickening. But it's also a crucial moment. We're about to see what happens when conspiracy theorists actually get what they asked for but it turns out not to be what they want.

Pew: “In a world facing a range of difficult issues, adults across 25 countries see the spread of false information online, the condition of the global economy and terrorism as major threats today. And while many people remain concerned about climate change and the spread of infectious diseases, fewer view these as major threats now than did in recent years.” Followed by infographic from this survey https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/08/19/international-opinion-on-global-threats/

72% of adults surveyed in 25 countries see the spread of false information online as a major threat. Meanwhile the US is harassing the researchers and civil servants who studied the challenge and attempting to export that harassment campaign to other countries. 🙃

www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/...

Adopt A Station - Rescue Public Media Help preserve independent journalism and community programming across America by adopting a public media station. Congress has voted to rescind public media's funding.

Do you want to help public radio after their loss of funding? Just use this website to find and donate.

I’m a proud donor to @kcrw.com in Los Angeles.

adoptastation.org

Really excited to draw attention to this dissertation by Melinda McClure Haughey (@melm.cc‬). Melinda's research explored collaborative infrastructure for supporting the "sensemaking" work of journalists working on high-stakes, fast-paced & often data-driven beats. www.melm.cc/research/dis...

Multiple orgs that did rapid response analysis of content and rumors during chaos in 2020 don’t exist anymore -ie, Jim Jordan et al killed SIO.

Some pretty handy tools -like Crowdtangle- no longer exist. The Twitter/X API costs $$$ now, so OSINT tools died.

And we need these things more than ever.

What separates journalism from stenography is independent reporting, verification and context. Trump calls in the National Guard for LA — note he did not do so for the insurrection. He says no one will spit on law enforcement, note he pardoned those who physically assaulted law enforcement Jan 6.

Everything that’s happened over the past six months has been a response to an imaginary crisis. There is no immigrant invasion. No trade crisis. No scientific or governance crisis. Just people completely high off their own supply trying to fundamentally reorder society. None of this had to happen.

Amazing!!!!

Trump’s ‘fear factor’: Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate Many worry about retribution. But for others, speaking out is worth the risk

This is a collective action problem. Being silent is not going to help you in the end: the liars are doing keyword searches to find offending grants whether you talk or not. THEY are framing the public convo while you 🤐. I can’t stress that enough. A quick thread:

www.science.org/content/arti...

Yay!!!

So excited for @buildwithtori.com and @lesliefeinzaig.bsky.social. I’ve been a fan-girl since the first video!

Coming up on February 24! @cip.uw.edu co-founder @katestarbird.bsky.social will be presenting, "A Spotlight on Rumors: Illuminating How Influence and Improvisation Shape Online Conversations," the 2025 University Faculty Lecture at the University of Washington. (In person and via livestream.) ⤵️⤵️⤵️

Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity – The White House By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:Section 1.  Purpose.

We should be clear that the language in the anti “DEI” executive order and the subsequent letter sent to federal employees to turn in colleagues who try to “disguise” DEI under other names means hires and promotions of Black and other POC will be deemed suspicious. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Just about every major social problem we can think of is exacerbated by the collapse of local journalism. Tackling collective action problems—from the climate crisis to the erosion of democracy— is impossible without viable local media infrastructures.

Meta is ending its fact-checking program in favor of a 'community notes' system similar to X Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a series of major changes to the company's moderation policies and practices, saying that the election felt like a "cultural tipping point."

As someone who worked on Birdwatch/Community notes at Twitter, I can tell you that the system was NEVER designed to work on it's own. It is is designed to work alongside fact checking systems.

The eshitification of the Meta continues
www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-...

Over the past 4–5 years, Facebook has sunset tools (chiefly CrowdTangle) used by researchers and journalists, made data difficult and expensive to get, and iced out academics studying disinformation.

Now, it's shutting down the fact checking on its platform.

Told my son I caught Santa in our house last night and showed him the video.

Very fun use of AR but also he was meh about the whole thing because of course Santa was here.

Great news! CIP now has a starter pack that showcases our current and past team members! Give them a follow!

Had a fun few hours playing with @googlemaps.bsky.social platform’s new 3D Maps JavaScript API. Turned a map of Walla Walla Wineries that is usually flat into a flyover tour!

Photo reads: Time is the only currency you spend without ever knowing your balance. Use it wisely.

⏰

StairMaster Today: Person on my left was on a serious Zoom call with people who were clearly professionals calling in from an office. Person on my right was live-learning and practicing a TikTok dance. And there I was in the middle… fighting for my life. Truly living in the age of multitasking.

🖐🏼Hi! I’m Melinda

👩🏼‍🎓 I’m an almost-PhD at UW researching: social media 🤝 misinfo ✨ solving for the academic-journalism gap

📍 I’m a founder of Proxi Maps. We empower communities, media, & tourism w/ geospatial software.

📱 tech, maps, media, mom-ing… annnnd occasionally other basic white girl things.

a cartoon character from inside out is saying hi while stretching her arms . ALT: a cartoon character from inside out is saying hi while stretching her arms .

Hiiii Bluesky!