Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D.
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brianckeegan.com
Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D.
@brianckeegan.com

{Social, Data, Network, Information} Scientist, @cuboulder.info

Visiting Scientist, @harvardpopcenter.bsky.social AY25-26

High-tempo collaboration, information commons, public interest data science

https://www.brianckeegan.com/

Signal: brianckeegan.26 .. more

Computer science 36%
Communication & Media Studies 30%
Pinned
ICYMI, I’m on sabbatical this AY at @harvardpopcenter.bsky.social:

popcenter.harvard.edu/blog/directo...

I’ll be working on a STS-flavored book project about ecofascist data science that combines critical demography and data studies.

Let me know if you’re in Boston this year and want to meet up!
Brian Keegan – Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
A Harvard University cross-school, interfaculty initiative administered by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
popcenter.harvard.edu

Some framing shop in DC has a wild story.
Grinning like a 5-year old getting his participation trophy at the post-season T-ball pizza party.
Grinning like a 5-year old getting his participation trophy at the post-season T-ball pizza party.

Wouldn’t you know that Republicans failed to bail out @hickenlooper.senate.gov and @bennet.senate.gov efforts to save @ncar-ucar.bsky.social despite both of Colorado’s senators spending the last year voting to confirm Trump appointees.

www.dailycamera.com/2026/01/15/c...
Colorado senators’ bid to save NCAR funding fails as U.S. Senate passes spending bills
“In the face of unrelenting political attacks from President Trump, we are standing together to protect institutions like NCAR that are vital to our state and our economy,” Sen. John Hickenlo…
www.dailycamera.com

It’s gonna be a washed-up Fox News lsex pest and a retired B-list celebrity and a bunch of paunchy white think tankers funded by oil and mining barons.
“It is my Great Honor to announce that THE BOARD OF PEACE has been formed.”

Reposted by Brian Keegan, Dunlap

“It is my Great Honor to announce that THE BOARD OF PEACE has been formed.”
🚨WHOA. The El Paso Medical Examiner says it will rule the death of a 55-year-old Cuban man at ICE's "Camp East Montana" tent camp as a homicide.

He was allegedly choked to death by a guard during a "struggle" after he refused to enter a housing unit without his medications.

Reposted by Brian Keegan

Wikipedia turns 25 today. Science and scientists have been at the forefront of the site's evolving information identity. What comes next? 🧪
At 25, Wikipedia Now Faces Its Most Existential Threat
Wikipedia had to fight to establish its legitimacy—and now it faces a new existential threat posed by generative AI
www.scientificamerican.com
THREAD of offers of guest lectures (via Zoom) for Minneapolis-area classes so faculty can offer their students a top-quality education while dealing with other crises

Seeing tons of extremely generous offers. I'll try to post 'em all here--please add your own w topics you can cover & how to contact
Finally, a note to the many professors in my networks: One other specific, small thing you can do from outside of Minneapolis is reach out to colleagues who are heavily affected (because of their own or their family's risk, or because they're very busy protecting neighbors) and offer a guest lecture
ICE abolition has to happen, the coalition is already sold, can dem leaders please just skip the handwringing?

my latest for @newrepublic.com

newrepublic.com/article/2052...
Memo to Moderate Democrats: “Abolish ICE” Is Not a Fringe Position.
For goodness sakes, Democrats: Bill Kristol is in favor of ICE abolition. Can you really not get there?
newrepublic.com

“but, but, but this didn’t involve 2 years of consultant-led strategic planning, 3 years of community engagement, and 5 years of languishing in committees.”
Last week, we announced a plan to make child care universal. Today, applications are open for pre-K & 3-K. If your child is turning 3 or 4, apply now for the fall at: myschools.nyc
Older generations spent a lot less time parenting. Millennial dads spend nearly as much time parenting as Boomer moms did. Millennial and Gen X moms way more.

via The Economist

Reposted by Brian Keegan

I think people are erroneously interpreting the headline to mean that the Wikimedia Foundation is embracing AI for purposes like generating encyclopedia content, or are providing AI companies with more training data than they were already scraping.
Sure. AI companies have ALWAYS been training their models on Wikipedia content, which under the free and open access model is available to anyone — including AI companies. Agreements like these require AI companies to limit and offset the strain they place on Wikimedia infrastructure.
Hoping that @molly.wiki can help explain.
Wikimedia Foundation announces new AI partnerships with Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, Perplexity and others

Reposted by Brian Keegan

Hoping that @molly.wiki can help explain.

