Barbara Iverson
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biverson.bsky.social
Barbara Iverson
@biverson.bsky.social
1.4K followers 380 following 520 posts
Professor Emerita Digital Journalism - Columbia College Chicago. Emerta Director at Voqal. Org. Interests: Democracy, biking, swimming, painting, progressive politics. Like Persephone, I split my time between Chicago and Florida.
Posts Replies Media Videos
biverson.bsky.social
Get them before they sell out
December 12, 2025 at 2:44 PM
Reposted by Barbara Iverson
jeffjarvis.bsky.social
‘Censorship pure and simple’: critics hit out at Trump plan to vet visitors’ social media
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
‘Censorship pure and simple’: critics hit out at Trump plan to vet visitors’ social media
Some warn proposal will decimate US tourism industry as free speech advocates say it will lead to people self-censoring
www.theguardian.com
December 12, 2025 at 12:25 PM
biverson.bsky.social
Please....
December 12, 2025 at 2:34 PM
biverson.bsky.social
Stopping bad legislation is balm for the soul
December 12, 2025 at 2:33 PM
biverson.bsky.social
Here is the real steal
robertscotthorton.bsky.social Scott Horton @robertscotthorton.bsky.social · 4d
25 years ago today, SCOTUS elected George W Bush president of the United States by blocking completion of a voting canvass in Florida. A subsequent canvass by the Associated Press showed that Bush's rival, Al Gore, had won the race in Florida—and thus the contest for the presidency—by 700 votes.
December 12, 2025 at 2:32 PM
biverson.bsky.social
Book 'em, Danno
jennburrill.bsky.social Jenn Burrill @jennburrill.bsky.social · 4d
The U.S. is not a member of the ICC, but the court can still prosecute individuals like Trump for actions carried out on the territory of ICC member nations like Venezuela

www.reuters.com/world/us/us-...
December 11, 2025 at 12:38 PM
biverson.bsky.social
We can't drink AI or pay for it's energy costs. Stop this steal. #coststoomuch
www.wptv.com/wptv-investi...
Activists worry data center proposal near Arden could drain massive amounts of water, energy
County records show "Project Tango" would span an area equivalent to 31 football fields right next to protected land off Southern Boulevard.
www.wptv.com
December 11, 2025 at 12:37 PM
biverson.bsky.social
Stop this corporate cancer on the world
jayrosen.bsky.social Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 5d
One thing I've learned as a media critic involves scale. The tools of criticism work within certain boundaries like the metaphor in use here: five-alarm fire. Our imaginations can handle that. The PR team will respond. "I'm running my ideas for CNN past the president" is too huge to be criticizable.
December 10, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Barbara Iverson
maxwellfrost.bsky.social
Yesterday, I held a music festival in my district to register voters and speak directly to young people who don’t usually attend political events. 4,500 tickets. Music + advocacy go hand in hand. Madsoul Festival 2025 was a success.
December 8, 2025 at 1:57 AM
biverson.bsky.social
blockclubchicago.org/2025/12/04/h...
How The Feds Used Propaganda To Frame Their ‘War’ On Chicago: 'They're Lying Constantly'
Homeland Security has sought to reshape violent encounters into triumphant narratives — even as judges, journalists and experts said the agency has repeatedly distorted facts, misled the public and at...
blockclubchicago.org
December 4, 2025 at 7:23 PM
biverson.bsky.social
Reptile people on display
newrepublic.com The New Republic @newrepublic.com · Oct 12
His slip of the tongue reveals who’s really in charge. trib.al/AoXcgAq

“Illinois governor says we’re provoking actions that are unlawful,” Miller said on CNN. “If I put federal law enforcement and National Guard into a nice sleepy Southern town, is anyone gonna riot?”
December 4, 2025 at 8:08 AM
biverson.bsky.social
Me too
December 4, 2025 at 8:04 AM
biverson.bsky.social
Wow
miafarrow.bsky.social Mia Farrow @miafarrow.bsky.social · 19d
Dr Oz announced that “Americans will lose 135 BILLION pounds by the midterms.”

Wow!!!

There are 342, 783, 851 Americans.
That means we will each lose 393 pounds!
December 4, 2025 at 8:03 AM
biverson.bsky.social
Lying liars just keep lying. Vote them out.
mrsbettybowers.bsky.social Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 17d
Yes, who is more likely to regard the sacrifice of people as abhorrent than those who follow a religion centered on celebrating the sacrifice of a person?
December 4, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Reposted by Barbara Iverson
mickeykuhns.bsky.social
Signalgate shows top Trump officials—Hegseth, Waltz, even the VP—running ops through a disappearing Signal chat instead of secure channels. It bypassed the chain of command, broke record-keeping laws, put lives at risk. The IG says the receipts are damning.

