Mark Abraham
@markabraham.bsky.social
Collecting and sharing data on community-level health and well-being. Personal account: Posts here do not represent the views of my employer. #NHV resident.
Also this type of slide can be found at nearly every conference and webinar these days, since too many people are relying on AI for their slides.
Alt CDC (they/them)@altcdc.altgov.info · yesterdayGood morning. Anxious about that big presentation today? Just remember: somewhere, someone confidently presented a map that relocated multiple African countries at a major international health conference. You'll be fine.
Federal statistical agencies, including the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau, are facing deep staffing cuts and minimal hiring, raising alarms about their long-term ability to deliver objective datasets that drive policymaking and the economy. www.govexec.com/workforce/20...
Staffing cuts are leaving federal statistical agencies stretched thin
The Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau have been hard hit by staffing cuts, and experts say replacing lost expertise won't happen overnight.
govexec.com
From 2010 to 2024 (ACS data), the number of homeowners who are over age 65 increased by 23% in the City of New Haven (from 3,500 to 4,600), while the number of homeowners who are age 25-44 fell by 19% (from 5,000 to 4,100). The number age 45-64 stayed the same at 6,700.
Christopher Mims@mims.bsky.social · 3w agonew housing crisis driver just dropped: * 28% of America's 3+ bedroom homes are owned by empty-nest boomers, who are upsizing in retirement rather than downsizing * Millennials with children own just 16% of such homes www.wsj.com/economy/hous...
Same smoky air, two different risks. Healthy adult? Low-stakes today. Asthma, heart/lung disease, pregnant, older, or a kid? That air can send you to the ER within hours. Check AirNow; clean indoor air (MERV-13/HEPA). Read & subscribe: celinegounder.com
Climate change does not cause wildfires, but hot and dry conditions make them much more likely to spread. In Canada, 9 of the 10 worst wildfire years were both dryer and hotter than normal. And these fires are burning in areas that were historically not managed or suppressed.
Also arrived today: appropriately titled preprint book by @resnikoff.bsky.social with strategies for revitalizing cities
Hot off the press @princetonupress.bsky.social - “the other housing crisis” brings much needed attention to the issue of housing deterioration
It's moving into CT. Even with a brand-new HEPA running, PM2.5 ug/m3 in my office gradually rose through the day from 19 to 33, according to my monitor. It's typically ~2. Opening the office door, 2nd floor indoor hallway reading is 105 ug/m3 now. Outside, it's up from 60 this AM to >120 now. #ctwx
Stephen Stirling@sstirling.bsky.social · 3w agoAir quality has been deteriorating across northern Pennsylvania over the last several hours. Heavy smoke smell in Morris County, NJ with rising AQI. All of this appears to be gradually drifting south and east. Monitor here: www.inquirer.com/weather/air-...
"Wildfire smoke PM2.5 was five times more toxic than general PM2.5. The total all-cause mortality burden associated with wildfire PM2.5 was 24,054 deaths/year in contiguous US. The exposure-response curve increased monotonically,with no evidence of a “safe” threshold" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Wildfire smoke PM2.5 and mortality rate in the contiguous United States: A causal modeling study
Chronic exposure to wildfire smoke PM2.5 significantly increases all-cause and cause-specific mortality rates.
science.org
US forces blew up a school in Iran, killing over 150, and now isn’t doing the usual post-strike review. Some combination of conscious of guilt, contemptuous of responsibility and the accountability that goes with it, and indifference to the human, moral, and strategic costs of such an awful error.
Exclusive: US military hasn’t conducted standard review of intelligence tied to strike on school in Iran, sources say | CNN Politics
The investigation into a US strike that hit a school in Iran has sat for months with a military command while leaders have held off on ordering a critical, standard intelligence review to help determi...
cnn.com
3.6 roentgen, not great, not terrible
Bex@bexcommunicated.bsky.social · 3w agoWe maxed out the scale? 😭
Extreme wildfire risk for Western Canada has increased by up to six times in the last decade alone as a result of fossil fuel driven climate warming. Full peer reviewed study by University of Victoria researchers at this link. 2/ link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Attributing extreme fire risk in Western Canada to human emissions - Climatic Change
Canada is expected to see an increase in fire risk under future climate projections. Large fires, such as that near Fort McMurray, Alberta in 2016, can be devastating to the communities affected. Unde...
link.springer.com
"China now makes 75 percent of all E.V.s sold anywhere on earth. The United States makes around 5 percent." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/m...
The American E.V. Has Been Crushed. Will It Take the U.S. Auto Industry With It?
