Brian Keegan | Lightnews

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D.

@brianckeegan.com

4.4K followers 2.3K following 2.8K posts

{Social, Data, Network, Information} Scientist, @cuboulder.info

Visiting Scientist, @harvardpopcenter.bsky.social AY25-26

High-tempo collaboration, information commons, public interest data science

https://www.brianckeegan.com/

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Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D. @brianckeegan.com · Sep 2

ICYMI, I’m on sabbatical this AY at @harvardpopcenter.bsky.social:

popcenter.harvard.edu/blog/directo...

I’ll be working on a STS-flavored book project about ecofascist data science that combines critical demography and data studies.

Let me know if you’re in Boston this year and want to meet up!

Brian Keegan – Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies

A Harvard University cross-school, interfaculty initiative administered by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

popcenter.harvard.edu

Reposted by Scott L. Greer, Michael W. Kraus, Brian Keegan , and 4 more Scott L. Greer, Michael W. Kraus, Brian Keegan, Mark Rice, Ann Bartow, Kathleen Kennedy, Manisha Sinha

Gravel Influencer @gravelinfluencer.bsky.social · 3h

The Boston Globe identified the companies in Massachusetts that employ the most SNAP recipients. A key stat: "In Massachusetts, 74% of working-age recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are employed, half of them full-time."

Full article: www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/28/m...

Number of SNAP recipients
Amazon 2,456
Walmart 2,318
Uber 1,799
DoorDash 1,462
Tempus Unlimited 1,425
Stop & Shop 989
Mass General Brigham 956
Dollar Tree 952
Albertsons Companies, Inc. 896
Bayada Home Health 887

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D. @brianckeegan.com · 5h

Ship them all to the ICC after Trump pardons them.

Sanho Tree @sanho.bsky.social · 15d

“Conflict experts tell The Independent that the “just following orders” defense may not stick under other administrations or federal judges who could find the strikes illegal, exposing Pentagon officials & others to criminal liability.”
Nuremberg, Madame Defarge, and Pepperidge Farms all remember.

Experts doubt legal memo shields troops from prosecution over Trump’s boat strikes

DOJ claims military personnel aren’t liable for what critics are calling extrajudicial murder

www.independent.co.uk

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D. @brianckeegan.com · 15h

The primary threat model on a group chat is always the other people on the chat.

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D. @brianckeegan.com · 15h

Elite impunity breeds elite impunity.

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D. @brianckeegan.com · 15h

They justifiably confident there won't be material consequences.

Reposted by Safiya U. Noble, Laurent Pech, Caroline T. Schroeder , and 4 more Safiya U. Noble, Laurent Pech, Caroline T. Schroeder, Anne Norton, Brian Keegan, Alfie Kohn, Greg Linden

Sarah T Roberts, PhD @ubiquity75.xyz · 15h

So apparently the administrators at Northwestern have caved to the extortionist demands of the Feds. Faculty voted 595-4 AGAINST this measure.

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D. @brianckeegan.com · 15h

Giant confession: I'm a bad Star Trek fan and have never watched DS9 in its entirety.

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Aaron Sojourner, Brian Keegan

Michael Clemens @mclem.org · 17h

Again, the White House orders and coerces a private university to reduce admissions of international students—*regardless of their qualifications*.

The vilification of affirmative action was not, apparently, about principles of ‘merit’.

It was to redirect affirmative action to the “right” people.

Mike Boylan-Kolchin @mbkplus.bsky.social · 18h

Here’s the text of the Northwestern settlement with the DoJ, which includes a $75 million financial component / payoff (cc @profmarkovic.bsky.social):

Reposted by Gavin A. Schmidt, Tom Clark, Mark D. White , and 8 more Gavin A. Schmidt, Tom Clark, Mark D. White, Rosemary A. Joyce, Laurent Pech, Michael W. Kraus, David R. Miller, Brian Keegan, Sarah Roberts, Nelson Flores, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Chris Geidner @chrisgeidner.bsky.social · 17h

The legal, media, and academic institutions capitulating to an authoritarian ordering payments for favorable treatment are damning themselves to irrelevance. They are destroying their institutions. They will be — and should be — shunned for failing in their most basic purposes for existing.

