Joel Abrams

Joel Abrams

@joelabrams.com

Spreading fact-based journalism from @us.theconversation.com. Fueled by tea.

3.7K followers458 following257 posts

Joel Abrams reposted

Colette Delawalla, PhD
@cdelawalla.bsky.social

The 5-year cancer survival rate is up to 70% SIDS deaths have decreased by over 50% 89% decline in tornado deaths All thanks to federal investment in science and OUR tax dollars at work!

Michael Druker 🇨🇦@mdruker.app

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

Joel Abrams
@joelabrams.com

So proud of this team!

The Conversation U.S.@us.theconversation.com

🎂🎉 Happy Birthday to us! 🎂🎉 12 years ago today, The Conversation U.S. launched with a team of 9 housed in a basement at Boston University. We had 2,360 pageviews on our website that day – about the number we have every 20 minutes today, as the most-read nonprofit news site in the nation.

Joel Abrams reposted

Josh Deadwell they/them
@ledwell.bsky.social

Sad to pass this along: ”Researchers told BBC there has not been "any traffic change from known Russian accounts and bot clusters on any platform". Viral Cloudflare chart shows search index crawler activity not disinformation bots. www.bbc.com/news/article... Thanks @joelabrams.com

bbc.comIs Zelensky right to say data centre strikes have taken down Russian bots?Experts say there is no evidence that Russian trolls have been affected by Ukraine’s Yandex attacks.
Joel Abrams
@joelabrams.com

4 amendments, 3 Supreme Court decisions, 2 laws, and a commission in the Democratic party that have defined and redefined voting rights theconversation.com/up-and-down-... (via @us.theconversation.com) #rejectedheadlines

theconversation.comUp-and-down progress of voting rights in America has been shaped by these 10 key momentsThe history of voting and elections in America doesn’t follow a steady path toward progress or retreat. It is marked by intense struggles, monumental victories and devastating losses.
Joel Abrams
@joelabrams.com

My first post to Usenet ever, from 1997, apparently was on rec.food.drink.tea, which was someplace I hung out for years before much of the group migrated to TeaMail www.usenet-rewind.com/message/MzM5...

usenet-rewind.comUsenet-Rewind - VerifyQuick security check before continuing your search.
Ernie Smith@ernie.tedium.co

Good news or bad news depending on your POV: Usenet archives is suddenly easy to dig through, thanks to a new service. It’s built by a big data guy, and it’s packed with every awkward thing you ever wrote in a newsgroup 26 years ago. My deep dive: tedium.co/2026/09/14/u... new @tedium.co

tedium.coUsenet’s Back, Baby. (This Time, The Search Works.)Usenet-Rewind, a new tool for digging into Usenet history, holds much potential for researchers. But seeing your old posts on Usenet is gonna feel weird.
Joel Abrams
@joelabrams.com

A good antidote to #AI hype, pointing out that the hacking of Hugging Face was really just yet another example of idiots setting hacking tools free. Similarly, @us.theconversation.com has an article today on how an LLM acting to try to finish a task is a far, far cry from any "will to survive"

theconversation.comNo, AI systems don’t have a drive to survive – a developmental psychologist explains why it only looks that wayIn tests, some AI systems resisted being shut down. But an instinct to stay “alive” isn’t the reason they behaved that way.
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)@doctorow.pluralistic.net

Once you understand the corporate culture of AI hyperscalers is everyone cooking their brains by locking themselves in the bathroom, holding flashlights under their chins, and saying "Aaaaaaaaaay Eyeeeeeee" until they wet themselves in terror, things snap into focus: pluralistic.net/2023/06/04/a...

Joel Abrams reposted

The Conversation U.S.
@us.theconversation.com

Elected officials across Texas are increasingly treating ordinary Muslim religious practice – prayer, dress, marriage counseling, dispute mediation, even mosques themselves – as evidence of a political threat and saying so openly.

theconversation.comIn Texas, ordinary Muslim religious practices are increasingly being treated as political threatsAfter 9/11, suspicion of Islam hardened into an assumption in Texas that Muslim identity itself signals danger, writes a scholar of constitutional law.
Joel Abrams
@joelabrams.com

Why are so many people so efficient at scheduling meetings? Why don't people think to suggest times when they are free, instead of just saying they are available? #petpeeve #rentstoohigh

Joel Abrams reposted

Mississippi Free Press
@mississippifreepress.org

OPINION: " It arrives as children return to school, when measles cases are at their highest number since 1991, and it tells parents that a vaccine their pediatrician recommends should be broken into three shots that no longer exist in this country," Jake Scott writes. buff.ly/FW3lSXX

mississippifreepress.orgOpinion | Executive Order on Vaccines Bypasses Evidence-Based Process Keeping Kids SafeJake Scott writes that President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for a split MMR vaccine will create confusion.

