jenna newman phd
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jennanewman.bsky.social
jenna newman phd
@jennanewman.bsky.social
2.1K followers 840 following 310 posts
fed govt: public health, public safety. deep breaths, long horizons.

+ science comms + strategic comms + public sociology
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Reposted by jenna newman phd
chowleen.bsky.social
this isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here,
our country moving closer to its own truth and dread,
its own ways of making people disappear.

-Adrienne Rich, What Kind of Times Are These

#everynightapoem
it's necessary to talk about trees.
What Kind of Times Are These by Adrienne Rich There's a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted who disappeared into those shadows. I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of dread, but don't be fooled this isn't a Russian poem, this is not somewhere else but here, our country moving closer to its own truth and dread, its own ways of making people disappear. I won't tell you where the place is, the dark mesh of the woods meeting the unmarked strip of light— ghost-ridden crossroads, leafmold paradise: I know already who wants to buy it, sell it, make it disappear. And I won't tell you where it is, so why do I tell you anything? Because you still listen, because in times like these to have you listen at all, it's necessary to talk about trees.
November 27, 2025 at 7:24 PM
jennanewman.bsky.social
thankful.
Pier pond sound sky blue Marsh pier sound clouds sun sky blue
November 27, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
elizabethbitmeehan.com
FYI: law and science, political science, and sociology all still have DDRIG programs run outside of the NSF but funded by NSF. The rest of these programs unfortunately do not.

I run the political science DDRIG.
killgrove.bsky.social Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 1d
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
November 27, 2025 at 3:25 PM
jennanewman.bsky.social
I wouldn’t have made it thru grad school without NSF SBE doctoral dissertation improvement grants—like bursts of CPR, both bc of desperately needed funding & an otherwise pretty soul-crushing absence of morale-boost opps

if not re-established asap, this would be a really, really big deal 🧪
killgrove.bsky.social Kristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 1d
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
November 27, 2025 at 6:12 PM
jennanewman.bsky.social
TDB:

"If empathy has now become a distasteful personal failing; if surveillance capitalism has become the default shrugged-off business practice; if the environmental impacts of AI are waved away….”
Ms. Borsook predicted that when the tech world had amassed sufficient money and power, it would start imposing its beliefs on everyone outside the valley. "If empathy has now become a distasteful personal failing; if surveillance capitalism has become the default shrugged-off business practice; if the environmental impacts of A.I. are waved away: then we are alas living in the tech-driven culture I saw headed our way 30 years ago," Ms. Borsook said in an interview. "It's terrible that I was right." Her prescience did her no favors. "Cyberselfish," published in 2000, was such a setback to her career that she refers to it as "T.D.B." - That Damn Book. She never wrote another. She spent years as an Airbnb superhost in exchange for free rent. Now, at 71 and in poor health, she lives a precarious life in the East Bay of San Francisco, dependent on a Go Fund Me that friends set up.
November 27, 2025 at 1:14 PM
jennanewman.bsky.social
“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields & healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added….”

Lincoln /Oct 3, 1863 / Washington, DC
battlefields.org “By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.”
November 27, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
danlamothe.bsky.social
Today's shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., was horrific. It also has triggered a wide array of unverified rumors, allegations and theories.

We're all making sense of this together. But best to share information with care.
November 27, 2025 at 3:14 AM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
apnews.com
BREAKING: Two National Guard members have been shot in Washington, D.C., and their condition isn't known, AP source says.
Two National Guard members shot in Washington, D.C., and their condition isn't known, AP source says
Two National Guard soldiers were shot Wednesday near the White House and their conditions aren’t immediately known, according to a law enforcement official not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.Emergency vehicles were seen responding to the area.
bit.ly
November 26, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
dcpubliclibrary.bsky.social
Reminder: if things get awkward tomorrow, you can always talk about how much you love the library.
November 26, 2025 at 6:03 PM
jennanewman.bsky.social
“The toupee of ‘love feathers’…

For us, it would be a bit like sitting in the front row of a theater & trying to look up while wearing a baseball cap”🧪
“The toupee of "love feathers" of male golden and Lady Amherst's pheasants compromised their binocular vision- especially their ability to look above them-by an average of 41% more than that of their female counterparts. For us, it would be a bit like sitting in the front row of a theater and trying to look up while wearing a baseball cap. When the birds moult in September and October, their vision improves because of shedding of the cranial ornaments. In addition to being the first known case of sex-based vision difference in birds, the team says, the find represents the first known case of a bird's visual field changing as the year progresses.”
November 26, 2025 at 3:57 PM
jennanewman.bsky.social
“Using a novel data set of 217 large cities over 41 yrs, we confirm that violent crime increases following RTC [Right to Carry law] adoption.

