Gloria Huang

Resilience targeting is an attack on individual and community resilience during disasters through misinformation, confusion, and efforts to overwhelm, in order to prevent communities from recovering and keep them vulnerable.

I had a front row seat to watch 18F get started a dozen years ago by some of the smartest and most dedicated public servants I’ve ever met. Their work saved countless lives, and yes, hundreds of millions, probably billions, of dollars. But just as significantly: it made government more responsive.

NOAA Cuts Leave Wind Chimes As Sole Predictor Of Approaching Hurricanes SILVER SPRING, MD—As mass firings of career experts and scientists continued to roil the federal government, officials confirmed Friday that cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration...

NOAA Cuts Leave Wind Chimes As Sole Predictor Of Approaching Hurricanes

Why Private Forecasting Companies Can’t Replace the National Weather Service NOAA and the NWS provide public weather data that private companies cannot recreate

This is a really nice, simple distillation of the vital role NOAA and the NWS play and how private companies cannot replace what they do.

"Bypassing" is a new way to counter misinformation, but how does it work? A new study found that "bypassing" can counter misinformation without direct confrontation.

Instead of directly correcting false claims, “bypassing” offers an alternative strategy: focus on positive, truthful statements about the same topic. New research suggests it can be very effective and I cover it in more detail here!
substack.com/home/post/p-... #MisinfoResearch

We Only Have Ourselves: The How-Tos and DOs and DON’Ts of Mutual Aid For all of humanity’s many, many flaws, one of our most redeeming characteristics as a species is an almost-universal desire to connect with one another. When terrible things happen and communities…

Mutual aid is not just a disaster response, it’s a way of caring for one another, building stronger communities, and preparing for whatever life may throw at us next. It’s a labor of love—and a way of life.

I put together a reading list (and words of advice) for LitHub: lithub.com/we-only-have...

Much of this rings true for federal US government too.

Our global study on the state of trust in scientists is now out in Nature Human Behaviour! 🥳

With a team of 241 researchers, we surveyed 71,922 people in 68 countries, providing the largest dataset on trust in scientists post-pandemic 👇🧵https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-024-02090-5

This is so well deserved!! Congrats, thankful for your work and influence 🥰

Ridgeline chart showing the distribution of global daily air temperature differences from the pre-industrial reference period (1850-1900), for every year between 1940 and 2024. Each individual year resembles a hill, shaded in a darker shade of red and further to the right for warmer years. The trend is clearly towards warmer years, with 2024 standing out as first year above 1.5C.

NEW: 2024 has just been confirmed as the warmest year on record, and the first to breach the 1.5C threshold.

We used a ridgeline (Joy Division inspired) chart to visualise daily temperature anomalies since 1940.

2024 clearly stands out with 100% of its days above 1.3C and 75% above 1.5C.

Definitely two

Chart headline: Classic Christmas decor is linked to the most hospital trips Chart subtitle: An average of 16,035 patients are admitted to emergency departments for decor-related injuries each year, with nonelectric Christmas decor typically representing about half of all injuries. Chart title: Estimated annual US Christmas-decor-related hospital visits, Christmas 2004 to 2022 Chart description: A streamgraph styled as a Christmas tree show the number of Christmas-decor-related hospital trips since 2004, e.g. there were 20,015 estimated trips in 2022 and the majority of trips were caused by nonelectric Christmas decor. Chart source: Consumer Product Safety Commission (National Electronic Injury Surveillance System)

with Christmas over, decor is starting to come down, and hopefully *carefully* 🎄🎄🎄

👉 accidents related to Christmas trees, lights and ornaments send thousands of Americans to emergency departments each year

When I have the rare quiet moment to ponder on this year i often think about issues of trust. This paper eloquently explains the balance of trust between journalists and online creators:

A pinhole camera photo taken from Summer to Winter Solstice. It's a bit blurry as the aperture was made with a tiny needle and no focus mechanism. There are yellow to green lines across the photo, that's the Sun moving across the sky over the course of a day. The top line is from the Summer Solstice, the bottom line from the Winter Solstice. Cloudy days don't have any lines or broken lines as the Sun was obscured by clouds. There are some trees on the left, right and in the background.