Matthew Eadie @mattheweadie.bsky.social · 18h

BREAKING: Northwestern University has agreed to pay the U.S. Treasury $75 million, over the course of three years as part of an agreement with the federal government to restore funding and end investigations into the university

Full statement from NU below:

Reposted by Michael E. Mann, Lisa W. Fazio, David Lazer , and 10 more Michael E. Mann, Lisa W. Fazio, David Lazer, Rosemary A. Joyce, Jacob Montgomery, Laurent Pech, David R. Miller, Scott A. Imberman, Brian Keegan, Nelson Flores, Aviel Roshwald, David R. Shumway, David Darmofal

Marty Lederman @martylederman.bsky.social · 17h

How did the @nytimes.com editors let this sentence appear?

"Critics have likened Mr. Trump’s approach to extortion, while others have chalked it up as a cost of doing business with this administration."

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

Northwestern University Nears Deal to Resolve Its Conflict With the White House

www.nytimes.com

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D. @brianckeegan.com · 17h

Northwestern: “Now is a good time to cough up a $75 million bribe to the President 2/3rds of America hates!”

I hope every trustee and administrator involved is investigated, prosecuted, and shunned.

George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway.bsky.social · 18h

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D. @brianckeegan.com · 18h

A a Northwestern alum, I’m disgusted.

Paul Gowder @gowder.io · 18h

Fuck, Northwestern just caved. Reading the deal now. ( www.northwestern.edu/president/do... )

www.northwestern.edu

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Matthew Bunn, Brendan Nyhan , and 24 more Anna O. Law, Matthew Bunn, Brendan Nyhan, Gavin A. Schmidt, Tom Clark, Scott L. Greer, Mark D. White, Rosemary A. Joyce, David Rothschild, American Library Association, Dawn J. Wright, Janet Murray, Michael W. Kraus, David R. Miller, Adrian Daub, James Goodwin, Brian Murphy, Brian Keegan, Pádua Fernandes, Annette Yoshiko Reed, Stella M. Rouse, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Dan Immergluck, David R. Shumway, Élisabeth Vallet, Sofya Aptekar, Kristina McElheran

Matthew Eadie @mattheweadie.bsky.social · 18h

Reposted by Lisa W. Fazio, Robert C. Richards, Michael W. Kraus , and 4 more Lisa W. Fazio, Robert C. Richards, Michael W. Kraus, Brian Keegan, Ann Bartow, Rebecca Zorach, Dan Immergluck

Paul Gowder @gowder.io · 18h

Fuck, Northwestern just caved. Reading the deal now. ( www.northwestern.edu/president/do... )

www.northwestern.edu

Reposted by Nandita Sharma, Juliet B. Schor, Shadd Maruna , and 9 more Nandita Sharma, Juliet B. Schor, Shadd Maruna, Cathy N. Davidson, Margaret Johnston, Melanie C. Green, Alan Richardson, Ben Worthy, David R. Miller, Tom Griffin, Brian Keegan, Nikolay Marinov

Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 23h

Every single congressional Democrat needs to be out there, right now, insisting that Pete Hegseth resign right now and announcing that he will be held accountable for committing war crimes.

If you do not demand accountability here and now, they will only become more emboldened.

The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 1d

Exclusive: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave an order to “kill everybody” in the first strike on suspected drug boats in the Caribbean. After two men survived, the mission commander ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, according to two sources.

Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order to kill all crew members in the Sept. 2 strike on a suspected drug boat. Navy SEALs fired a second missile.

www.washingtonpost.com

Reposted by Sanford F. Schram, Michael H. Whitworth, Brian Keegan

Ellipsus @ellipsus.com · 1d

The OpenAI ruling writers should know about 👀 (if your work was scraped for LLM training, this affects you). www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/bus...

OpenAI Loses Key Discovery Battle as It Cedes Ground to Authors in AI Lawsuits

The issue has been a major battleground in discovery. OpenAI could be on the hook for hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars if it was aware it was infringing on copyrighted material.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

Reposted by Brian Keegan

Bolts @boltsmag.org · 1d

Katie Wilson, Seattle’s newly elected mayor, has embraced a city-owned startup designed to emulate Vienna’s social housing model, which involves a public developer building housing designed to be permanently affordable.

Progressives Win in Seattle, Changing Directions on Public Safety

Voters ousted a mayor who oversaw a surge in encampment sweeps, and a Republican prosecutor who pursued punitive policies toward homeless people and drug users.

boltsmag.org

Reposted by Norbert Schwarz, Steve Peers, Efrén O. Pérez , and 7 more Norbert Schwarz, Steve Peers, Efrén O. Pérez, Juan Cole, Alan Richardson, Silvia Secchi, Brian Keegan, Mark Rice, Prakash Kashwan, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Mark Jacob @markjacob.bsky.social · 1d

Homeland Security doesn’t grasp the fact that the first Thanksgiving was about making “room at the table” for European “invaders.”