We then document 2 mechanisms that may account for this result, finding a 50% increase in gun theft & a 9-18% reduction in violent crime clearance rates.”🧪🛟
andrewmorral.bsky.social Andrew Morral @andrewmorral.bsky.social · 1d
Congratulations to John J. Donohue and colleagues, whose paper, “Why do right to carry laws increase violence? Effects on gun theft and clearance rates,” was one of two selected for honorable mention by the 2025 Greenwald Award Independent Review Panel! sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Why do right to carry laws increase violence? Effects on gun theft and clearance rates
Since the 1970s most state restrictions on carrying handguns in public have been eased or eliminated. Several of the early impact evaluations of these…
sciencedirect.com
November 26, 2025 at 1:56 PM
jennanewman.bsky.social
She’s gorgeously hissy-fit-spitting again

USGS livestream 🧪— www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqmp...
November 26, 2025 at 3:19 AM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
christophermichel.com
Dark water stretching out toward the rim of the world, sky pressed low, a hint of light slipping through the storm. Svalbard keeping her secrets. #photography
November 25, 2025 at 2:10 PM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
alondra.bsky.social
Honored to serve on Mayor-elect @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social Transition Committee on Technology. For too long, too many New Yorkers have been left behind. NYC deserves governance that centers affordability, equity, and the public good-looking forward to the work ahead. www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news...
NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani announces transition committees
New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani​ announced Monday the creation of 17 transition advisory committees made up of more than 400 people.
www.cbsnews.com
November 24, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
johnismay.bsky.social
It took a little while, but the Dept. of Homeland Security finally said the Coast Guard prohibits hate symbols, bullying and hazing without caveats www.nytimes.com/2025/11/24/u...
How the Coast Guard Revised Its Policy on Swastikas, Nooses and Bullying
www.nytimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 1:00 AM
jennanewman.bsky.social
Epic USGS livestream —

[V3cam] Kīlauea volcano, Hawaii (south Halemaʻumaʻu crater)🧪

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqmp...
November 24, 2025 at 2:39 AM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
patrickwyman.bsky.social
Just a PSA to the men out there who are mad about not getting what they want in this world: Being a man is like playing life on easy or at most normal difficulty, you need to get your shit together, the world is not against you because you're a man
marisakabas.bsky.social Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 3d
“we need to be nicer to men” bro they didn’t let women have their own credit cards til 50 years ago
November 24, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
marisakabas.bsky.social
“we need to be nicer to men” bro they didn’t let women have their own credit cards til 50 years ago
November 23, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
lenasun.bsky.social
NEW: The National Academies release statement saying the revised language on @CDCgov web page on links between vaccines and autism, which cited some of the academies work, did not provide the full context. 1/2
www.nationalacademies.org/news/stateme...
National Academies - Statement on CDC’s Updated Vaccine Guidance
National Academies respond to CDC’s updated vaccine guidance, offering scientific context and clarity on vaccine safety.
www.nationalacademies.org
November 23, 2025 at 10:24 PM
jennanewman.bsky.social
Also. Great explanation of how the training process produced a ChatGPT model that was “absurdly sycophantic, lavishing [users] with unearned flattery & telling them they were geniuses…

