Have you read my deep-dive history of estimating global CO₂ emissions? From the first documented effort by Högbom in 1894, via Arrhenius, Popular Mechanics, Plass, Revelle, and more through to 1999: robbieandrew.github.io/www_docs/t/E...
Johannes Richter
@jgmrichter.bsky.social
Wine industry journalist and generalist with interests in the critical study of religion, philosophy, complex systems and Oxford commas.
Musk says not a single person has died due to him axing USAID. Sadly, part of my job involves tracking aid spending. So here’s a thread with just some of the people who lost their lives because of USAID cuts
Here's a thread I posted at "the other place" a few years ago on the 25th anniversary of the #HockeyStick: 🧵
This paper argues that misinformation research needs to move beyond studies of a few wealthy countries and online samples to include diverse, real-world information environments worldwide in order to produce more accurate and effective insights. I agree! misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu/article/towa...
Towards the study of world misinformation | HKS Misinformation Review
What if nearly everything we think we know about misinformation came from just a sliver of the world? When research leans heavily on online studies from a few wealthy nations, we risk drawing global c...
misinforeview.hks.harvard.edu
1/ Last week, the US flag was lowered at WHO headquarters in Geneva after the US officially left. Over 10 years ago, I checked into that same building as a young epidemiologist. I remember photographing the UN flags, feeling proud to work toward a healthier world with other countries.
From calculus and geometry to biological paradigm shifts and modern AI, the search for proof is a tangled story of faith and reason. My new article for Psyche Magazine: psyche.co/ideas/why-th...
🧵In my expert opinion as a researcher of vehicle ramming attacks, what has been publicly described in the video evidence does not support the claim that Renee Nicole Good was attempting a deliberate ramming attack when she was shot in Minneapolis on January 7, 2026. 1/7
Last night, I tried to write about evidence-based solutions. I was originally trained as a violence epidemiologist, am married to a police officer, and am a mom. I know there are things we can do. I wrote it. Deleted it. Rewrote it.
Normal Greeks: “emergency exit procedure.” Me, a late antique Hellenist: “liturgy of the exodus of danger.”
“Some believe it is only great power that can hold evil in check. But that is not what I have found. I have found it is small everyday deeds of ordinary folk that keep the darkness at bay. Small acts of kindness and love.” - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
1. We ( @jbakcoleman.bsky.social, @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, and I) have a new preprint up on the arXiv. There we explore how social media companies and other online information technology firms are able to manipulate scientific research about the effects of their products.
Anxiety is the most common mental health condition globally. It’s estimated that 4% to 5% of people in the world have an anxiety disorder at any given time. Long-term surveys in the United States suggest that around one-third of people experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.
This morning I spoke with Lester Kiewiet on CapeTalk about how Donald #Trump is instrumentalising Nigerian suffering to pander to his populist voter base. This has very little to do with #Nigeria it is a populist tactic that is dangerous and ill-informed. Read here: doi.org/10.5117/KT20...
Here is a copy of the interview on Cape Talk on Donald Trump's threat to send the military into Nigeria, supposedly to protect Christians. I would be grateful for your thoughts and feedback: youtu.be/qywlFDXf_p0?...
Trump’s Christian crusade in Nigeria
YouTube video by CapeTalk
youtu.be
New favourite podcast historiansplaining.com/bio-of-dr-sam/
Bio of Dr. Sam - Historiansplaining - A Podcast
Samuel Biagetti holds a doctorate in early American history from Columbia University. He uses his knowledge & insights to produce the Historiansplaining Podcast, to be an expert guest on other podcast...
historiansplaining.com
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
The Verge@theverge.com · last yr.Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry
All Royal Society journal content is freely available this week for open access week @royalsocietypublishing.org
2/ In 2001, Borsook said tech "libertarianism" reflected an adolescent mindset, with a craving for unchecked independence & resistance to constraint. She warned that tech libertarians wanted an anti-human world that worked more like a computer. From "Cyberselfish," a book based on her 90s writing:
OBAMA: It's fair to say that 80% of the world's problems involve old men hanging on who are afraid of death and insignificance, and they won't let go. They build pyramids, and they put their names on everything. They get very anxious about it.
"We are belongers before we are believers." @profsamperry.bsky.social on how, rather than driving behavior, religious beliefs often act as group identity signalers... "who is in, who is out, who I interact with, who I know, who I value.” via @rickpidcock.bsky.social baptistnews.com/article/thes...
These are the helpful conversations about religion we need – Baptist News Global
“A remedy to this partisan sorting where we hate each other and don’t understand each other is by getting involved with local politics."
baptistnews.com
Yet again, the zombie myth of Bruno (among other things). Just seeing this image alone alerts you to what will inevitably follow ("Bruno, martyr to science!"). Fortunately we have Thony to put things right - a Sisyphean task, I fear.
Thony Christie @rmathematicus.bsky.social · 11mo agoA historian of science and New York Times reporter tries his hand at the 17th century Church and heliocentricity controversy and fails dismally. #histsci thonyc.wordpress.com/2025/09/03/a...
My next interview on the History for Atheists channel will be with Dr Dan McClellan @maklelan.bsky.social on things atheists get wrong about the Hebrew Bible/OT, early Jewish beliefs, the history of ancient Israel etc. What would you like me to ask Dan about?
Meta fired its fact-checkers, citing concerns of liberal bias, and replaced them with a version of X's "Community Notes." How's that going? Well, my coworker @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social proposed 65 fact-checks debunking false posts... and only 3 got approved. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Column | Zuckerberg fired the fact-checkers. We tested their replacement.
Our tech columnist drafted 65 community notes, Meta’s new crowdsourced system to fight falsehoods. It failed to make a dent.
washingtonpost.com
If you have ever wondered what difference does disinformation really make, please read this: www.kff.org/health-infor... The kicker is not this chart, but the finding that fully 40% of Republicans think more people died from the Covid vaccine than the disease, up from 25% in 2023.
KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: January 2025 | KFF
As Senate hearings begin for President Trump’s health nominees, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the latest KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust shows a decline in public trust for govern...
kff.org
I've wanted to write this article for years. About my and other's struggles to even survive sometime in #academia. Thank you to the amazing editors at @plosbiology.org that gave me the forum to write this piece. #science
Too poor to science: How wealth determines who succeeds in STEM
From student to researcher, a career in science can come with a high price tag. This Perspective explores how persistent financial barriers limit who can succeed in science, revealing how wealth shape...
journals.plos.org
From claims about the pagan origins of Easter traditions to biblical literalists asserting that the miraculous darkness at the crucifixion is historically provable, I explode all kinds of myths in this holiday special. megaphone.link/ARML7228019606