Homeland Security tweet says “there us no room at the table for invaders.”

Reposted by Brian Keegan

Lukas Neville @lukasneville.com · 1d

This aged like milk

Arrow et al., 2008, from Science 320 (5878), 877-878.

Title: "The Promise of Prediction Markets"
Subtitle: The ability of groups of people to make predictions is a potent research tool that should be freed of unnecessary government restrictions

Highlighted section: "The range of applications is virtually limitless--from helping businesses make better investment decisions to helping
governments make better fiscal and monetary policy decisions"

Reposted by Ashish Arora, Alistair Munro, Éva E. Plagányi , and 2 more Ashish Arora, Alistair Munro, Éva E. Plagányi, Tuomas Mattila, Brian Keegan

Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 2d

Even the the damn twitter card for this Nature Scientific Reports is clearly AI Slop.

Reposted by Brian Keegan

Andy Kenney @andyknny.bsky.social · 2d

Faith Winter is why Colorado has a paid family leave program. My enduring memory: breaking the news to her that the AP had called it and the measure had passed, five years ago this month.

She was killed in a car crash today. I wish her loved ones solace and comfort. coloradosun.com/2025/11/26/f...

Reposted by Steve Peers, Fabián Muniesa, Brian Keegan

Piper French @psfrench.bsky.social · 2d

After 30 years in prison and 25 years on Louisiana's death row, Chris Duncan walked out of Angola today a free man.

"I'm cruising down a highway," he texted me. "Most glaring emotion is shock."

Reposted by Cas Mudde, Kim L. Scheppele, Lisa W. Fazio , and 25 more Cas Mudde, Kim L. Scheppele, Lisa W. Fazio, David Lazer, Brigitte Nerlich, Michael Nelson, Jacob Montgomery, Ingo Rohlfing, Karen Benjamin Guzzo, Aaron Sojourner, Michael Zimmer, Nazita Lajevardi, Margot C. Finn, Sara Wallace Goodman, Steven Schmidt, Samantha Brennan, Juan Rocha, Brian Keegan, William Myers, Zen Faulkes, Matthew Lebo, Catherine J. Frieman, Georg Weizsäcker, Brooke Harrington, Stephen A. Meserve, Dan Hicks, Clark Gray, David Darmofal

Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 2d

NEW from me - NSF cancels grant scheme for social science research.

Seems the NSF quietly archived ALL calls for DDRIG grants in the SBE directorate. This is a massive blow for PhD students wanting to do cutting-edge social science research. 🏺🧪

Today's biggest science news: Doomed comet explodes | Comet 3I/ATLAS course alteration | Dark matter detected?

Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025: Your daily feed of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs making headlines.

www.livescience.com

Reposted by Brian Keegan

Erik Loomis @erikloomis.bsky.social · 3d

This Day in Labor History: November 26, 1910.A factory in Newark, New Jersey caught on fire, killing 25 workers. This should have been led to workplace safety reform, but because wealthy people did not see the people making their clothing die, nothing happened. Triangle would be next year!!!

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D. @brianckeegan.com · 3d

The shift away from gmail is hard: a conscious and ongoing process of changing every account linked to an email for the past 15 years and realizing many systems frustratingly won’t let you change email. Proton’s Gmail import and forwarding is still a helpful bridge, but the search is worse.

Vulture @vulture.com · 3d

Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’

Even God Is Worried About ChatGPT

Pope Leo XIV told students not to use artificial intelligence for homework, saying that AI ‘won’t stand in authentic wonder before the beauty of God’s creation.’

www.vulture.com

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D. @brianckeegan.com · 3d

www.npr.org/2017/02/17/5...

With 'Fake News,' Trump Moves From Alternative Facts To Alternative Language

The phrase is a threat to democracy, as a Republican strategist and a left-leaning linguist both explain to NPR.

www.npr.org

Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D. @brianckeegan.com · 3d

Started maybe 18 months ago as a part of de-Googling my life with Firefox and Proton.

Need to do a bit with setting preferences and changing default search preferences, but I’m using Google Search less than once a week now.

Uptime is good, results are fine outside of niche stalking or ecommerce.