A pinhole camera photo, a 6 month exposure from Summer to Winter solstice. There are trees on the right side and background. A house with two cars in the drive are visible almost in the center of the photo. The lines are made from the Sun moving across the sky with the bottom line being the Winter Solstice and the top line the Summer solstice. On cloudy days the lines are broken or not visible as the sun was obscured by clouds. The lines show some reflections from a tree trunk. The lines are mostly a white color with some hints of blue, green and yellow in places. Some of the colors could be from rain or snow staining the paper I was using.

Happy Winter Solstice!

These photos were taken with a pinhole camera I made from a beer can and left out from Summer to Winter Solstice - a 6 month exposure.

Bottom line = Winter Solstice. Top line = Summer Solstice.

The lines are the Sun moving across the sky w/some reflections. No line = clouds

"The good old days when America was “great” aren’t the 1950s. They’re whatever decade you were 11, your parents knew the correct answer to any question, and you’d never heard of war crimes tribunals, microplastics or improvised explosive devices."

Fun read! Gift link: wapo.st/3ZL8WgH

Dance the Audience Can Feel: Shriya Srinivasan Harnesses Haptics to Translate Movement, Make Her Art More Accessible - INDIA New England News Eileen O’Grady, Harvard Staff Writer The Harvard Gazette Shriya Srinivasan danced with precise steps, using graceful flicks of her wrists to depict a heroine holding a mirror and applying makeup […]

Translating dance into smartphone vibrations, a different type of (tactile) spectatorship:
“The scientific question at hand was: How can we enhance the experience of dance, reaching beyond just audio and visual input into tactile or other forms of sensory input?”
indianewengland.com/dance-the-au...

Yes, doing well ☺️ hope the same for you!

Hi! It has been, maybe a decade?!
Always so glad to see your insights and happy to be in a more thought provoking space again!

Great discussion of how to more productively frame discussion about our online info environment, which aligns completely with what I’ve found helpful when reflecting on how to improve digital communications.

My sunlight lamp is lowkey the mvp of the house all winter

How to Reduce Formaldehyde Exposure in Your Home The underregulated toxic chemical can be found in common household items from couches to clothes. We asked experts how you can reduce your exposure.

18/ Formaldehyde is everywhere, and it will take more than our individual efforts to protect ourselves.

Yet if there’s only one thing you take away from this thread, open up a window. Seriously. It may just be our cheapest and best course of action.

Yes!! Great piece that highlights how both education and participatory democracy are critical.

South Korea Is Fighting for Democracy Again—And the World Needs to Know Last updated December 3, 10:09 AM South Korea Is Fighting for Democracy Again—And the World Needs to Know Heesoo Jang Assistant Professor of Media Law and Ethics Journalism Department, University of...

I was preparing to pitch an op-ed on the nationwide protests calling for President Yoon's resignation, aiming to provide global context amid the limited international coverage.

Given the urgency, I’m sharing it now. I didn’t expect events to escalate this quickly. #SouthKorea #Democracy

I just discovered the full triptych today and it’s well worth the listen! @viennateng.bsky.social has been a staple in my playlists since I was just out of my teens and her voice always reaches deep inside and shakes new feelings loose. ❤️‍🔥

My Life As a Homeless Man in America An extraordinary firsthand account.

This story knocked the wind out of me and i hope esquire paid this man.

www.esquire.com/news-politic...

There’s work being done to address this that the article touches on as well- like free courses on how to be a “trusted voice” online.

Hi, so I've spent the past almost-decade studying research uses of public social media data, like e.g. ML researchers using content from Twitter, Reddit, and Mastodon.

Anyway, buckle up this is about to be a VERY long thread with lots of thoughts and links to papers. 🧵

Participation The White House wants your ideas to develop a Federal framework, guidelines, and leading practices for public participation and community engagement (PPCE) activities

Today, the White House Office of Management & Budget is hosting a third listening session on a draft framework & guidance for public participation: www.performance.gov/blog/2024-pu... Comments are due Friday. I’m writing mine today. If you know how our government can do better, please contribute. 🇺🇸

Having this clarity will go a long way towards helping many product teams in government who have faced delays in executing usability tests, often due to uncertainty from their PRA agency contacts. It’s well worth celebrating!

Have I had my mind changed on social media? Yes - NOT by arguing with randoms, but by following experts and first hand folks who share what they do, what they think and what's going on. The change isn't binary - I used to think one thing, and suddenly now another - it's slow and additive: Learning.