Joel Abrams reposted

Mississippi Free Press
@mississippifreepress.org

OPINION: "I am a public health water microbiologist who collects sewage water & tests it for evidence of harmful pathogens, such as cyclospora. The first time I studied cyclospora was in the first outbreak ever documented in the U.S., a small, 45-case outbreak in Florida in 1995," Joan Rose writes.

mississippifreepress.orgOpinion | Cyclospora Likely Came From Sewage Contaminating Our Food SupplyJoan Rose writes about the possible cause of the cyclospora outbreak being due to sewage contamination in the food supply.
Joel Abrams
@joelabrams.com

I was just on a call with Discover because they had sent me a letter saying I had $.01 in the Online Savings Account I hadn't used in year. It took the rep 14 minutes to close the account and issue a check for the penny.

Joel Abrams reposted

The Conversation U.S.
@us.theconversation.com

PSA: July 4th fireworks + heat + extreme drought = a dangerous combo for wildfires. It’s already a really bad year for wildfires. Add in sparks from fireworks, and it could be disastrous. ⬇️

Joel Abrams
@joelabrams.com

This is one of my favorite stories in while. A great #Juneteenth read about food and family

The Conversation U.S.@us.theconversation.com

“Visiting Comanche Crossing on #Juneteenth felt like freedom,” Bobby Smith’s father told him, when they re-visited the Texas park together. For generations, their family joined Black Texans to feast on barbecue, and celebrate the way food was a tool of resistance and a symbol of freedom.

Joel Abrams reposted

Catesby Holmes
@catesby.bsky.social

Paraguay: a thread. In honor of tonight’s US-Paraguay game, I am sharing some of the Paraguay stories I assigned & edited over the years. @joelabrams.com & I both had a fondness for this landlocked nation and a goal of covering the whole world, esp the other outlets ignored. Primero, el mate.

theconversation.comIn Paraguay, rural communities facing deforestation see power – and profit – in a beloved drinkYerba mate is a wildly popular South American tea with a growing global market. Can this ‘superfood’ save Paraguay’s tropical forests, too?

Joel Abrams reposted

The Conversation U.S.
@us.theconversation.com

The Olympics' new transgender ban could end up excluding more intersex women than transgender athletes. "The rarity of transgender athletes in elite competition suggests their exclusion is a solution in search of a problem." #LGBTQ #sports #transgender

Joel Abrams
@joelabrams.com

First came "slow food" and "slow news". Now we'd be better off with "slow Internet searching" (instead of AI) Interesting from @us.theconversation.com:

theconversation.comEroding a virtue: AI trains people to expect instant answers – and that’s bad news for patiencePatience is a virtue that researchers have linked to many parts of well-being. But it’s also something that needs a bit of practice and training – and can be undermined by instant, easy gratification.
Joel Abrams
@joelabrams.com

Modern #book dilemmas. Read an early review of a book that made rush to Libby to get on the waiting list. But it’s available to borrow now! And I have 4 books underway already, so I probably won’t be able to finish in 2 weeks. What should I do?

Joel Abrams reposted

Andy Carvin
@acarv.in

@theguardian.com reports that Ahmed was arrested in Kuwait for reporting on the friendly fire incident that resulted in the crash of an F-15E Strike Eagle. Ahmed is a US citizen and the US State Department should be doing everything in its power to get him released NOW. #journalismisnotacrime

theguardian.comDetention of journalist in Kuwait raises questions about crackdown on freedom of speechAhmed Shihab-Eldin was arrested after reporting on friendly fire incident during US conflict with Iran

Joel Abrams reposted

ProPublica
@propublica.org

While Trump has railed against drugs coming into the U.S., his DOJ has declined to prosecute nearly 5,000 federal drug cases, including trafficking and money laundering — 45% higher than the average of the prior three new administrations.

propublica.orgTrump’s Justice Department Dropped 23,000 Criminal Investigations in Shift to ImmigrationUnder Attorney General Pam Bondi, the DOJ abandoned a record number of cases — including hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime and drugs — in just the first six months of Presi...

Joel Abrams reposted

Jennifer Doyle
@fromaleftwing.bsky.social

From biologist Ari Berkowitz: very clear overview of the wrongheadedness of the IOC’s sex testing policy. theconversation.com/sex-test-use...

theconversation.comSex test used in IOC’s new transgender ban more likely to exclude from Olympics intersex women who were assigned female at birthGenetic testing is now required to participate in women’s events in the Olympics. But the new policy oversimplifies biological sex and risks discrimination against some female athletes.

Joel Abrams reposted

The Conversation U.S.
@us.theconversation.com

Why this Moon mission is less risky than it looks 🌕 The Artemis II capsule that marks the return of NASA to the Moon will loop around the Moon and slingshot back — a path less like Apollo 8 and more like the flight plan that brought Apollo 13 back home safely.

Joel Abrams
@joelabrams.com

@us.theconversation.com is #1 most-read nonprofit news site in the US for the 8th straight month (since @joshuabenton.com first started compiling the charts) www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/nonp...

niemanlab.orgNonprofit news sites are built to generate impact — but these are also generating audiencesIn markets large and small, these nonprofit news organizations are achieving traffic numbers that many commercial outlets would envy. Here's our first monthly ranking of the top 25 nonprofit news site...