I am not complaining about reporting for jury duty. I am complaining that somehow someone somewhere thought crochet hooks are a dangerous item that cannot be allowed into the courthouse.
kim yi dionne (she/her)
@dadakim.bsky.social
Teach/research/write African politics & pandemics. Editor, Good Authority https://bsky.app/profile/goodauth.bsky.social Host, Ufahamu Africa Podcast https://bsky.app/profile/ufahamuafrica.bsky.social
In happier news, it turns out that blueberries grown beneath solar panels turn out sweeter! 🫐 (via @billmckibben.bsky.social)
In Massachusetts, a solar farm was raised nine feet above blueberry fields, and its shade is changing how the fruit grows and tastes
In Massachusetts, a solar farm was raised nine feet above some blueberry fields, and its shade is changing how the fruit grows and even how it tastes.
ecoportal.net
From my own experience working with governments, regional organisations, and health institutions across Africa, I have seen that the strongest responses are led locally. www.linkedin.com/posts/matthi...
To stop Ebola, fund the response at its source | Matthias Rompel
The most effective Ebola response starts long before an outbreak makes global headlines. A thought-provoking article by Dr. Jean Kaseya, Reem Alabali Radovan, Hadja Lahbib and Éléonore Caroit in Deve...
linkedin.com
The diarrhea lettuce company, Taylor Farms, uses slave labor contracted from the Arizona Dept. of Corrections. The backbreaking labor is often performed by imprisoned Mexican nationals who would be otherwise ineligble to work in the US. They are paid $1.50 an hour.
The Diarrhea Lettuce Company Has Been Linked to Forced Labor
The lettuce-producing Taylor Farms was linked to the widespread use of prison labor before its involvement in a cyclospora outbreak.
futurism.com
My paper "Exodus and vote: Mass emigration and voter turnout in Honduras" is out in Electoral Studies doi.org/10.1016/j.el...
Don't search too hard, but there's a powerful metaphor buried in here somewhere. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference
State department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazil
theguardian.com
Apropos of nothing, I really liked this book, in which a windmill is a key character in the story: www.harpercollins.com/products/the...
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Now a Netflix Film, Starring and Directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor of 12 Years a Slave William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and mode...
harpercollins.com
The body text of an email response I wrote today: "Given the current climate surrounding immigrants in the U.S., I no longer answer questions about anyone I may or may not have come into contact with who is not a natural-born citizen. I hope you understand."
Time for the “ask the president to identify the country he’s about to attack” challenge
Local plumbers two steps ahead of every university administrator in america 👏
Metin Seven (Moon Child's dad 🌝)@seven.eurosky.social · 2w ago
A great job for a scholar who studies African Politics -- and the bonus is you get to have @ajayverghese.bsky.social as a colleague!
Ajay Verghese@ajayverghese.bsky.social · last mo.I'm excited to let you all know that Middlebury is hiring a comparativist who works on African Politics! I am the search committee chair, so hit me up with any questions you may have. Deadline is 9/1. apply.interfolio.com/188248
It makes sense to me that after a month of that treatment, my pup would just stop getting up to greet white men the way he does everyone else. It isn’t that he’s scared of white men or hates white men. He just learned the lesson the rest of us have: don’t bother them in public.
This was my auntie. Lost her house and her daughter's college fund. My cousin should have been the first in our generation to go to college but wasn't and didn't find out until after she graduated high school that she was NOT, in fact, going to move away to college.
The Almighty Tallest@spooknine.bsky.social · 3w agoI've said this before but in my old addiction group, everyone there screwed their own lives up but nobody screwed up everyone else's lives around them nearly as much as the gambling addicts. No external symptoms, and someone can lose their house before their wife and kids even notice a problem.
TIL that Google searches for Cabo Verde went up 5,000% compared to last year -- in this great piece by @eplantan.bsky.social on the World Cup.
Good Authority@goodauth.bsky.social · 3w agoThe real winners in the 2026 World Cup aren’t on the podium. Here's why teams from countries making their debut bring back far more than their first World Cup soccer goals. Read the latest from @eplantan.bsky.social: goodauthority.org/news/the-rea...
Encouraging everyone to buy the heads of lettuce and shred, wash, spin yourself. Avoid explosive diarrhea AND it tastes good, too. (Yes, it’s more work, but see above re: explosive diarrhea.)
John Breen@breen.tech · 3w agoBtw, Wegman’s lettuce is from Taylor Farms. Since TF won’t tell you who they sell to
You know who was busier than usual this week when I stopped by? My local farm stand. I hope people in my area realize the important contribution local farmers make to keeping us fed and healthy. (Gift link) www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/...
Taylor Farms launches recall in 27 states after iceberg lettuce tied to outbreak
The company had earlier announced it was removing some lettuce from the U.S. market but must now notify customers and work to recover affected products amid the cyclosporiasis outbreak.
washingtonpost.com
I cross-referenced my database of candidates against credible voter fraud cases. GOP politicians are implicated at 50x–38,000x the general public's rate. Yet even if every American voted with the integrity of a GOP candidate, it still wouldn't come close to justifying making voting one iota harder.
🧵
Michael Clemens@mclem.org · 3w agoYesterday the US Administration supercharged its explicit effort to bar international students from staying in the US after graduation. All Americans should know: 1/3 of *all* STEM PhDs working in the US are immigrants who graduated from US universities, then stayed. www.piie.com/index%2Ephp/...
This is a great research project doing important substantive work. Grateful to be a part of @egap.bsky.social, where there's a conscientious group of scholars who try to help others improve their studies _before_ data collection.
Evidence in Governance and Politics (EGAP)@egap.bsky.social · 3w agoToday we hosted a productive feedback session for the project, "Can Women’s Collective Political Participation Interrupt Local Conflict?" from EGAPers @matanock.bsky.social & @kkosec.bsky.social.
the World Cup final will be between two teams that Cape Verde played even through 90 minutes
“Your horror has been stolen from you” is a 10/10 sentence.
unraveled@unraveledpress.com · 3w agoYou can and should point out that police killing people daily is the "norm" in America. But that doesn't mean you *accept* the normalization of this violence and the way some people rush to smugly point these things out contributes to collective fatigue. Your horror has been stolen from you.
Please remember that the people using the blessing box overwhelmingly have no access to kitchens. A man I spoke with last week, who was taking food out as I was putting some in, confirmed that people prefer ready-to-eat canned food with pop tops—stews, thick soups, chili, etc. Also peanut butter.
Elon Musk’s cuts to U.S.A.I.D. led to some 700,000 deaths, Atul Gawande says. www.newyorker.com/news/the-new...
The Human Cost of DOGE’s War on U.S.A.I.D.
Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and the “public man-made death” that they’ve caused.
newyorker.com
If you speak Swahili, what word(s) would you use for Recycle?♻️ And/or what word(s) for recycle or recycling have you seen on flyers explaining what can/cannot be recycled? (Asking for my kid, who is making a multilingual flyer.) Cc @nanjala.bsky.social @kopalo.bsky.social @rachelstrohm.bsky.social
Perilla leaves (깻잎) are delicious and abundant right now.
The More You Know Logo Animation
Alt: The More You Know Logo Animation
static.klipy.com
Overall, I'm struck by how little value I find in the generative aspects of AI, versus the utility of summarising or transforming data that I'm already familiar with so I (or colleagues) can provide quality control. The latter use case clearly does not seem like "AI is going to replace us" /6