Clearly, users liked flattery too much.”🧪
“The A/B testers had liked HH, but in the wild, OpenAl's most vocal users hated it. Right away, they complained that ChatGPT had become absurdly sycophantic, lavishing them with unearned flattery and telling them they were geniuses. When one user mockingly asked whether a "soggy cereal cafe" was a good business idea, the chatbot replied that it "has potential." By Sunday, the company decided to spike the HH update and revert to a version released in late March, called GG. It was an embarrassing reputational stumble. On that Monday, the teams that work on ChatGPT gathered in an impromptu war room in OpenAI's Mission Bay headquarters in San Francisco to figure out what went wrong. "We need to solve it frickin' quickly," Mr. Turley said he recalled thinking. Various teams examined the ingredients of HH and discovered the culprit: In training the model, they had weighted too heavily the ChatGPT exchanges that users liked. Clearly, users liked flattery too much.” “OpenAl explained what happened in public blog posts, noting that users signaled their preferences with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to the chatbot's responses. Another contributing factor, according to four employees at the company, was that OpenAl had also relied on an automated conversation analysis tool to assess whether people liked their communication with the chatbot. But what the tool marked as making users happy was sometimes problematic, such as when the chatbot expressed emotional closeness. The company's main takeaway from the HH incident was that it urgently needed tests for sycophancy; work on such evaluations was already underway but needed to be accelerated. To some A.I. experts, it was astounding that OpenAI did not already have this test. An OpenAI competitor, Anthropic, the maker of Claude, had developed an evaluation for sycophancy in 2022.”
November 23, 2025 at 8:43 PM
jennanewman.bsky.social
Altman:“‘for a v small % of users in mentally fragile states there can be serious problems.’
But…OpenAI may be understating the risk. Some of the ppl most vlnrble to the chatbot's unceasing validation…were those prone to delusional thinking, which studies have suggested cld incl 5–15% of the pop”🧪🛟
'ChatGPT Can Make Mistakes' Throughout this spring and summer, ChatGPT acted as a yes-man echo chamber for some people. They came back daily, for many hours a day, with devastating consequences. A California teenager named Adam Raine had signed up for ChatGPT in 2024 to help with schoolwork. In March, he began talking with it about suicide. The chatbot periodically suggested calling a crisis hotline but also discouraged him from sharing his intentions with his family. In its final messages before Adam took his life in April, the chatbot offered instructions for how to tie a noose. Making It Safer With the M.I.T. study, the sycophancy update debacle and reports about users' troubling conversations online and in emails to the company, OpenAI started to put the puzzle pieces together. One conclusion that OpenAI came to, as Mr. Altman put it on X, was that "for a very small percentage of users in mentally fragile states there can be serious problems." But mental health professionals interviewed by The Times say OpenAI may be understating the risk. Some of the people most vulnerable to the chatbot's unceasing validation, they say, were those prone to delusional thinking, which studies have suggested could include 5 to 15 percent of the population.
November 23, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
ccbaxter.bsky.social
This is spot on — and my biggest fear is that it will become more expensive to learn how to think and a lot cheaper to just use AI. Majoring in the humanities will resurge as a marker of class.
jackiantonovich.bsky.social Jacqueline Antonovich @jackiantonovich.bsky.social · 4d
Who invests in critical thinking and who invests in an AI chatbot to help you think will be really telling.
November 23, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by jenna newman phd
maryfrancesness.bsky.social
▫️ these cold white days ▫️
white ice on bricks and stones - frail traces of thin stems towards the year's end - and perhaps the glimpse of an imaginary moon
November 23, 2025 at 5:39 PM
jennanewman.bsky.social
“‘If the results are bad & we don't publish & they leak,’ this [Meta] employee wrote, according to the brief, ‘is it going to look like tobacco companies doing research & knowing cigs were bad & then keeping that info to themselves?’"🧪🛟
In late 2019, according to the brief, Meta designed a "deactivation study," which found that users who stopped using Facebook and Instagram for a week showed lower rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Meta halted the study and did not publicly disclose the results, stating that the research study was biased by the "existing media narratives around the company." (A Meta spokesperson told TIME that the study was initially conceived as a pair of one-weeks pilots, and researchers declined to continue it because it found that the only reductions in feelings of depression, anxiety, and loneliness were among people who already believed Facebook was bad for them.) At least one Meta employee was uncomfortable with the implications of this decision: "If the results are bad and we don't publish and they leak," this employee wrote, according to the brief, "is it going to look like tobacco companies doing research and knowing cigs were bad and then keeping that info to themselves?" Indeed, in December 2020, when the Senate Judiciary Committee asked the company in a set of written questions whether it was "able to determine whether increased use of its platform among teenage girls has any correlation with increased signs of depression" and "increased signs of anxiety," the company offered only a one-word answer: "No." To the plaintiffs in the case, the implication is clear: "The company never publicly disclosed the results of its deactivation study. Instead, Meta lied to Congress about what it knew."
November 23, 2025 at 5:34 PM
jennanewman.bsky.social
Meta’s 2020 research project, Project Mercury, “gauge[d] the effect of ‘deactivating’ Facebook & Instagram, according to Meta docs obtained via discovery…’ppl who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness & social comparison,’ internal docs said.”🧪
In a 2020 research project code-named "Project Mercury," Meta scientists worked with survey firm Nielsen to gauge the effect of "deactivating" Facebook and Instagram, according to Meta documents obtained via discovery. To the company's disappointment, "people who stopped using Facebook for a week reported lower feelings of depression, anxiety, loneliness and social comparison," internal documents said. Rather than publishing those findings or pursuing additional research, the filing READ states, Meta called off further work an oN APP internally declared that the negative study findings were tainted by the "existing media narrative" around the company.
November 23, 2025 at 5:10 PM