www.allenanalysis.com/p/signalgate...
December 4, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Reposted by Barbara Iverson
aaroncynic.bsky.social
Chicago is amazing
nikhunder.com Municipal Corporation @nikhunder.com · 12d
Unintentionally ran into the holiday train :)
December 3, 2025 at 11:39 PM
Reposted by Barbara Iverson
The Google bot is onboard.
November 26, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Reposted by Barbara Iverson
edzitron.com
NVIDIA's story is insane. Data centers take years to build, cost hundreds of millions of dollars in construction, labor and permitting, and require massive amounts of power, and *to this day* we still lack a complete understanding of what they cost to run.
www.wheresyoured.at/the-haters-g...
Let Me Explain To You How Expensive And Arduous It Is To Actually Build A Data Center, And Remind You That Every Single Time Anybody Buys NVIDIA GPUs They're Probably Dealing With This So, let me give you a theoretical example. I swear I'm going somewhere with this.You, a genius, have decided you are about to join the vaunted ranks of "AI data center ownership." You decide to build a "small" AI data center — 25MW (megawatts, which in this example, refers to the combined power draw of the tech inside the data center). That can't be that much, right? OpenAI is building a 1.2GW one out in Abilene Texas. How much could this tiny little thing cost? Sidenote: It’s a minor thing, but I want to clarify something. I said “in this example” in the previous paragraph because when we talk about the power capacity of a data center, we could be referring to one of two things. The first is the power draw of the servers in the facility — which is called the IT Load — or the total amount of power that can be provided to that facility. Here’s where it gets tricky. A facility that can draw, say, 25MW of power from the grid can’t just use all of that in one go. You need a reserve for what’s known as the “design day,” which is the hottest day of the year, when the facility’s cooling systems are under the most strain, and when power transmission losses are at their highest. That reserve is, from what I’ve been told, around 30% of the total available electricity. Cooling systems are power-hungry! Who knew? Me. I did. I’ve been telling you for over a year. Okay, well, let's start with those racks. You're gonna need to give Jensen Huang $600 million right away, as you need 200 GB200 racks. You're also gonna need a way to make them network together, because otherwise they aren't going to be able to handle all those big IT loads, so that's gonna be another $80 million or more, and you're going to need storage and servers to sync all of this up, which is, let's say, another $35 million. So… Anyway, sadly data centers require something called a "building." Construction costs for a data center are somewhere from $8 million to $12 million per megawatt, so, crap, okay. That's $250 million, but probably more like $300 million. We're now up to $1.02 billion, and we haven't even got the power yet. Okay, sick. Do you have one billion dollars? You don't? No worries! Private credit — money loaned by non-banking entities — has been feeding more than $50 billion dollars a quarter into the hungry mouths of anybody who desires to build a data center. You need $1.02 billion. You get $1.5 billion, because, you know, "stuff happens." Don't worry about those pesky high interest rates — you're about to be printing big money, AI style! Now you're done raising all that cash, it'll now only take anywhere from 6 to 18 months for site selection, permitting, design, development, construction, and energy procurement. You're also going to need about 20 acres of land for that 100,000 square foot data center. You may wonder why 100,000 square feet needs that much space, and that's because all of the power and cooling equipment takes up an astonishing amount of room. So, yeah, after two years and over a billion dollars, you too can own a data center with NVIDIA GPUs that turn on, and at that point, you will offer a service that is functionally identical to everybody else buying GPUs from NVIDIA. Your competitors are Amazon, Google and Microsoft, followed by neoclouds — AI chip companies selling the same thing as you, except they're directly backed by NVIDIA, and frequently, the big hyperscaler companies with brands that most people have heard of, like AWS and Azure. Oh, also, this stuff costs an indeterminately-large amount of money to run. You may wonder why I can't tell you how much, and that's because nobody wants to actually discuss the cost of running GPUs, the thing that underpins our entire stock market. There're good reasons, too. One does not just run "a GPU" — it's …
November 24, 2025 at 5:04 PM
biverson.bsky.social
Clean New Deal, huh?
patricklovellpresentsthecleannewdeal.com Patrick Lovell The Producer @patricklovellpresentsthecleannewdeal.com · 13d
bsky.app/profile/patr...
patricklovellpresentsthecleannewdeal.com Patrick Lovell The Producer @patricklovellpresentsthecleannewdeal.com · 16d
(1) What is the problem? Corruption. What is the solution? The Clean New Deal. What is The Clean New Deal? An anti corruption, anti fascist, anti racist, pro democracy, pro law, pro sustainability, pro science, pro equality movement to purge corruption to reboot the American Dream. #TCND
December 2, 2025 at 9:14 PM
Reposted by Barbara Iverson
matthewhaybrown.bsky.social
Ex-DEA agent who worked on the case against former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernandez calls his release "devastating":

“It means any attempt to work your investigations to the highest levels is meaningless”

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...
Former Honduras president, convicted of trafficking, freed on Trump pardon
A former DEA agent called the release “devastating”: “It means any attempt to work your investigations to the highest levels is meaningless.”
www.washingtonpost.com
December 2, 2025 at 8:57 PM
biverson.bsky.social
www.chicagoenvironmentalists.org/interactive-...
Interactive Sustainability Map
Interactive map to find Chicago sustainable business and organizations near you!
www.chicagoenvironmentalists.org
December 2, 2025 at 9:11 PM
biverson.bsky.social
Saw this at the garden store.
Monarch butterfly
November 29, 2025 at 4:54 AM
biverson.bsky.social
weaintbuyingit.com?sourceid=105...
We Ain’t Buying It! - Economic Pressure on Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday - We Ain’t Buying It!
We Ain’t Buying It is an economic action and solidarity campaign designed to defend democracy and reclaim community power.
weaintbuyingit.com
November 28, 2025 at 12:33 PM
biverson.bsky.social
"Perhaps the president recognises a fellow savant when it comes to insurgent election campaigns. Or perhaps two New Yorkers sitting in a room and saying I ❤ NY is a language no one else can quite understand."
#strange-but-true
I ❤ NY: Queens recognises Queens www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
I ❤ NY: Queens recognises Queens as Trump gives Mamdani warm reception
No fists, no fire – the president and the mayor-elect met in Washington, and things went bewilderingly, bizarrely well
www.theguardian.com
November 22, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Reposted by Barbara Iverson
jayrosen.bsky.social
Columbia Journalism Review recently interviewed Betsy Reed, editor of the Guardian's U.S. edition. www.cjr.org/the-intervie...

She says: "If we regard it, for good reason, as being extreme and out of line with basic humane values, we won’t treat it as part of the normal discourse in America."
November 19, 2025 at 7:12 PM