Brad Skillman
@bradqskillman.bsky.social
Data trainer and journalist at Bloomberg News. Opinions my own.
When we studied Americans’ participation in public life, we could have measured behaviors like voting and volunteering separately. Instead, cluster analysis allowed us to see how 19 behaviors relate to one another. The result? A more holistic picture of Americans’ engagement. #PewKnightInitiative
Last week, Obama released his summer reading list, a tradition dating to 2009. Data reporter Ela Jalil analyzed all of the 44th president's reading lists to determine which authors have appeared on his list before: www.washingtonpost.com/books/2026/0...
The authors who show up most often on Obama’s summer reading lists
The 44th president’s reading list is out, and it features some familiar names.
washingtonpost.com
Bordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.
How are – and aren’t - we using AI in our work? Find our most recent Decoded post here: https://pewrsr.ch/4fvKg50 #ArtificialIntelligence #AIInWork
How Pew Research Center is – and is not – using AI in our work
In this post, we’ll share our current guidelines for the internal use of artificial intelligence and potential areas of experimentation.
pewrsr.ch
Meanwhile, in Germany: country-wide drought conditions bsky.app/profile/pete...
Peter Jelinek@peterjelinek.bsky.social · 4w agoSituation derzeit und die nächste Hitzwelle rollt gerade an. Das wird hart...
My kid, home from college this summer, loved a history prof. Syllabus was very direct about no AI: phones had to be on silent, no computers in classroom, mid term was a hand written blue book exam 😍
Sydney Gordon@sydneyg.bsky.social · 4w agoWriting courses have also gotten VERY rough
Folks, a *very* exciting announcement: The Downballot has just published updated 2024 presidential results by congressional district for every state with a new map this year! That's 10 states in all, covering a full one-third of the House. Please dive in!
The Downballot releases presidential results for every new House district, sponsored by Grassroots Analytics
10 state have new maps for the midterms. We have data for all of them.
the-downballot.com
Updated news on Balogun's return. • Trump thanks Fifa for suspending the ban. • Belgium FA says it's "astonished" at decision • US players found out on the bus • Balogun is "Mr Cool" according to Chris Richards • Decision "felt right," Christian Pulisic said www.theguardian.com/football/202...
Folarin Balogun available to play for US v Belgium as Trump thanks Fifa for suspending ban
The US striker was shown red in the team’s last-32 match, but the card and its suspension were thought to not be eligible for appeal.
theguardian.com
The dust has mostly settled on the unprecedented, partisan, and highly litigated redrawing of congressional districts ahead of the midterm elections, but the impact will reverberate into 2028, regardless of which party wins control of the House of Representatives in November.
Midterm Redistricting Wars Cool as 2028 Fights Start Simmering
The dust has mostly settled on the unprecedented, partisan, and highly litigated redrawing of congressional districts ahead of the midterm elections, but the impact will reverberate into 2028, regardless of which party wins control of the House of Representatives in November.
bit.ly
You might know @juliaangwin.com as a @nytopinion.nytimes.com writer, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, coauthor of recent book & viral @newyorker.com essay on being a dissident. But did you know she has a math degree, is the kid of a math prof, and is using math & science to save journalism?
Can Math Save Journalism? Julia Angwin on Proof, Power & Amazon's Algorithm
YouTube video by Breaking Math
youtube.com
Great work here by @gregorykorte.com and Bill Allison to keep tracking this.
Gregory Korte@gregorykorte.com · last mo.President Donald Trump made more than 21,000 securities trades in his first year back in office, often in intense bursts tied to market events he created. New Bloomberg analysis of new Trump disclosures released this week: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Hard to overstate how dramatic this European heatwave is. And then you zoom into other areas around the globe, and you realize there may, just may be something going on that links all these weather extremes around the world. @climatecentral.org's CSI: csi.climatecentral.org/climate-shif...
Officials have been confounded by the new phenomenon.
How AI-Powered Public Comments Are Entering US Climate Politics
Officials have been confounded by the new phenomenon.
bloom.bg
Really good story on Dem messaging shifts on climate insideclimatenews.org/news/2406202...
Elected Democrats Have Embraced ‘Climate Hushing.’ Are They Making a Mistake as the Midterms Loom? - Inside Climate News
An Inside Climate News analysis of congressional press releases shows that Democrats have scaled back mentions of climate change and recently shifted the focus to energy affordability.
insideclimatenews.org
This bill would be a disaster for transparency in California. Difficult to overstate how bad it would be for journalism, and for the public's ability to understand the work of government calmatters.org/politics/202...
