Al Shaw
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shaw.al
Al Shaw
@shaw.al
16K followers 690 following 230 posts
developer / reporter / map maker at ProPublica • dm me on signal: ashaw.01 • also at: @[email protected] • he/him

🔗 https://shaw.al
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Reposted by Al Shaw
anildash.com
Okay, for the folks who asked: here's the majority AI view, writing up the reasonable, thoughtful view on AI that the vast majority of people in tech hold, that gets overshadowed by the bluster and hype of the tycoons trying to shill their nonsense. anildash.com/2025/10/17/t... Please share!
The Majority AI View - Anil Dash
A blog about making culture. Since 1999.
anildash.com
October 17, 2025 at 7:29 PM
shaw.al
The least realistic part of OBAA was the travel time between Eureka and Anza-Borrego
October 13, 2025 at 2:21 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
cassandrajaramillo.bsky.social
This week I learned I’m the first woman and person of color from the University of Texas at Austin to have ever received the Pulitzer Prize gold medal for Public Service reporting.

When I realized that in UT’s Pulitzer Hall of Fame, I got chills.
October 4, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
rtushnet.bsky.social
A good ad on the DC Metro
ProPublica ad: “someone on this train has the next big story. Is it you?” With URL and Signal address
September 23, 2025 at 7:28 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
rmac.bsky.social
This is horrific and feels like it should be a bigger deal. Business Insider reports that people who have worked at xAI have seen Grok create images and written material with child sex abuse material.

www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-gr...
Behind Grok's 'sexy' settings, workers review explicit and disturbing content
Workers say they've faced sexually explicit content while xAI has marketed Grok to be deliberately provocative. Experts say the company should be cautious.
www.businessinsider.com
September 23, 2025 at 3:52 AM
Reposted by Al Shaw
wgaeast.bsky.social
Yesterday, hundreds of WGA members and allies rallied outside Disney/ABC's offices to demand Jimmy Kimmel Live! be reinstated. Thank you to everyone who showed up in the name of protecting free speech and union jobs ✊
September 20, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
josheidelson.bsky.social
Interviews with 40+ current or recent employees throughout NIOSH, and dozens of others, detail how Trump’s cuts have upended safety research on everything from fracking to opioids, along with chemical risks in nail salons, electric-vehicle fires and terror attacks www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
September 20, 2025 at 2:08 PM
shaw.al
Software should come in a box that I get from a physical store. It only updates or charges me when I go out to buy the next version.
yeeeerika.bsky.social erika @yeeeerika.bsky.social · Jan 13
i don't want to hear your most boomer complaint. what's your most millennial complaint?
September 20, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
gwynnefitz.bsky.social
Just now, 11 state and city lawmakers were arrested by DHS police on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza after a hour of demanding access to the ICE lock up on the same floor. @thecity.nyc
September 18, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
krishnakarra.bsky.social
we used four decades of Landsat imagery, from 1985-2025, to identify newly developed areas in the West Bank. our analysis shows that since Oct. 7, Israeli controlled areas have grown 5 times faster compared to the past two decades.

read more 🎁: www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
September 18, 2025 at 3:28 PM
shaw.al
Posting without comment: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppets...
Puppets (TV series) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
September 17, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
propublicaguild.org
We can’t produce fearless investigative journalism without job security and a fair contract. After almost two years of bargaining, we need your help.

Show your support for @propublica.org workers by adding your name to our petition: actionnetwork.org/petitions/te...
Fair Contract Now for ProPublica Guild
We, the workers of ProPublica, provide our readers with deeply researched, unbiased news that holds power to account. This work is more important now than ever, but our staff can’t properly contribute...
actionnetwork.org
September 15, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
jasonkoebler.bsky.social
Talked to 23 people who suddenly have to pay huge tariffs or otherwise cannot get chainmail from Pakistan, yarn from France, retro computers from Japan, metal music from the Netherlands, DVDs from Germany, cosplay supplies, sunscreen, etc.

www.404media.co/its-just-a-m...
‘It's Just a Mess:' 23 People Explain How Tariffs Have Suddenly Ruined Their Hobby
"The real kick in the teeth is no matter how much manufacturing is brought back to the US these items will never be made in the USA. There is no upside."
www.404media.co
September 9, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
ethanmarcotte.com
🦊

I wrote about the administration’s “national design studio,” and how its shoddy construction isn’t a mistake. It’s a clear signal of priorities, and ones we need to actively, urgently rebuke. ethanmarcotte.com/wrote/a-noti...
A notional design studio. — ethanmarcotte.com
A design language, if you can keep it.
ethanmarcotte.com
August 27, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
davidjroth.bsky.social
We took the paywall down on this one. defector.com/how-the-fuck...
How Are You Supposed To Get The COVID Vaccine Now? An Explainer | Defector
As the muggy malaise of summer winds down, you might find yourself interested in taking advantage of one of several safe and proven vaccines to help protect you from the inevitable brumal surge of res...
defector.com
September 4, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
kimkelly.bsky.social
things were better when the computer lived in its own specific room and you only went in there sometimes
August 21, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
anniewaldman.bsky.social
NEW: In March, the Trump administration announced a massive purge of workers at the nation's health agencies.

We asked them how many workers were laid off, pushed out or left.

They refused to give us numbers.