The largest U.S. automakers have backed away from electric vehicles, even as global sales are booming. The decision may make them obsolete.
nytimes.com
It is genuinely heartbreaking to see all of the people losing SNAP benefits. In West Virginia, 14,000 SNAP participants have lost their benefits. In Arizona, it’s 500,000. That’s not a typo. Half a million people in AZ no longer have nutrition assistance. Republicans strike again.
14K West Virginians have lost food assistance because of Big Beautiful Bill changes • West Virginia Watch
With some exceptions, recipients of SNAP have been required to do at least 80 hours per month of work, training or volunteering.
westvirginiawatch.com
“In #Connecticut, the housing inventory is limited. According to DataHaven @datahaven.bsky.social , there are 27 active listings per 10,000 homes in the state. The national average is 76.” www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/c...
Conn. delegation angry at Trump's canceled federal housing bill signing
Connecticut’s delegation expressed anger and frustration after President Trump canceled the signing of a bipartisan federal housing bill on Wednesday. “Holding housing hostage for this voter suppressi...
nbcconnecticut.com
The deal between the United States & Iran underscores what we already knew: The Iran war was a huge blunder from the start & we are worse off as a result. But one thing worse than this deal is not ending this stupid war.
Landmark new study in @science.org: "Remote work explains 1/3 of the deterioration in #mentalhealth over the last 15 years... People who lived w/ spouse and kids saw their MH hold fairly steady; those who lived alone experienced a 20% decrease in mental well-being." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/o...
Opinion | We Liked Remote Work. Then We Looked at the Data.
nytimes.com
Also, the JCPOA was an actual painstakingly negotiated, detailed, actual international agreement, signed by 🇬🇧, 🇩🇪, 🇫🇷, 🇷🇺, & 🇨🇳alongside 🇺🇸, & 🇮🇷. We don’t even know if this is real, & this administration has exactly zero credibility to make agreements right now, even if they exist.
Garrett M. Graff@vermontgmg.bsky.social · 2mo agoIt’s worth mentioning in every news story that this deal is substantially worse for the US, and far more lucrative for Iran, than the Obama nuclear deal Trump blew up almost a decade ago.
🎂 U.S. President Donald Trump is approaching his 80th birthday, making him one of the oldest national leaders in the world. Only 16 national leaders are older than Trump, according to our analysis of 186 UN member states. 🌎
E-bikes are just ridiculously efficient. We've been riding for 3 months and have put a little over 600 miles on it. The bike has a range of ~120 miles and battery capacity of 1.2kWh. So, we've used about 6kWh of electricity. In CA a kWh costs $0.35, so that is a total cost of...$2.10
Warren Wells, AICP@warrenjwells.bsky.social · 5mo agoGuys, I bought a truck. (that's actually a bike)
Striking graphic in this latest Reuters piece, which finds that while President Trump and his family have profited by at least $2.3 billion since he retook the presidency, their more than a million investors have suffered $2.3 billion in net losses. www.reuters.com/investigatio...
What’s the biggest cause, rising income inequality (wealthy families taking up relatively more space), or zoning and lack of production? “If every group of young people has its driving cause, this one’s might be boiled down to six words: The rent is too damn high.” www.nytimes.com/2026/06/07/n...
They Have Yet to Sign a Lease. But They’re Furious Over $3,100 Rents.
nytimes.com
DataHaven Youth Action Council is entirely youth-designed and youth-led, allowing high school students from throughout #Connecticut the autonomy to decide the curriculum, their research focuses, and which events they host and participate in. Congrats to DHYAC on last week’s symposium!
“Elon Musk is worth four times as much as the combined income of Connecticut's 3.6 million people.” www.nhregister.com/connecticut/...
Who makes more, Connecticut’s top-paid CEO or an entire town?
The combined income of the 17 of the highest-paid CEOs in Connecticut is more than the total income earned in nearly every census tract in the state.
nhregister.com
Has anyone else noticed a rapid uptick in “little libraries” lately? For many years we’ve had about 8 of them within a 5 minute walk of our house in #NHV, but with neighbors adding new ones, there are now almost 20 within the same area (generally fewer books per library now, perhaps as a result).
Failing grades soar as professors see greater AI usage, dwindling math skills in UC Berkeley “[In some cases] we caught them (cheating)… in other cases, it’s students who are leaning a little too hard on LLMs …, and then at exam time just really aren’t ready.” www.dailycal.org/news/campus/...
This study of four cohorts of French schoolchildren shows that the gender gap in math (girls falling behind) begins essentially immediately as soon as kids start school. They use the natural variation in kids' ages at school start to show that it's school entry, not age, that triggers the change.
Rapid emergence of a maths gender gap in first grade - Nature
Boys and girls exhibit very similar maths scores upon school entry, but a gender gap in favour of boys becomes highly significant after 4 months of schooling, which increases with years of schooling,&...
nature.com
