Here we go #NICAR26, a zillion and one sessions on the docket! Thurs: No-code AI pipelines with n8n Fri: Analyzing images/video with AI + Wrangling PDFs with Natural PDF Sat: Browser automation with Playwright + Ethical AI in Investigations Sun: Build your own AI Benchmark
With the awful WaPo layoffs and the state of journalism more broadly, if it's useful for any writers and reporters considering going indy, @molly.wiki, @xoxogossipgita.bsky.social of Aftermath, @jasonkoebler.bsky.social of 404 Media, @edzitron.com and me will do a little workshop next week.
Amid the hundreds of colleagues we’ve lost today, I wanted to highlight the BRILLIANT data/graphics folks who any newsroom should be fighting to hire right now—threading here:
Whatever you think of the Washington Post at this moment, here's a chance to support the dedicated, hard-working journalists who were just laid off. If you have the means, your donation is most welcome. If you don't, a kind thought and maybe spreading the word to others is support enough 💙
Donate to Washington Post 2026 layoff fund, organized by Rachel Siegel
On Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, The Washington Post laid off hundreds of journalists. We ar… Rachel Siegel needs your support for Washington Post 2026 layoff fund
gofundme.com
I'm running a six-week course in November on building and evaluating AI newsroom workflows! It's targeted at people who don't know where to start, or who build little prototypes and end up stumped about making them production-ready. littlecolumns.com/courses/ai-n...
The Automated Newsroom: Build AI Workflows That Work
A six-week, hands-on course teaching journalists how to design, test, and improve AI workflows. Learn evaluation, testing, and product thinking for newsroom automation.
littlecolumns.com
Natural PDF v0.1.13 out – a handful of useful changes but my favorite is🗼page restructuring support! Grab sections and "flow" them together vertically or horizontally, making multi-column extraction infinitely easier than 24 hours ago. Details at jsoma.github.io/natural-pdf/...
I am running a contest. It is about bad pdfs. It can make you independently wealthy (for immeasurably small measures of independent wealth) badpdfs.com
Bad PDF Contest
I'm looking for the most frustrating, painful, real-world PDFs.
badpdfs.com
New release of 📝 Natural PDF 📝 A million and one table extraction/document layout/Q&A/quality of life improvements for all your PDF-processing needs jsoma.github.io/natural-pdf/
the law clinic repping this student, CLEAR, is based out of CUNY.....once again the public city university absolutely flounces the ivy league when it comes to having a backbone and standing on actual principles
Columbia Student Hunted by ICE Sues to Prevent Deportation
Yunseo Chung, a legal permanent resident who has lived in the U.S. since she was 7, participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Immigration agents visited residences looking for her.
nytimes.com