So we conducted our own analysis... 🧵

projects.propublica.org/federal-heal...
In March, the Trump administration announced a massive purge of workers at the nation's health agencies. We asked them how many workers were laid off, pushed out or left, and the admin refused to give us numbers. So we conducted our own analysis, a thread...
August 21, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Al Shaw
thecity.nyc
BREAKING: Eric Adams Advisor Winnie Greco Handed a CITY Reporter Cash Stuffed in a Bag of Potato Chips

www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/20/w...
Eric Adams Advisor Winnie Greco Handed a CITY Reporter Cash Stuffed in a Bag of Potato Chips
THE CITY reported the incident to law enforcement and was promptly contacted by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office.
www.thecity.nyc
August 20, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
agordon.me
What happens when government disinvests from public transit? Commutes get longer & more frustrating. A NJ Transit case study from me, @suryamattu.com and @mariepastora.bsky.social : www.bloomberg.com/graphics/202...
August 19, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
marshallprojectguild.org
Today, we sent a letter to @themarshallproject.org‬ leadership expressing concern about their denial of bargaining obligations. Management has repeatedly denied members Weingarten rights, engaged in an illegal layoff, and more — we need your help to demand that management bargain in good faith.
Dear Katrice and Geraldine, We are deeply concerned about the manner in which The Marshall Project has been treating our members and approaching the bargaining process. Recently, The Marshall Project leadership has betrayed our organization’s values and compromised our position in the industry and the journalism we pursue. It’s time for that to change. The guild has worked tirelessly and in good faith on proposals that would keep high-quality health care affordable for Marshallers. We have also been steadfast in asserting that all recognized members deserve due process and fair treatment required under the law. The organization, in turn, has increasingly taken anti-worker stances that have eroded trust and created a culture that makes it difficult to do the work that makes us proud. Since the organization has taken such a hardline stance, refusing to work with the guild on the items listed below, we will be filing unfair labor practices with the National Labor Relations Board and stepping up our public efforts to make it clear that we demand fair treatment. The following recent actions by the organization have taken an immense toll on the workers of The Marshall Project: 1. The organization has repeatedly denied steward representation to a member facing a Performance Improvement Plan and possible termination, as well as denying another member representation in their termination meeting last week. This denial is illegal, egregious, and completely out of line with standards across our industry and the labor movement going back decades. We are shocked that the organization would take such a hypocritical and prohibitive stance on this, given our mission. The union has filed an Unfair Labor Practice about this illegal violation of members’ Weingarten rights and demands that members be allowed steward representation in any meeting they feel is appropriate. 2. The organization has caused a retaliatory ripple effect with its actions against one employee that has touched an entire newsroom in Cleveland with negative effects that go against the stated purpose of collaboration with local media and our ability to make good on promises we made to readers. When the organization recognized members it had a duty to follow the law and not proceed with layoffs without bargaining. We have filed an Unfair Labor Practice for the illegal layoff of employees and management retaliation. 3. The organization made a unilateral change to our outside employment policy without bargaining, changing expectations to require managerial approval. We have always maintained a workplace where outside work is permitted and the organization’s sudden termination of Chris Vazquez without a steward, without an opportunity to stop the freelancing project, and without severance is unjust and defies our values. 4. The organization is employing a strategic erosion of status quo through small changes to past practice while we bargain our first contract, including erasure of our cost-of-living adjustment, a significant change to our health insurance, and modifying the evaluation process. The organization has inconsistently complied with requests for information, which does not reflect good faith in bargaining. The Marshall Project, in retaining union-busting law firm Kauff McGuire & Margolis, is willingly participating in the erosion of worker protections across our industry, a project that takes advantage of the current anti-worker political environment. When The Marshall Project voluntarily recognized our union last year, it touted a “longstanding commitment to a fair, equitable and inclusive workplace, with generous benefits.” We are demanding a return to these values.
August 14, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
themorrancave.bsky.social
How was Trump BLS nominee EJ Antoni identified in the crowd at Jan. 6? He was spotted in one of the many Parler videos archived by @propublica.org

You can see him cross through the bottom-center portion of the screen starting at around 1:41 in this clip:
projects.propublica.org/parler-capit...
What Parler Saw During the Attack on the Capitol
ProPublica sifted through thousands of videos taken by Parler users to create an immersive, first-person view of the Capitol riot as experienced by those who were there.
projects.propublica.org
August 14, 2025 at 2:35 PM
shaw.al
Proud to join my coworkers lunching out today for Just Cause!
propublicaguild.org ProPublica Guild @propublicaguild.org · Aug 12
Our New York members took their lunch outside today to demand that @propublica.org management agree to a fair discipline and performance evaluation system ✊
August 12, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
gwynnefitz.bsky.social
While other cities like LA are being put through outdoor ICE raids, NYC is the nation's capital of ICE immigration courthouse arrests, new data analysis shows.

www.thecity.nyc/2025/08/11/2...
August 11, 2025 at 12:29 PM
Reposted by Al Shaw
pressfreedom.bsky.social
An entire news crew working for Al Jazeera was killed by Israel as they sought to bring the world firsthand reporting from #Gaza.

Among them was prominent journalist Anas Al-Sharif, who had been previously smeared and threatened by the IDF.

#NotATarget

Full statement: cpj.org/2025/08/isra...
Israel kills Al Jazeera journalists in targeted Gaza City airstrike - Committee to Protect Journalists
New York, August 10, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists is appalled to learn of the killing today of Al Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif, Mohammed Qreiqeh, camera operators Ibrahim Zaher and M...
cpj.org
August 11, 2025 at 1:27 AM
shaw.al
We're really in the sawdust-and-lead-in-food era of regulation with this stuff aren't we
404 Media headline: "Guy Gives Himself 19th Century Psychiatric Illness After Consulting With ChatGPT" NYT headline: "Over 21 days of talking with ChatGPT, an otherwise perfectly sane man became convinced that he was a real-life superhero. We analyzed the conversation."
August 8, 2025 at 4:53 PM