Michael F. Fitzgerald

Monitoring projects with an impact on the environment Disclose, a French investigative newsroom and NGO, wanted to spot major projects impacting the environment before they slipped past public awareness. Relevant documents were scattered across governmen...

Our team got to work with Disclose, a French NGO, to help them use @documentcloud.org keep tabs on thousands of environmental assessments and other gov reports. Would love to have some US organizations following their lead! www.muckrock.com/news/archive...

AI Can Make You Laugh. But Can It Ever Be Truly Humorous? As people turn to AI for therapy and companionship, some say the models still need to learn the nuances of human humor.

AI can tell a joke. But does it know it's joking? @smjyoti.bsky.social in @undark.org undark.org/2025/07/21/a...

got it, thx.

AI "will perhaps allow a specific type of media executive to squeeze out a few more months of salary." A bracing take on the business case for AI in journalism from @404media.co .

sorry, treating 'what' like any other discussion? The use of AI as an editing tool?

Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think Here’s how to make the most of it.

Was scanning @theatlantic.com's newsletter and saw this @arthurbrooks.bsky.social article on how professional decline comes for us sooner than we think. They snuck in a piece first published in 2019. It was still good the 2nd time around. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

As Trump administration punishes Ivy League, universities in the heartland stand to benefit - The Boston Globe The Trump administration’s assault on elite East Coast schools, which the president says must be punished for indoctrinating students with leftist ideology and allowing antisemitism to flourish, barel...

@hilaryburns.bsky.social @ditikohli.bsky.social @lizkowalczyk.bsky.social look at how the Ivy League's pain may be the SEC's gain. www.bostonglobe.com/2025/06/26/m...

I still like getting a contributor's copy of a magazine. Thanks @briansimpson99.bsky.social and looking forward to reading the package..

Things i wish #AI would fix that will never happen: customer service complications.

This thread from @bxroberts.org is worth your time 👇👇

Hey anyone want to be part of a BlueSky truth squad next week when Jay Bhattacharya testifies before Congress? Would mean live-skeeting the hearings. DM if interested so we can coordinate. #NIH #Science #MedSky #EpiSky

@mariahblake.bsky.social 's book on forever chemicals has a redemptive arc. @deborahb.bsky.social is making grim jokes to make sure we don't lose sight of the problem.

At the @mariahblake.bsky.social event for "They Poisoned the World" with @deborahb.bsky.social at Harvard Bookstore.

Scientists’ Uncertain Future | Hopkins Bloomberg Public Health Magazine U.S. researchers face sudden funding cuts that threaten studies, careers, and scientific progress.

I talked with researchers and policy types about the slashing of U.S. science. Here is what they said: magazine.publichealth.jhu.edu/2025/scienti.... Thx @briansimpson99.bsky.social for the opportunity.

Special: MAHA Meets w Public Health, the 2nd Conversation: On RFK Jr., Vaccines, Corporate Influence, & More Podcast Episode · Why Should I Trust You? · 05/20/2025 · 1h 34m

This conversation between two “sides” was deep, thoughtful, and truly honest… in ways that I didn’t expect.

Take a listen:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...

@brindabee.bsky.social @craigspencer.bsky.social @kkjetelina.bsky.social

“Not Just Measles”: Whooping Cough Cases Are Soaring as Vaccine Rates Decline While much of the country is focused on the spiraling measles outbreak, experts warn that whooping cough and other preventable diseases could get much worse with falling vaccination rates and Trump’s…

“My concern is that there is going to be a large outbreak of not just measles, but other vaccine-preventable diseases as well, that’s going to end up causing a lot of harm, and possibly deaths in children,” said Dr. Anna Durbin of @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social.

(Published April)

Have been standing in the rental line for Budget Rental Car for more than an hour. It is 4x as long as when I started. I'm still 8 people from the counter.

@hatethegamebook.com looks like it is selling well at terminal C at BOS. I bought one. 😀

So much great work in this year's @pulitzerprizes.bsky.social!

One of the annoying things I do as a dad is read out loud. I just read key lines from Yeats's "The Second Coming", prompting one of my sons to threaten to pour coffee on me. Slouching towards Framingham, anyone?

Dang. There is traffic at the border again.

To boost longevity, choose simple, science-based strategies | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Experts say that lifestyle changes still are the best longevity hacks.

The key to living well: keep it simple. By Amy Roeder for @hsph.harvard.edu hsph.harvard.edu/news/to-boos...

I have driven through Canada between Buffalo and Detroit during recessions and COVID-19. I do not remember a time when there were not at least a few vehicles in front of me in the passport line. Until tonight.
#tradewar

There were dozens of swans at Farm Pond in #Framingham this afternoon.

IRS’s progress likely sacrificed to DOGE ax

Nobody loves the IRS, but as this @bostonglobe.com story notes, hundreds of billions of dollars worth of tax fraud and non-payment happens every year. Seems like a good question to ask how slashing the agency helps address this. mobileapp.bostonglobe.com/03152025_d66...

The first episode was terrific!

Real chilling effects A extraordinary pattern of government censorship and threats to speech

New, from me: you were told that the threats to free speech came from wokeness. Some compared it to Maoist China.

Now we are witnessing government power being used to silence dissent and censor ideas. Now we know what real society-wide chilling effects look like. 🧵
open.substack.com/pub/donmoyni...

You'll notice that neither DOGE nor its predicate office, the US Digital Service, has statutory authority to receive NDNH data

crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/...

The questions by @adrianalacy.com and Ann Silvio were excellent.