California could become the ‘most secretive’ state under new public records bill
Want government records? You might have to pay more, wait longer or even fight the court to obtain them under a proposed new measure.
calmatters.org
The new policy, which forbids "noise infusion" as a technique for anonymizing data, will "handcuff" the Census Bureau and limit what information becomes public, data experts say.
The Trump Administration’s New Census Data Rules Are a Policy Disaster
The new policy, which forbids "noise infusion" as a technique for anonymizing data, will "handcuff" the Census Bureau and limit what information becomes public, data experts say.
404media.co
More voters are casting ballots for Democrats this year than in previous midterms, raising the party’s hopes for big wins in November. The results from early elections offer a more detailed look at the enthusiasm gap between the two parties. https://wapo.st/3QCWM8U
David shares his thoughts on the state of FanGraphs, what we've accomplished in the last year with the support of our Members, and the challenges ahead, both for us specifically and digital media more generally. I think the site is very special, and I hope you'll consider becoming a Member.
FanGraphs Baseball@fangraphs.com · last mo.The State of FanGraphs 2026 blogs.fangraphs.com/the-state-of...
The “Supergirl” red carpet premiere is taking place across the street tomorrow evening. Assuming the film will be showed at BAM. Some crack investigative work unearthed this (I asked the security guard why Ashland Place was closed.) Some benefits for not adequately planing to go to #ire26!#brooklyn
One takeaway - there will be some truly massive text based datasets in the future: think political speeches, media coverage that become variables
Want to go deeper before Tuesday? 📄 Full report: www.pewresearch.org/politics/202... 📊 Compare the nine groups: www.pewresearch.org/feature/poli... 📋 Methodology: www.pewresearch.org/politics/202... #PoliticalTypology #USpolitics
Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology
Our typology sorts the public into nine groups based on their political and cultural values, not their party – painting a picture of American politics with far more than two colors.
pewresearch.org
There are lots of reasons to support quality news wherever you can find it. Here's some data on what it looks like to lose news coverage and how that costs the communities now finding themselves in news deserts ... www.rebuildlocalnews.org/new-report-r...
New Report Reveals Local News Shortage is Costing Communities $1.1 Billion a Year
Researchers link expanding news deserts to higher borrowing costs for local governments, based on analysis of bond‑market data.
rebuildlocalnews.org
peak in-game win probability for Spurs in finals losses: game 1: 94.1% (Q3 6:31) game 2: 90.9% (Q2 11:32) game 4: 98.7% (Q4 9:33) game 5: 97.1% (Q4 7:54) image is game 5 nose dive
🎂Donald Trump turns 80 today, June 14. He is one of the 20 oldest national leaders in the world, per our analysis of 186 United Nations member states. In 2023, 49% of U.S. adults said the best age for a president is in their 50s. What age do you think is best for a world leader? 🤔
Uber Technologies Inc. sued New York City alleging its recently enacted law that seeks to protect drivers from “wrongful deactivations” violates the company’s constitutional rights.
Uber Sues NYC to Negate Driver ‘Wrongful Deactivation’ Law (1)
Uber Technologies Inc. sued New York City alleging its recently enacted law that seeks to protect drivers from “wrongful deactivations” violates the company’s constitutional rights.
bit.ly
Seems like this should inform what people are willing to pay for SpaceX stock.
Max Kennerly@maxkennerly.bsky.social · 2mo agoIt's funny how the pitch for SpaceX is domination of the global AI business but the company's primary business (~60% of revenue going forward) is leasing its GPUs to Anthropic and Google at a discount because nobody wants to use Musk's MechaHitler AI.
Is this an indicator of the Lander-Goldman race in NY (my voting district per chance)?
The New York Times@nytimes.com · 2mo agoAdam Hamawy, a U.S. Army veteran and sharp critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, beat a large field of Democrats on Tuesday to win a House primary in a left-leaning congressional district in New Jersey. nyti.ms/4enT2QP
Studying who owns US rental housing by using a new method tracing ownership through Census, IRS, and SEC records. Individual landlords own the large majority of rental units in 11 metros, from Kestelman, Diamond, @johneric.bsky.social, Pennington, van Dijk, and Voorheis www.nber.org/papers/w35258