Reposted by Brian Keegan

Honored yo have helped with this article on why attacks on immigrants are attacks on all workers.

Reposted by Brian Keegan

As a result of Regent Rennison's vote, Democrats may no longer control the CU Board of Regents. But, we the people remain united against MAGA's repellant vision for higher ed, and we will continue to use every tool at our disposal to resist it.
Here's our full statement on this morning's vote:
Stage 5 pundit-brain is watching an innocent woman being killed by agents of the state and going, "hmm this says a lot about the urban-rural divide in America."
Twenty-five years ago, Wikipedia was an unlikely idea: a place where anyone could share free knowledge.

Today, it’s one of the most visited sites on Earth, not powered by corporate ads, but by people.

Reposted by Brian Keegan

As the free online encyclopedia turns 25, it’s facing political opposition, AI scraping, dwindling volunteers, and a public that may no longer believe in its ideals. www.wired.com/story/wikipe...
Wikipedia’s Existential Threats Feel Greater Than Ever
As the free online encyclopedia turns 25, it’s facing political opposition, AI scraping, dwindling volunteers, and a public that may no longer believe in its ideals.
www.wired.com
Last week, we announced a plan to make child care universal. Today, applications are open for pre-K & 3-K. If your child is turning 3 or 4, apply now for the fall at: myschools.nyc

Just another Kavanaugh stop under Trump.
Today at 34 & Park in Minneapolis, a woman tried to drive down the street where a protest had broken out in front of a home ICE was raiding, saying she had a doctor apt to get to. ICE agents busted out her windows, cut off her seatbelt, and pulled her out before arresting her.
Today at 34 & Park in Minneapolis, a woman tried to drive down the street where a protest had broken out in front of a home ICE was raiding, saying she had a doctor apt to get to. ICE agents busted out her windows, cut off her seatbelt, and pulled her out before arresting her.

Reposted by Brian Keegan

Grok stands as the clearest example of an AI that is both ideologically aligned and operationally embedded in a social media platform, says Matthew Kirschenbaum. Its mechanisms should be taken apart under bright lights, in much the same way people learn how to defuse a bomb, he argues.
Grok is an Epistemic Weapon | TechPolicy.Press
Elon Musk's Grok claims to be truth-seeking while shaping discourse and amplifying ideology, argues Matthew Kirschenbaum.
buff.ly

No one should be particularly interested voting for candidates who promise to return to some imaginary fairy tale where Republicans and Democrats collaborated. This hasn't existed in at least 30 years and led to the current constitutional crisis.
the most important thing in 2028 is electing someone who is a true believer in the project of dismantling right-wing power. if you don't get that, then nothing else will matter very much.

Reposted by Brian Keegan

the most important thing in 2028 is electing someone who is a true believer in the project of dismantling right-wing power. if you don't get that, then nothing else will matter very much.
IR Realists saying farewell to the Rational Actor Assumption

Sure eggs are going to cost $100 each by 2028, but the alternative was a President who had an annoying laugh.
What can history teach us about what happens when a populist strongman with an idiosyncratic taste for low interest rates undermines central bank independence?

Just give Sundowning Don some AI slop of Marines marching on glaciers and he'll fixate on something else.
“A diplomatic source said: 'The generals think Trump's Greenland plan is crazy and illegal. So they are trying to deflect him with other major military operations. They say it's like dealing with a five-year-old'.”

That’s an insult to 5-year olds.

A dangerous and corrupt moron.
Trump 'orders US army chiefs to draw up plan to invade Greenland'
Donald Trump has ordered his special forces commanders to draw up a plan for the invasion of Greenland - but is being resisted by senior military figures, The Mail on Sunday has learned.
www.dailymail.co.uk
This is the sort of statement that was expected from every university president and law firm partner over the last year. That those statements weren’t made played a huge part in where we are now and people will remember.
Jerome Powell: "This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions—or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation."
What can history teach us about what happens when a populist strongman with an idiosyncratic taste for low interest rates undermines central bank independence?